Renting out a motorhome

It seems to me that the only people who think this is a good idea are people with little or no experience of owning and using a motorhome.
The issues are significant. What you are doing is renting out a holiday cottage and a large vehicle at the same time.
Every renter will expect it squeaky clean inside and out, no matter what state the last returned it.
People are not used to driving a motorhome, so are more likely to have accidents.
People are not used to the flimsy, lightweight construction and fittings, or how they work, so things will get broken.
Even if the renters are careful, most of the fittings in a cheap motorhome are only specified for occasional use, not for full-timing by a succession of inexperienced users.
Spare parts can take weeks to arrive. If they're available at all, that is.
Whatever state it comes back in, you will need it ready for the next person. You don't want to spoil their holiday, do you?
I wouldn't do it, unless the hire fee was immense.
 
I think someone mentioned Quirky Campers as a possible rental outlet? I looked at that option when I was considering renting out my Stripey Campervan (and possibly making a couple more). I decided against for all the reasons people have given, but I recall some details which may be of interest and the thoughts I had ....

Quirky would want the van to have 'character' for a start - so buying and offering a standard motorhome or a typical campervan conversion would not cut it to be in their rental fleet. It would have to be 'quirky' in some way.
There is an upfront annual cost to be part of the setup. Back in 2017/20/18 this was £2,000 IIRC and this covered the van to be comprehensively insured when rented out. This did also cover your own use so you would save some on not having to take out your own insurance still. I would expect if the process hasn't changed, that £2,000 would be a fair bit more after 5+ years?
Vans would need the usual checks, so things like annual LPG signoff and that kind of thing.
I believe from memory that renting out would be under the Quirky name and if you had a booking that could not be provided due to issues with your camper, arrangements would try to be made by Quirky to find an alternative hire - so that aspect which could always be a problem with a single van 'hire fleet' is taken care of. Of course, some of the rental fee would be kept by Quirky. I have no recollection of how that is split.
I got the impression at the time from reading comments from hirers using Quirky Campers that they are a little different from the typical motorhome renter (which would tie up with the different nature of the campers up for hire) and would tend to take more care. But Accidents still happen of course!


I would also only consider renting a van that was a converted panel van - so metal sides and not made from delicate and bespoke materials that would be both expensive to repair and likely have long lead times to source replacements.
As mentioned, I considered making a few vans for rental via Quirky (which is quite a different prospect from renting out your own camper/motorhome) but I would be too worried about problems occuring that would spoil a rental and someones holiday so decided not to proceed and keep my peace of mind :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Users who viewed this discussion (Total:0)

Back
Top