Hi,
I am thinking of starting a folding camper hire company having previously rented out my motorhome.
I have researched and could not find any hire companies - is that because there is no market for it or am I on to something here?
I understand the booking, hire demostrations, booking back in, cleaning, damage, hire cost, return on investment etc etc but my question is;
Depends on the weather, but I would have thought that there could possibly be a market for those who have tents and want to sleep off the ground and want to try the next thing up.
This to most would either be a trailer tent or a folding camper. We took the plunge to purchase a trailer tent over 8 years ago and have not looked back since.
We found that fc' s would not offer the room that we required, we have had quite a few people over the years enquiring about our trailer tents, erection time how easy what are they like, etc
So you might be onto something, especially for those wanting to move up but not spend the outlay incase they do not like it.
One thing that I always say that whichever you buy a tt or fc it does take a few trips to find out your best way of setting up and getting used to, nearly took us a full first season and half a dozen trips.
My biggest concern would be the canvas,it is very easy to rip if you don't erect and fold away properly. People wouldn't want to hire a patchwork tent.
Also what about the times it would be returned with a wet canvas, could be a nightmare!
A motor home is a big outlay to buy and a big cost to keep, not to mention storage space etc., so I can understand someone renting a motor home. Similarly a caravan but less so.
A FC can be bought for a few hundred quid and needs very little storage space etc. so I would think the rental market will be much smaller.
I did see somewhere, someone set up their Dandy camper and rented it out as holiday accommodation. I think there's a video on YouTube.
You would be limited to people who have cars with tow bars already attached. Nobody is going to fork out in excess of £200 to have a tow bar fitted so they can hire a caravan or TT.
Some years ago (about 10) the wife and i did just that. We set up kmcamping. We had 2 trailer tents and 2 folding campers. We offered a service where people could hire a unit for a holiday with a view to buying one after there holiday if they wanted to. Also they had the choice to tow themselves or have us tow for them over a set distance and set the units up for them and demonstrate how they work etc.
It turned out that people were not interested. We had about 4 enquiries over a period of 5 years. In the end we gave up and sold our units, But at least we tried.
The market may have changed now, i dont know. If you do decide to give it a go, good luck.
Keiron....
To be honest, I couldn't see how you could do it much cheaper than renting a static on a site, especially out of the peak season when the bigger companies offer discounts and the like. Like someone said, your market is already shrunken to those that have a towbar, unless you offer a vehicle package as well. I dread to think what the insurance premiums would be!
It's further shrunk by seasonality because who wants to hire a tent between October and March? Very different to the motorhome rental business where I imagine you could trade all year round. Of course, you still have to store the things (and keep them on your balance sheet) over the 'down' season when they are unlikely to earn you a cent.
I think there are very good reasons for the current existence of gap in the market and for that reason, I'm oot
Renting out Luxury Pennine folding campers and trailer tents. they will even arrange for those that don't have a tow car to deliver and set up on a pre arranged campsite.
Quote: Originally posted by smartecosse on 16/1/2018
Only one day short of a four year bump for the old thread.......should have waited till tomorrow to bump it :)
So a few questions......
What age are the "luxury" campers? Are they both the current acrylic models?
What excess is there if there is damage such as ripped canvas etc?
Prices per night/week?
All the campers are the newer acrylic fabrics by Isabella. The prices range from £25, £30 and £40 per night. A security deposit is no actually taken but a snapshot is held of a credit card and only applied if the damage is reported. this is all done with a 3rd party company.
Check them out on Facebook you chat directly with them to find out more.