Owners who rent - How do you handle damages / abandonment?

[lfrese]

I have 2 RVs listed on Outdoorsy. I bought one 2 years ago and found a great deal on another this past winter and couldnt pass it up. I thought I could sell my older one quickly alas it did not sell very fast. I put them on Outdoorsy to get some of the $ back and WOW is it popular.

The 2008 rented 3x and I had a great experience. Each renter returned it exactly as I gave it to them. I didnt want to put the 2011 up because it was in such perfect condition but since my experience was good I listed it.

The first renter for the 2011 had it for a week. They backed into something, breaking a light and the water inlet valve on the first day. They didnt pay attention to my training, and didnt read the manual I wrote and gave them a week in advance and for some reason thought the propane and fresh water were low on the 2nd day so they turned off the propane and left the food to rot in the fridge. THey also barely used any water in the toilet and they used a lot of tp. They seemed to want to completely avoid having to refill anything or dump the tanks. Later they ran into a branch and broke off the antenna, and finally they broke a nob off the kitchen sink claiming that it was "leaking" and somehow the counter became detached slightly from the body of the RV (which I discovered later).

1 day before they were due to return the RV the renter called and asked if I wanted to pick it up early since they were only 2 hours away. Thinking it was because they didnt want to further damage it I agreed even though it was an hour farther than we originally agreed to do the return. Then the renter decided that they should get a refund for the day since I was getting it early. I refused so they decided to keep it. Later in the day, they asked if I could come get it that evening even though I explained earlier I would not be available to get it after 1pm. They claimed that their flight got changed/canceled to an earlier flight in the morning from their evening flight. Since I was unavailable, they abandoned the RV in airport shuttle parking and I was unable to do the walkthrough with them to assess the damages. When I was able to pick the RV up, I checked the propane and fresh water tanks, both were 3/4 full.....

Due to the damage to the water inlet valve, I cannot put fresh water in the RV. It is a busy season for repairs and I was not able to get it in the shop for 2 weeks. This fiasco has resulted in me having to cancel someone elses trip that they have had planned for a while (lost that income) which was devastating for me to do to them, and I have had to reject a booking request which would have made me another $1600.

Outdoorsy has been awful. They are unavailable, and their support takes more than a day to respond to emails. I wanted to put this on their forum but it looks like since last fall they have disabled any more posts on their forum.

The repair guy says that their deposit should cover the repairs and I wont have to file an insurance claim. But the renter is disputing some of the damages, saying they are pre-existing even though the damages are right next to/associated with the damages they admit to causing.

So, other owners who rent - how much of a deposit do you ask for? If the renter damages the RV to a point where you cant rent it again until it is fixed, do you have any recourse for lost income? Any experiences with outdoorsy or rvshare or other rental places?

[ol_Bombero-JC]

"RENT" -

R=Returned
E=Extremely
N=Neglected (and)
T=Trashed

You can't afford to be in the RV rental business.
Minor successes will turn into major failures - sooner or later.

If you need the $$ that bad, collect pop cans and scrap metal.

~

[Grit_dog]

Well the renters of the ‘11 model sound like they may have been some of my past tenants, lol!
Bottom line, you can’t fix stupid and you’ll see it regularly if you deal with other people on any level.
Deposit? Idk. Call around and see what the deposits required by other commercial RV Rental outfits are. And figure out how to make them refundable on YOUR terms. Disputing charges is nothing new and it goes both ways. Landlords and rental outfits also find ways to keep your deposit when it’s not warranted. 2 way street here.
Repairs? If you have to take it to a shop for the small stuff you’re talking about, you’ll likely never come out ahead. You need to be able to do that stuff yourself or you’re not going to be profitable imo.
Good luck with your future renters!

[valhalla360]

Depending on how much the damages are, you can try small claims court but even if you win, I wouldn't give good odds on collecting.

If you are going to do this as a hobby:
- Be prepared to do most of the maintenance yourself. That keeps your risk down and if they do pay up, you can charge market rates for your time, which may be quite profitable.
- Use old cheap units, so you don't care as much if they get damaged. They will get damaged. Renters don't care as much as owners because they are walking away at the end of the trip.

Really, this is just a normal part of a rental business and why commercial operations don't limit themselves to 1 or 2 units because the whole business shuts down if there is an issue.

[westernrvparkow]

Welcome to the world of renting anything. We eat $1000s of dollars of damages each year because it just isn't worth the time, effort and mental energy to chase money you are never going to get. Damages on credit card deposits are going to be disputed, and you will likely not win. Good luck trying to get large cash deposits and good luck keeping someone's cash when they come calling for a refund of their deposit.
When renting, loses due to damage, misuse, carelessness, negligence and everything else is a cost of doing business. The fact you couldn't turn around the rental in time to rent again is not generally recoverable. That's why rental companies have many units, not one or two. They anticipate and plan for down time because it will be a fact of rental business life.
Finally, I don't think this problem is limited to the company you deal with. That industry is sketchy to begin with and I would assume all the companies over-promise and under-deliver in their marketing to potential owners. That is why whenever a thread about renting rigs is started, it is quickly filled with the advice of "not in a million years".

[ScottG]

You just can't expect people to take care of your things like you do.
You can expect people to be flakes.

[Tyler0215]

How much damage can someone do to an RV in a week? That's your deposit. You do have insurance on the RV that allows renters, right. What's the deductable?
How much will the insurance co raise the rates when you file a claim?
Anyone asks to rent mine I tell them the deposit is the cost of a new RV.

[lfrese]

path1 wrote:
I have a retired cruise America and became pretty good friends with a guy that was at Corp. You gotta here his stories.
I think they get opened ended credit card up to certain amount and some type of insurance after that.

I plan to rent just to people who have situations that have worked out in my favor from now on.
- Local renters
- Driving to 1 spot and parking, not going to multiple places.
- Have a resourceful, capable mentality.
- have experience RVing or camping.

[path1]

I have a retired cruise America and became pretty good friends with a guy that was at Corp. You gotta here his stories.
I think they get opened ended credit card up to certain amount and some type of insurance after that.

[Ranger_Smith]

That's why I don't rent. Did once . . . Came back with cracked dash. Told my wife don't come up with any more stupid ideas like that again.