I am interested in renting out my Class A Motorhome. I've found a website that helps with finding renters and provides all the necessary info, forms, etc. They charge a commission, but they seem to offer a lot of help which seems worth it. Has anyone had any experience renting their Motorhome to divert some of the monthly costs? What has been your experience?
Never in a million years would I rent out my RV. Be VERY careful to check with your insurance carrier to be 100% certain that your policy will cover it for rentals.
Paul & Sandra
New Bedford, MA
2003 Monaco Executive M43 DS2
We purchased ours as a rental. Well truth be told we wanted one and I wanted a way to offset costs. Aside from potential profits, there are a ton of other advantages. Taxes for one. Depreciation alone can be as much as 20%/year for your unit's value. Everything you do and buy for your RV is a deduction. For insurance I will save you time. There is only one commercial RV rental carrier in the US. MBA insurance. The minimum policy is $1MM in liability. They provide you all your forms, can assist in background checks etc. Very nice company albeit pricey, but you have no other option. Your premium is based on your unit's replacement value. You can go to an off season rate in the winter which is comparable to any other stadard policy, and turn back on for a rental. Include this in your costs. As far as advertising, the companies that manage it for you I found worthless. Not only do they take a percentage of your money, they also don't farm near the business they advertise to. Bottom line, they don't really do much. I manage it myself, built my own web page and have yet to pay for any advertising. Being only April we are booked solid through August. If you want more info, reach out to me privately and I will help in any way I can. I found that handling it yourslef keeps you in control of your unit. You can decide who to rent to, when to rent, the rate and you control your maintenance. No way I would turn over my unit and my profits for another company to manage. MBA gives you all you need. It's pretty simple really.
Yep, we thought the same way as you a few years back and used a company from CA/NV, called Open Roads RV plus 5 other names they operate under, to rent ours.....They stole money from us and trashed our motorhome, to the point it was cheaper to get rid of it, than fix it. Good luck if you decide to try and navigate that road.
Bob & Betsy(FishNFanatic) - USN Aviation Ret'd '78 & LEO Ret'd '03 & "Oath Keeper Forever" '05 HR Endeavor 40PRQ, 400 Cummins-Pulling our '11 Silverado LT, Ex Cab 6.2L NHT 4x4, w/2010 Rzr or 01 V Star in back. Where the wheels are stopped today
The reason we own a motorhome is because it is ours. Our beds, our dishes, our toilet and our shower. I have had people I know ask to rent our RV. I tell them for $100,000 they can rent it for a month and at the end of the month they can keep it for free.
I am not familiar with web-based rental customer finders who just handle paperwork for a commission.
I've had some contact (as a potential purchaser) with rental brokers, like American Dream Vacations who manage and administer the whole rental business (storage, maintenance, insurance, client contact and training) for the RV owner. These businesses have a physical presence, not just a web site.
This is a pretty big business catering to people who fly in to a vacation entry port like Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas. Quite likely there are one or more rental broker somewhere around the airport in Las Vegas, competing with the rental companies that own their own stock.
Once you put your RV up for rental, it is not really yours. You still own it, but for using it you become like another rental customer, reserving the times you want to use it. You may have some precedence over other customers, but you can't really come take the RV away from someone who has reserved it an is paying to use it.
I would echo some of the sentiments of other posters. Let me preface by saying ours is a business. We own several small companies mostly dealing with residential rentals. I have an obsession with RV's and the unavoidable vice of refusing to own anything that is not a performing asset. So to satisfy that we started an LLC, bought the unit we felt hit a niche market under the business and treat it as such. It's owned by the business and we have access to it provided it's not rented. It's a true RV rental company and this year me may expand to another unit. (I am turning too much business away because we are booked) We exercise a 5 year depreciation schedule and as true to this and most rental companies, we will trade up in 5 years to a newer unit. I love the ACE we bought but it's purpose is to support rental contracts. Given my druthers I would by a different type of unit for personal use, but as a business it's perfect. This business model is very different that the personal RV you put up for rent to offset cost. Not that it can't be done but there is a very clear distinction about what I own versus what the company owns. I may own the company but the company owns the RV. Several advantages many of I spoke of before but there are legal and liability ones as well. As far as what you can make, understand that you are competing against the C market which holds about 99% of the RV rental market share. Hence the ACE as my niche. Not sure what you own but if it's older than 4-5 years you may have a tough go of it. Your unit has to be aesthetically superior and priced competitively. Otherwise you won't get business. We price ours cheaper than every local Class C and forget about what some folks are trying to get for their A's. Mainly because we really don't see the need to gouge someone $250/day when we can be very happy yielding $200. SO we are cheaper. We also offer something no one else does as far as unit. The main points to consider are, can you mange it on your own (paperwork, walkthroughs, agreements, processing funds, taxes, etc), do you want to? I mean after all it's your personal unit. BTW ours usually comes back cleaner - I will say the Class A rental market is a little more upper crust, but you have to ask yourself - is it worth it? Damage is not a huge concern for me. We take a damage deposit enough to cover the deductable and have full coverage rental insurance. But again the business owns it so I am less personally attched to it. I love owning an RV rental company. I am not sure I could stomach renting my personal RV. They are 2 very different things. The company is a means to an end and will likely eventually buy my personal unit, but for now it's just another business I own.
The last year that we had our class C - before we traded it for our Class A - we had it in a rental program. It was out of Ft. Worth. I can't remember the name of it but is was similar to American Dream Vacations. We had very good luck with them. They provided the insurance and we made enough to cover our payment for the entire year. Our motorhome was returned to us in very good condition - just lots more miles! A couple from Australia rented it for 6 months to tour the USA and they took great care of it!
I would sell our MH before I would rent it. Too many renters have no experience driving a large Class A and do not know how to properly use the equipment. Unrepairable damage can be caused if things are not operated properly. Plus, a lot of people do not respect things that do not belong to them; matter of fact, many people do not even respect or care for their own things.
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