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Walkl away from it the only people who benefit are the agency and the people who rent it . You end up with a rolling crock of s--t and not a lot of money to show for it .

Oh welcome to the forum i am sure some may agree with me and some may not but it is only my opinion, people never look after a rented unit as do their own .

Hope this is of some help top you please let us all know how you get on.

Delboy

Definitely a very bad idea indeed.  I used to own a boat hire business, and the people who hire have no experience, and no desire to keep your property in good order.

It will be a wreck in pretty short order.  In addition, the extra insurance - and the public liability insurance - that you will need, will wipe out any profit you may make.

From studies we did in the boat hire world, the minimum profitable fleet size is 6, and I'm sure this applies to motor caravans as well.

Bear in mind, when week one hirers bring it back in unuseable condition, and you have just a couple of hours to get it ready for the week two people, you may find you need to hire in from somewhere else to keep your commitment to the customer.  One or two of those will eat up your profits as well.

Jim

We hired several campervans before we bought one and the hefty security deposit meant I was really careful with them, also since we hired from small businesses and met the business owners when picking them up it wasn't the same as hiring a car from Avis or someone like that.

Mind you I did still manage to inadvertantly break the table leg, but I owned up and was let off!

We bought an ex rental, Minnie Winnie motorhome years ago. It had undergone extensive repair (mainly cosmetic but obviously still expensive) prior to sale. The seller told us that in 50 % of hires , they had experienced 'vans being returned damaged with a lot of overcab dings and dents from tree branch contact etc. From our experiences since the late '80's with house rentals , I have to say that generally most people do NOT take good care of someone elses property. I just would not go there.....................................

Hi, I did this post about this subject a while ago hope this helps,

When we bought our motorhome 2 years ago we dicided to hire it out when we were not using it. We went through a motorhome hire Company, which we had previously hired motorhomes from in the past.  I must say the company were fantastic, sorted everything out , insurance, breakdown or any problems the only thing we had to do was clean the van between hires and show people how everything works.  We also took a 500 pounds in a bond for any damage. The Company got us about eight 2 week hires, we could of had more but we only hired it out when we were not able to use it.

Now for the bad part, which eventually lead to us stop hiring. Firstly, no matter how nice people look, how much they promise to look after your beautiful motorhome do not believe them, out of the 8 hires we had only one who did not break something or do thing stupid which caused damage.  I always gave then all instructions for every conceivable thing that could got wrong, always told them to ring if there was a problem which still did not seem to work.  When it came time to hand motorhome back it is amazing how when you ask if everything is ok they always say yeah fine, only to inspect the van and find broken catches, window strutts, scratches on the van and also fiamma awning completely smashed and ripped.  Loads of disputes about damage and every single person we hired to looked very respectful and trust  worthy.

After a year we decided not to hire out anymore and it was the best thing we have done, yes a thousand pound for 2 weeks hire is lovely when your motorhome would just of been in storage anyway, but I can honestly say any amount of money is not worth the hassle.

Anyone who has a motorhome knows how careful you are with your own motorhome but I can 100% confirm that most people who hire do not have a clue about motorhomes and simple things like just been careful with the fridge lock, which infact we had to replace on every hire, even though we told hirers in detail how to open and close the fridge, they never failed to break the catch but I could guarantee they would not tell me when they handed it back. We even had someone who got a flat tyre and drove for nearly 75 miles which caused 600pound worth of damage, the garage told us this is what mustof happened to cause the damage but it was proving it, luckily we managed to recover the money from our warranty.

I know we took a 500 pound deposit but believe me they never gave up a penny of that money without a fight.

I dont want to sound negative but I can only repeat in my opinion no amount of money is worth the stress.

If I can be of anymore help just let me know.

Regards Sandra.

I was interested to read all the above posts.  I can present the other side of the discussion.  We r arriving from Aust on 3 Sept and r looking to hire a private motor home from a hire company for 12 months.  we have been offered 5 choices of motorhomes at around 10,000 pound.  We have to put 1000 pound donw towards the ins excees and 750 pound bond for damages.  I guess its no good me saying that we would absolutely respect it likes its our own after all I'm renting my home out here while away and I hope the tennants respect my house too.  PS can anyone tell me what an average price would be to expect to pay a night on a caravan park.

Could you not lend it to friends and family for a 'smaller' charge than hiring it out? At least that would bring in some wonga and friends and family are likely to look after it better than strangers.

Having said that though, I am the type that would worry myself to death about damaging a friends campervan but not quite so much if I hired one from a company (although I would still look after it of course)

Quote: Originally posted by Beverley56 on 18/5/2011

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PS can anyone tell me what an average price would be to expect to pay a night on a caravan park.

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Cheers Trentz

That cheaper than here in Australia.