Should you ever rent your RV?

[Roadtrek Adventuous RS1]

Could this be a viable option for recovering costs for purchasing and maintenance of the vehicle??

Or, are there just too many risks????

It takes proper insurance and details, but, people do it...

Do they really make money??? Or, is it a bad idea....

I don't think I would do it, but, I see a lot of people who do...

[Davydd]

Mike Wendland did a podcast in September on renting your RV. This is the printed description and you can listen to the podcast.

https://rvlifestyle.com/rv-renting-s...ay-for-itself/

[<<B-Guy>>]

I think among other things, it depends on your temperament. I my case I tend to worry too much about "What if's" and also i tend to go overboard and take the best possible care of my possessions so I don't think it would work for me on that basis.

I'd be too upset about every little scratch and dent that would be just a fact of life - not teh big ones that you could maybe charge the renters to have fixed but the small things that are too petty to charge for but that would still be an annoyance to me!

As well, all the time they had it I'd be worried in case they had problems on the road - I'd be wanting to be there myself to sort it out!

When we decided to call it quits with our large travel trailer and truck, I considered all the opitions including getting out of RV'ing.

One of the options I did think about was buying a new Class C or Class A from a nearby company that sells RV's and also offers a deal where you can buy an RV from them and then leave it with them when you are not using it (Solves the storage problem). They run a business renting out the motorhomes - mostly to tourists from Europe.

The company takes a substantial cut - I think about 40% of the rental if I recall, but not only do they store it, but do all the advertising and renting arrangement , vetting the customers prepping the vehicle and supplying it with "Kits" of supplies, linens cooking utensils etc. checking it thoroughly upon return and pursuing the customers for any damage.

It sounded interesting - they said they have a strict no smoking/no pets policy and if there is for example a cigarette burn in upholstery upon return, you don't get it fixed, you get a new sofa! As well, if there are problems on the road, the renter deals with them, not the owner.

Another plus they claimed - although would not guarantee - is that since it is a "Business" you can write off depreciation, maintenance costs, loan interest etc on your taxes.

You just tell them the times you want to use it and they make it unavailable for those periods.

The idea fitted our circumstances well as we mostly use an RV in the winter whereas the peak rental period is in the summer so that would have worked well.

In the end I discussed it with our sne in law - he and our daughter are both accountants. He told me that I may well have trouble claiming any tax deductions as I would have to show that as a business I may well be called upon to demonstrate that there is a reasonable probability of making a profit. I think our govt. has tightened up a bit on this sort pf scheme over the years.

As well (He must now me too well!) he thought I would not be very happy renting it out to people that wouldn't take as much care of it as I !

So in the end we bought the new PW Plateau B camper and don't plan on renting it either!

Brian.

[Roadtrek Adventuous RS1]

Originally Posted by <<B-Guy>>

I think among other things, it depends on your temperament. I my case I tend to worry too much about "What if's" and also i tend to go overboard and take the best possible care of my possessions so I don't think it would work for me on that basis.

I'd be too upset about every little scratch and dent that would be just a fact of life - not teh big ones that you could maybe charge the renters to have fixed but the small things that are too petty to charge for but that would still be an annoyance to me!

As well, all the time they had it I'd be worried in case they had problems on the road - I'd be wanting to be there myself to sort it out!

When we decided to call it quits with our large travel trailer and truck, I considered all the opitions including getting out of RV'ing.

One of the options I did think about was buying a new Class C or Class A from a nearby company that sells RV's and also offers a deal where you can buy an RV from them and then leave it with them when you are not using it (Solves the storage problem). They run a business renting out the motorhomes - mostly to tourists from Europe.

The company takes a substantial cut - I think about 40% of the rental if I recall, but not only do they store it, but do all the advertising and renting arrangement , vetting the customers prepping the vehicle and supplying it with "Kits" of supplies, linens cooking utensils etc. checking it thoroughly upon return and pursuing the customers for any damage.

It sounded interesting - they said they have a strict no smoking/no pets policy and if there is for example a cigarette burn in upholstery upon return, you don't get it fixed, you get a new sofa! As well, if there are problems on the road, the renter deals with them, not the owner.

Another plus they claimed - although would not guarantee - is that since it is a "Business" you can write off depreciation, maintenance costs, loan interest etc on your taxes.

You just tell them the times you want to use it and they make it unavailable for those periods.

The idea fitted our circumstances well as we mostly use an RV in the winter whereas the peak rental period is in the summer so that would have worked well.

In the end I discussed it with our sne in law - he and our daughter are both accountants. He told me that I may well have trouble claiming any tax deductions as I would have to show that as a business I may well be called upon to demonstrate that there is a reasonable probability of making a profit. I think our govt. has tightened up a bit on this sort pf scheme over the years.

As well (He must now me too well!) he thought I would not be very happy renting it out to people that wouldn't take as much care of it as I !

So in the end we bought the new PW Plateau B camper and don't plan on renting it either!

Brian.

Brian, it does sound interesting, give me the name..

[<<B-Guy>>]

Here is a link to the company - if you click the tab "Rentals" on teh website it gives you some info on their rental scheme.

https://www.rvvacations.com

I don't think it will be much use to you though, as they are in Hamilton Ontario about ten miles from our home in Burlington.

I imagine there must be similar plans available through some RV dealers in the US.

One of our neighbours had a Class C with them and was quite happy with the arrangement - he had been with them for years.

They like to keep the rental units fairly new, so he traded ip every three years or so - once the warranties were up on the RV equipment, he had a full insurance policy to cover any repairs - also bought through the same company.

I recall the sales person showing me a chart on the wall displaying the years rentals.
Along the top of the chart were the weeks of the year, and down the side were listed all their rental units - at that time about 40 as I recall.

You could see that they were pretty much all booked solid through the summer months and hardly at all over the winter, so that aspect would have suited us well as "Snowbirds."

We could of course have blocked ours against rental at times during the peak months but would almost certainly have been forgoing rental income from what he showed me.

The company has been running this part of their operation forr many years.

I was quite tempted !

Brian.

[Roadtrek Adventuous RS1]

Originally Posted by <<B-Guy>>

Here is a link to the company - if you click the tab "Rentals" on teh website it gives you some info on their rental scheme.

https://www.rvvacations.com

I don't think it will be much use to you though, as they are in Hamilton Ontario about ten miles from our home in Burlington.

I imagine there must be similar plans available through some RV dealers in the US.

One of our neighbours had a Class C with them and was quite happy with the arrangement - he had been with them for years.

They like to keep the rental units fairly new, so he traded ip every three years or so - once the warranties were up on the RV equipment, he had a full insurance policy to cover any repairs - also bought through the same company.

I recall the sales person showing me a chart on the wall displaying the years rentals.
Along the top of the chart were the weeks of the year, and down the side were listed all their rental units - at that time about 40 as I recall.

You could see that they were pretty much all booked solid through the summer months and hardly at all over the winter, so that aspect would have suited us well as "Snowbirds."

We could of course have blocked ours against rental at times during the peak months but would almost certainly have been forgoing rental income from what he showed me.

The company has been running this part of their operation forr many years.

I was quite tempted !

Brian.

Brian, yeah I looked at the website.... I didn't realize that it was in Ontario, Canada.. I should have paid attention to your location..

I've seen a few places where people say that they are making money or at least helping them with the "maintenance and repairs"....

It's a very hard decision; I wouldn't want to cause extra problems for myself, however, it is a tempting thing to consider because while you own the vehicle it just depreciates every year and the insurance and maintenance of the RV continues whether you use it or not....

The coolest thing of all is having immediate access to the vehicle at all times....we do use it whenever we can.

Last year was a "blowout" year for me... had so much work done on the RV.. it was out of commission for pretty much the entire season.... terrible..... I don't want to experience that again..... very costly..... I have all the work done professionally...

So, of course, I would have rather had a funding source for that...

Also, insurance is higher if you rent.... there is that to consider as well and it can be very expensive....

[RossWilliams]

I think it depends to some extent on your rig. If you don't have protection for things like misuse of the batteries or idling the engine for hours to keep the air conditioning going you might have problems you never really see until later.

[engnrsrule]

Renting was part of our initial purchase model, but after we got our Roadtrek we had second thoughts. We also found that insurers and financers may not allow renting of the unit. Our RT is a 2006, and though it's in plenty good enough shape to rent, the possibility of a mechanical or coach system issue is there. I amkinda like McGyver and can handle most things myself, like pulling the door apart to get the window regulator back on track. If a renter had that problem it would have been $1000 repair bill. I also started reading the Outdoorsy forum. Bad reports seem to be the norm half or more of the time. I also noticed that many of the RV owners had more than one, some were in fact RV dealers. I gueas I'd be more willing to take a risk if I owned a fleet of 6 or 10 RVs.

[wantoworkless]

I did rent out my roadtrek Agile this past summer on a number of occasions through Outdoorsy and RVshare and brought in quite a bit more money than expected. However, I wont do it again. On each rental, it came back with something wrong. Always minor, but for me, annoying. On one rental, the person backed up into a pole and damaged the tire carrier and door panel. With Roadtrek parts difficult to come by, I had no luck at all finding a replacement carrier. It was a long protracted battle with the rental insurance company that was resolved, but not only reasonably well. The frustration of renting out and dealing with all the minor issues coupled with the accident make it not worth it for me.

I don't believe the insurance covering interior damage is adequate and would recommend getting a complete understanding of what it covers and what isn't covered.

If I had a unit less complex, I would consider it again, but not for this Roadtrek.

[RossWilliams]

Renting is a business. I suspect the places that rent out other people's RV's are a lot like Uber, they are counting on people not to notice the hidden costs. Otherwise they would buy or lease their own units at wholesale prices.

[DAWg134]

Nope! The learning curve for these vehicles is just too steep. Think back to al of the stupid mistakes you made when you first got your RV that ultimately resulted in a repair of some sort. Eventually, you got smart and learned the proper operation and your maintenance costs went way down... hopefully.

When allowing newbies to rent your RV, even the most well-intentioned renter will invariably bring it back with something damaged or degraded because they were ignorant about how to properly use the various systems onboard. The worst situations are things such as allowing the batteries to fully discharge... the damage to the battery life aren't going to be obvious when you initially check it out afterwards... besides, they're just gonna say it was that way when they picked it up.

[HitchNride]

RossWilliams said it beautifully. Any time a business is not using their own assets for production or renting, there is a reason why... the profit isn’t that high and it’s risky. Basically, they get most of the profit they would get anyway from their cut of the fee! Some parts make sense, like the fact that you garage it on your own premises during off season or when otherwise not rented, instead of them owning a lot. But everything else - hidden costs. Fixing little things, as mentioned.

I almost bought a rental unit twice, once I knew it was, the other time, luckily I ran my own VIN check and found out the dealer had lied about the history. The first one was a major chain, looked clean but could tell it had been used and cleaned up of who knows what many times over. The second looked great but mileage was very high and it had weird odors.

I mean, just imagine the black tank or grey tank backing up and overflowing throughout the RV, perhaps for hours if it happens while driving (sloshing out while driving), or someone using kitchen and not realizing bathroom is overflowing - you KNOW it’s gonna happen! Or even just various windows and doors getting left open in rain or dust storms, etc. it’s all good if you have a fleet and it’s just rental equipment... but if it’s your personal vehicle, not so much. Plus without a fleet, if a catastrophe happens, then you are in for a long process trying to get out of the issue (damage, liability). Same as with renting property out... you’d rather rent a 4 or 8 unit apartment building with live in super than a house... less risk, more even revenue, maintenance costs spread out for less cost per unit, etc.

Plus RVs aren’t really made for renting. AirBNB, maybe. If it’s a simple place, not that hard to re-paint and deep clean, etc. Easy and affordable to find help from fixing to cleaning. An RV just costs too much to work on or replace items though.

My B has gone unused all season. So I do wish I’d rented it... especially if I don’t hold onto it next season. But all that dealing with people picking up and dropping off, on the day or two that are supposed to be my free days... nah.

[Macodiva]

Originally Posted by Roadtrek Adventuous RS1

Could this be a viable option for recovering costs for purchasing and maintenance of the vehicle??

Or, are there just too many risks????

It takes proper insurance and details, but, people do it...

Do they really make money??? Or, is it a bad idea....

I don't think I would do it, but, I see a lot of people who do...

If you decide to rent it you are in the right state to do it!
I recently bought my class B & i rent it through Outdoorsy. I've not been impressed by the couple of times i've had to contact RV Share & have no faith in how they would deal with a 'real' problem so i pulled it off their site.
It's hardly been home since i got it in Sept. As others have said though each time it comes back there has been something minor that needed attention. Just stuff like loose cabinet hinges but i think if you stay on top of things it should be ok.
I'm a bit of a make do with stuff person which is fine if it was just me using it, but i feel you have to get things done right when other people are paying good money to use it. And yes it seems any repairs with RVs cost a lot!
I have had to change my way of thinking about it from being my baby to it just being a van or else i'd get too mad at the little scratches & lack of consideration from people using it.
It is a little time consuming responding to lots of question, cleaning, setting up for the next person, walk throughs ect but i find it worth it for the money. Nothing comes free right lol.
Insurance is covered by Outdoorsy when it's rented but it doesn't include interior damage so you need to set a decent deposit on it. The renters can pay extra that covers interior damage but most won't. You do have the final say on who can & can't rent your RV. You have a lot of options that you can set for who you are willing to rent your RV to.
So far it's bringing in decent money for me but it will only take 1 truly bad renter to mess it up.
I guess it all depends on your personal situation & general outlook. I'd only have to rent mine for 4 weeks out of the year to cover the cost of my personal insurance, registration & oil changes for the year. But since i work a lot i will continue to rent it out rather than have it just sitting there.
After my 1st 2 rentals where i was checking where it was every few hours (hidden gps tracker) i've manage to now pretty much forget about it once it's gone until it comes back.
Of coarse it's a risk & people lie. it just depends on how you look at things really. I'm told RV's can get plenty of problems by being left to sit all year to!
All in all it really is just a personal decision.

[RossWilliams]

"I have had to change my way of thinking about it from being my baby to it just being a van"

Why not just rent one when you need it? I don't see much advantage in owning a rental unit and its hard to see how you come out ahead financially.

Once you see it as a business, you need to consider your real costs. For instance, does the rental cover the depreciation. You may well find that the unit that rents easily when new, is not nearly as rentable when older and/or well-used. I can see a strategy where you buy new, rent it out for a couple years to cover the initial depreciation and then have own a well-used rv. I doubt the numbers for that work. You can find plenty of used units that people bought and abandoned that are going to be cheaper.

[Macodiva]

RossWilliams you have guessed at my original plan. I had planned to take off & travel indefinitely but things changed. I bought it used with 22,000 miles on it. An 2019 ex rental unit at a good price, with 2 years coverage for any mechanical issues & 1 year replacement coverage for any appliances. I like the fact it is well broken in so i don't have any of the new RV issues where things shake loose on first few trips out. I make more renting it out for 1 week than i would make in high interest savings account for a year. So i figured if it's rented out for 5 weeks it will cover all my normal yearly costs + interest the money would have made sitting in the bank. Any major mechanical repairs are covered for 2 years & for any accidents that's what insurance is for.
It's nice to have the freedom to take off if i get any unexpected time off & not have to find somewhere large dog friendly. My work is a little unpredictable. It's working out well for me so far.
You are right about needing a newer unit for rentals, i think most rental platforms have rules on the age of the units they take & are willing to insure.
As for renting i personally wouldn't pay a $1000 for renting one, but i'm glad others do! lol.

[jrobe]

Here would be a good source of first hand information on RV rentals.

https://adventuretravelsportrentals.com

I rented a Tiger RV from these guys in Denver a few years ago. As I recall, they were a couple of younger, adventuresome guys that originally wanted to travel in Colorado in their spare time with smaller RV's. To try to make it more economically feasible, they rented out their RV's and then turned it into a small business. They have since added to their fleet. They were super nice people that I suspect would be more than happy to answer any questions about their business model. I do recall that they were quite mechanically inclined and were able to most of their own repairs and maintenance work in a well equipped storage facility.

Personally, if I had to rent out anything in order to own it (house, cabin, RV, car, etc.), I wouldn't buy it but I was glad that someone else did this. I learned a lot about RV's through these guys. Honestly, while I was renting the RV, I backed into a post at a campground but luckily didn't do any damage (RV's have a fairly steep learning curve for a newbie).

[HitchNride]

You need to disclose that GPS tracker, I would think, otherwise, depending on the states they live in or you live in or even travel in, you could be subject to illegally monitoring their position (or if not illegal, perhaps a civil suit if it came out that you were monitoring). Yes, I know it's your property - but I think I remember reading that it is illegal in some places to use a GPS tracker... hopefully I am wrong!

[RossWilliams]

hopefully I am wrong!

Actually, hopefully you are correct. Otherwise car rental companies can gather and sell information, to insurance companies for instance, about where and how fast a customer drove. Or maybe marketing companies, their employers or their competitors would be interested in buying information about where they stopped and for how long.