Recently, our family went on a camping adventure. In the past, we’ve camped in tents, but wanted to try something a little different this year. We had heard that you could rent our privately owned RVs (kind of like renting out a room or house on AirBnB), but didn’t know anything about it.
After a little bit of searching on Google, we found a local couple who was renting out their motorhome. It was exactly what we were looking for! It had all of the amenities that would make our trip comfortable, but still allow us to get out into nature with our kids. They were charging a nightly rate that seemed reasonable, plus a prep fee and a cleaning fee. The overall cost was within our budget, so we decided to book it.
We contacted the couple through their website, and from there the process was extremely simple. The owners helped us determine what kind of insurance we would need to make sure we were covered while the RV was in our possession, had us sign some documents outlining their rules (no smoking, no pets, no towing anything behind the RV, etc.), and took a copy of our drivers licenses. We paid all of the fees, as well as a refundable deposit to cover any potential damages.
When we showed up to pick up the RV on the day before our scheduled trip, the owners had everything ready to go. They gave us an orientation to make sure we knew how everything worked and gave us some friendly reminders about taking care of their vehicle (retract the awning if it gets windy, don’t flush anything weird down the toilet). They also included a manual that had a ton of other helpful information and gave us their personal cell phone number in case we had any questions during our trip.
We took off with their RV and had the best time with our two kids. We went up into the local mountains and just spent some good quality time together. On the day it rained, we were very happy to not be cooped up in a tent. We played games, watched a movie, read books, and just relaxed.
At the end of our trip, we removed all of our personal belongings and trash from the RV and swept it out, as the owners had requested. We brought it back that afternoon. After a brief inspection, the owners told us everything looked great, and that we could expect to get our deposit back in the next day or two (which we did).
Overall, it was a great experience that I would definitely do again. We were able to enjoy an amazing family vacation in a beautiful RV owned by some great people. We’ve talked in the past about purchasing an RV of our own, but after this experience, we think we’ll just continue to rent and avoid all the costs and hassles of owning one.
