Experience Renting your airstream?

[pilgrim]

I see that my major comment has been addressed by a couple of other posters. I think the major concern in the "newbie" hauling the TT to a CG and what kind of experience do they have. Most renting companies/individuals rent out their AS that is already at a CG - there is no hauling to do. OR, the company will haul the AS to your CG of choice charging up to $1-$2 per mile up to a maximum of $150 - another line item in their budget. There is no hauling of the AS by the "newbie". I wouldn't want anyone hauling my trailer anywhere - knowing they lack the experience necessary. The owner does the placement of the AS and collects the rent money. Now, the only damage that can be done is by living in your trailer. When we had some rental cottages, we protected ourselves by furnishing the cottages with original art and antiques and charging accordingly. People were very careful of everything - never any damage becuase they were paying so much rent - we tended to get a more careful resident. Doesn't always work that way, but we were lucky. Would I rent out my AS? Not in a million years!!! The grief, the concern, the worry would be much too great to enjoy the extra money. Besides, I plan to use my trailer as much as possible and if we decide at the last moment to go somewhere, I would want the trailer to be accessbile - not in use by a stranger. Good luck with your decision - and I think this is probably a personal decision to be made by each individual....
____________________________________
2007 Airstream International SS OB
2004 Nissan Pathfinder Armada
Equal-i-zer Hitch
Prodigy Brakes
REMEMBER, "It is better to keep your mouth shut and thought a fool
Than to open it and remove all doubt."

[Mikethefixit]

Hummmmm, That's like asking me to rent my wife or my teeth. LIKE Pilgram said"NO I DONT THINK SO,NOT IN A MILLION YEARS".

[sumsmug]

Wow, So I guess in most people feel "a little uncomfortable" to rent their AS.

Like I said for me its not such a big deal. I think if one can secure the cost of the trailer in case the renter wrecks it or runs off with it i think its fine. Usually, with rental companies, this is done on a credit card, but I'm sure there are alternative ways for private owners (like me) to do the same thing. I think Rentnotbuy.com is going to offer something at some point, with contracts to sign too. So I'm going to go for it.

I will update this thread on my experiences renting... if its a horror story or not

[CanoeStream]

Originally Posted by sumsmug

Like I said for me its not such a big deal. I think if one can secure the cost of the trailer in case the renter wrecks it or runs off with it i think its fine.

We're not talking big time theft if somebody disagrees with you. Then are you left with the relatively unenforceable small claims court? I'm not an attorney and I don't pretend to be one here (or on TV). Take your pick -- Judge Judy or Judge Wapner -- those are all small claims cases IIRC. I applaud you for your 'come what may' approach to this -- it's refreshing.

[Aage]

Originally Posted by jcanavera

I really don't think you can compare this to renting a boat, although those of us who have rented houseboats have probably seen some similarity between this and a trailer. The biggest issue there is navigating to a dock for fuel and tieing it up at night so it doesn't go drifting out in the lake!

Jack

One thing you wouldn't have an equivalent for in trailering is the launch.

Ever sit arond a public boat launch for a while? I Guarantee you will have a big laugh (at someone else's expense!) if you wait long enough...

[crazylev]

Along with all the above posts,

Couldn't have said it better than ROBERTSUNRUS in post 20.

The idea of having someone else's ass on our can except for me and the Mrs....uh, no.

And sleep on OUR bed (the papa bear said), not unless they would agree to sleeping in a human size zip-lock freezer bag, with video monitors attached everywhere to make sure that no gross human behavior occurs.

Hotels are vile places, and I've been in enough of them. Even the nice ones I sleep with my clothes on when out on assignment.

Jonathan

[longdog]

Originally Posted by crazylev

Along with all the above posts,
The idea of having someone else's ass on our can except for me and the Mrs....uh, no.

And sleep on OUR bed (the papa bear said), not unless they would agree to sleeping in a human size zip-lock freezer bag, with video monitors attached everywhere to make sure that no gross human behavior occurs

Jonathan

So, just for the sake of argument, does that mean that you would also never buy a used trailer?


Anyway... I got an email from a friend of a friend asking if I would rent my trailer for two weeks. They would park it in their driveway for their parents who are visiting from out of town. After reading these posts, I can see a lot of reasons not to agree.

[craftsman]

How about, never. I'd have to be pretty desperate for money to even consider renting my Airstream. There are far to many reasons to even list.

[danalee]

I have had two homes that were rented out and I swore I never would do it again. There is not enought space to tell you all the problems and we had contrcts, deposits etc. No way unless they wanted to be hooked up in my driveway-a new twist on a Bed and Breakfast. LOL

[Journalist]

I'll be happy to rent mine out for a thousand bucks per night with a $25,000 deposit.
All jokes aside, not no way, not no how. Ain't gonna' happen.

[3 Dog Nite]

I've rented mine out once. It sat still for a small low budget movie. I was present at all times. Even slept in when not filming. Had to wear a wig for a short time to apear as one of the girls while driving the MH. My auto policy has a $500,000 limit. Film company wouldn't take out their own policy so I wouldn't let anyone else drive. The only modifications inside I would allow is different photos in my frames & their own special dishes required by the script. I would never just give anyone the keys to use AS as they see fit.

[redstart]

I would not rent my airstream.

But what I would rent is this:

We'd like to buy a lakefront acreage in northern Ontario and put in full rv hookups (expensive!). I'd rent out the spot to fellow rv'ers for a little more than campground rates, for people looking for a nice spot with full hookups and privacy. I wonder if it would work or is it worth it....

[Chaplain Kent]

We have a pop-up camper which we use strictly as a rental. The Airstream will never be rented. Renting out an RV is not a casual thing to do, it is work. We have had renters pull in with a compact car expecting to hitch up the pop-up and then argue over the cancellation fee. Other renters will return the unit and say it is clean and maybe to them it was but not to our standards. Then things tend to wear out quicker, mattresses, hinges, furnace switches, light switches, and I am only renting a pop-up. So if you are still considering renting out your Airstream we use an on-line service which is very good and reputable, it is GetRV.com.

[funkill]

Originally Posted by redstart

I would not rent my airstream.

But what I would rent is this:

We'd like to buy a lakefront acreage in northern Ontario and put in full rv hookups (expensive!). I'd rent out the spot to fellow rv'ers for a little more than campground rates, for people looking for a nice spot with full hookups and privacy. I wonder if it would work or is it worth it....

I like your idea!!!

[redstart]

Originally Posted by funkill

I like your idea!!!

you can be my first customer! just give me a couple of years to get it set up

maybe there are ppl out there already doing it? i'll try to google it a little!

[SilverHouseDreams]

I'm new here and don't yet own an Airstream, but we are actually planning to rent ours after we buy it. I actually was wanting to have this same discussion to see what experience others have had, as there are clearly people that do rent their AS out on these services. It seems that the replies here are largely negative based on an emotional obsession with the AS, or based on anecdotal evidence of experiences that are not the same as they would be using a peer-to-peer rental service. Millions of people rent out houses and rooms on AirBnB every day, and the positive largely outweighs the negative...and in most cases I see the "rentee" as being the one getting shafted more than the one providing the property.

These new peer rental services already address many of the risks that everyone raises here. They validate insurance, they validate driving records, and they include insurance for the vehicle. I have friends that have done pretty well renting out their obsessive owned cars with GetAround (Tesla Model S, Tesla Roadsters, and other luxury sports sedans/SUVs, etc)...the "drive it like a rental" actually doesn't truly apply here, yeah there are still jerks but most of the time people treat them much more similar to how they would treat their own. There is much more of a personal connection on peer-to-peer transactions, than renting from the Hertz machine with zero care of consideration given to the customer either.

SumsMug, I would look at the other rental services to. Some sites are nothing more than classified ad location for posting rental services and all of the risk and burden is on you (e.g. RentNotBuy). I would suggest looking at Outdoorsy, RVshare, or one of the other options that actually do some of the work for you in exchange for a % cut. They provide insurance, driving record checks, road side assistance, etc to help reduce the burden to you.

Don't be discouraged by those here that obviously haven't actually researched this as they have some deep connection with their AS, which I can understand...but not all of us see many objects as a member of the family, or perhaps more important than members of family in some cases I get it, I just stopped obsessing over things like this. My BMW and Audi are both dirty more often than not, I don't spend every weekend waxing and polishing them...the interiors haven't been detailed in years, and I take them to automated car washes.

We are balancing two ends of a spectrum on our AS purchase, if we want to rent it out a smaller AS is a far better option...a Sport 22 or smaller is light enough that the addressable market is pretty large as they fall within the towing range of a lot more vehicles. The increased luxury elements on a FC23/25 are really appealing on the personal level though, and that new ducted climate control is really impressive and takes the level of refinement up a few notches.

In the longer term we are considering buying a recreation lot that we would place the AS and rent out when we aren't using it, but in the shorter term it would be rent-to-tow.

[jcanavera]

This is thread was last posted in 2009 so a lot has changed over time. Obviously there is the concept of renting the trailer in a fixed location where towing is not necessary which from my view has the least amount of risk for the owner.

Towing is a whole different manner and it would be interesting to see how a towed rental trailer holds up over time. You've got to deal with tow vehicles, hitches, and the peculiarities of the trailer itself when lashed to your tow vehicle. With the high cost of an Airstream on the front end, I would contend that the high cost of the trailer itself plus the inexperience of the person renting the trailer for towing might lead to some small profit margins when it's all taken into account.

I wonder the Dicky Riegal's Airstream rental business is going? I think he was providing the entire package which was trailer and tow vehicle for rent.

Jack

[sidburgess]

I'm glad to hear you are giving it a go! I'm a big fan of the 'sharing economy'. I travel a lot for work and primarily use AirBnb's. There's a service actually, just like AirBnb for RV owner and renters. May check it out:
https://www.outdoorsy.co/

As you may expect, there's mixed reviews. I also consider there are 10-20 positive experiences for every negative review left, as most people just don't leave positive reviews. That said, I prefer to arm anyone with as much information as possible when making any suggestions/recommendations.

So check out reviews on Trustpilot: https://www.trustpilot.com/review/www.outdoorsy.co


We are prepping to live in our Airstream Moho for quite a while, but when we need/want a break, we use Airbnb and are likely to rent out our Moho so others can enjoy it while we relax.

Looking forward to hearing more about your experiences!

s

[Lily&Me]

What I see as the biggest issue is the common, collective knowledge base between traditional homes, apartments, etc., which is not there for many who might want to rent an RV just to see what it would be like.

There is a specialized skill set we have all had to learn for our rigs, which newbies coming in would not have, and sometimes serious consequences for errors.

Someone familiar with RV's would have a lot of that, needing just specifics for any particular rig, but someone coming in who had never been in an RV before?...I just can't imagine turning mine over to much of anyone, much less someone who just wanted to try it all out.

But, that's me, and if we were all the same what a dull world it would be.

Maggie

[SilverHouseDreams]

Wow, I'm not sure how I found this thread from 2009 to bring it from the archives...I can't recall that I found it in a search, just through browsing. I hadn't suspected that I was deep enough to be 8 years in the past, so sorry for the statements that were obviously not recognizing the vintage of the thread

Yes, in 2009 things like Outdoorsy didn't exist so it would have been a very different discussion.