Does anyone lease or rent out your RV when you are not using it?

[NCsleeves]

You wouldn't rent a live-aboard boat to someone who has never operated a boat. Why would you rent an RV to someone who has never operated one before.

We actually did rent a 60' narrowboat for a week while we were in UK, never having operated any kind of powerboat before.  The rental agent accompanied us for about a quarter mile, gave us some pointers on how to steer the boat, then jumped off and sent us on our way.  It worked out great, just myself, my wife and middle school daughter.  Highly recommended in fact.

I've had a neighbor ask if we'd consider renting our motorhome, and I'm definitely not interested in doing that.  But I can see it would make sense for some owners to do so.

 

[Frizlefrak]

I spent 20 years managing a car rental company for one of the big boys.  If what people do to rental cars is even 20% of what they'd do to a rental RV, the answer is NO WAY IN HELL.    The stories I could tell you would fill a 10 volume compendium....and they aren't for the faint of heart.

 

[Mile High]

Our friends bought into a plan where they rented out their MH through a management company for 5 years before retirement, orchestrated by the Dealer.  The idea was that when they retired it was paid for, in general.  At the end of the 5 years they said the management company had to do a lot of reconditioning - carpet, upholstery, etc.  They ended up just trading for a new one.  They saved some bucks in the end because they had a trade with full equity, but the idea of owning the actual rented one after 5 years was not appealing after seeing what happened to it.

We actually tried to rent a MH before we bought this one to see if we liked one.  Hard to find anything bigger than the Class A 30 or a Class C that is actually available from a rental company. 

 

[A Traveler]

Not only no, but HELL NO!

Absolutely, positively 100% agree with BoomerD on this one.

There is no way in hell I would EVER let someone else use our mobile HOME.

 

[Roadhappy]

My DH and I own a fifthwheel and would never dream of renting it out.  Now with that said, we are renting a 40 DP this coming June for a week so we can take my father and other family members to Rushmore.  We will not be staying in it as we have rented a house for the week we will be in SD.  We will be sight seeing in it on the roads that are capable of handling the RV and have rented a van for the places that we cannot  get to in the RV.  This should also help us in deciding if we want to move up to a DP.  I had a shorter motorhome yrs ago and loved it but I'm a little intimidated by the 40 foot DP.  Will be practicing several days before we leave on our trip.

Robin

 

[malexander]

I wouldn't even think of renting out my MH. If I couldn't afford to own it, I'd sell it.

I sort of rented my C-150 to a guy to get his pilots license. From day one, I was sort of wishing I hadn't offered it. There were never any problems, it was just inconvenient.

 

[Massmerch]

If I rented my coach out to anyone, I wouldn't sleep at night.  Not worth it.

 

[firewall]

Many years ago several of my friends and I rented a Class C Motorhome to go to the races. While we were respectful of the unit we also unknowingly were WAY over the weight limits for that MH. We brought cases and cases of beer along with extra water in five gallon jugs. As I think back it was amazing we didn't break anything. So even though people may be clean and not break anything they also generally have no idea how to use a camper. Not sure how Cruise America does it to tell you the truth!

 

[GA_Boy]

Not only no, but HELL NO! I don't know anyone I'd trust my RV with...and random strangers? Not gonna even get in the door.

X2,  and don't ask for my pickup or chainsaw either.

 

[Derby6]

Like most and I think the OP realized; VERY few rent out their personal units.
But as a business; yea, lots of them here in AK.  I saw at least one comment was folks don't know how to use them, and yep, that is an issue.  Big rental places here with 100's of rentals disable the awnings just for that reason.  I doubt I do it, but have though about getting a few newer used units (3-5) and renting them out thru the summer.

 

[WILDEBILL308]

Well if it was a viable idea there would be more companies doing it. There have been several people on here promoting the same idea. Yet none of them have ever been back to brag about how wonderful their business is doing. I am willing to bet that renting out motorhomes would be at least 3 times the headache of renting houses or apartments.
You can't disappear with a house. You would have the owners bitchin at you and the renters bitchin in the outher ear. How are you going to handle road service?
I know it sounds like a great idea. Get the owners to give you inventory to rent out and you just collect the money. Let me know how it works out.
Bill

 

[Derby6]

I don't disagree with you when talking lower48. But lots to see and do here where there are no hotels or motels. Like I said quite a few mom and pop operations, but a couple HUGE outfits here too. 

 

[denmarc]

Looks like an unanimous decision to me.
If I may throw out a different angle to think about...

Most RVer's are trying to enjoy life and get away from the headaches and worries of things like what you're asking. Even if only for a weekend, a week or two, or going fulltime. We don't need/want to worry about the fact that our RV may get in a wreck, break down, come back a mess, etc.
We have too much invested to let someone, who we don't have a clue about, drive off with our investment.
If you're in the business of buying RVs and renting them out, then you can expect getting back a rental that has been trashed.
Not me. I know there are those who would love to be out in the woods or out on the road for a one time trip.
I can't do it. Too much at risk.

 

[yfx4]

We did for a few years.

Don't do it.

It sucks to see your stuff get trashed.

 

[Tom]

It sucks to see your stuff get trashed.

That's what I'd be concerned about, and the reason we wouldn't rent or lend our coach out.

 

[yfx4]

I'm still finding things I need to fix. Mostly little, cosmetic things.

 

[Onyrlef]

We actually did rent a 60' narrowboat for a week while we were in UK, never having operated any kind of powerboat before. The rental agent accompanied us for about a quarter mile, gave us some pointers on how to steer the boat, then jumped off and sent us on our way. It worked out great, just myself, my wife and middle school daughter. Highly recommended in fact.

I've had a neighbor ask if we'd consider renting our motorhome, and I'm definitely not interested in doing that. But I can see it would make sense for some owners to do so.

That's a long narrow boat too. I love those, would look forward to that myself someday.

 

[Ex-Calif]

Clearly the consensus is that most owners would not rent out their RV.

One way to approach the question is whether I would invest in an RV as an income generator.

For discussion I looked at all Class C RVs in RVTrader that were newer than 2012, less than 50,000 miles and less than $60k. The average looks to be about $47k.

Profit Target - If I stuck $47k in the market I could earn about 11% in the S&P on a 5 year rolling average so annual profit needs to be at least $5200 a year. But if I am going to do this I need to make more than the market so a 16% profit would be like $7500 a year.

Most of the rest is WAG so bear with it.

Depreciation - For simplicity let's say the RV will depreciate over 10 years to a residual value of $5000 - So $42k / 10 years is another $4200 of income needed a year to cover the depreciated asset.

Insurance - I reckon commercial insurance would be required and I am guessing here but let's call it $300 a month or $3600 a year.

Repairs - My RV consumes about $300 in maintenance a month in casual use. I reckon double that for more heavy use and the lack of care renters will show and let's include in this breakdown recovery costs. So another $3600 a year.

Total Preliminary Income target - $18,400

Income - In my mind the competition is the hotels so let's say a family of four gets 2 hotel rooms at $100 a night. it could be argued that you can get a premium for an RV due to the flexibility and adventure of it but that would also drive down demand for $$ conscious renters.

Let's call it $200 a day. This works out to 95 days a year. Peak would likely be June-July for a pretty busy 60 days or so but the "rental season" could likely be April-September.

With these assumptions...

a) I think you can get 95 rental days in a year.
b) It does not factor in risk. An apartment is a lot less risky than an RV and in theory is an appreciating asset.
c) A total loss could be debilitating despite insurance.
d) For me it's a ton of work/angst for $600 a month
e) If you want to "earn a living" from it you probably need 10 units or about $500,000 in capital for a $75k a year income - and while you have to take care of a fleet of 10 RVs you also have spread your loss risk across 10 units.

f) And the final point I can think of while I am noodling is that you definitely don't want to finance this operation. Let's say you finance 90% of this at 8% - You need another $3600k a year per asset just to cover the financing nut - i.e. 18 rental days.

 

[jackiemac]

The $200 a day PLUS campground costs might put me off...

Friends were going to rent one of the small VW van type things and it was $2000 for 2 weeks and they reckoned it would be tough to get an RV park for less than $100 a night during peak season so they didn't bother.

 

[Larry N.]

Also, I see no mention made of mileage charges, which can help to offset various maintenance needs.