We have been thinking about taking the plunge into being full RVers for quite a few years. We even owned a pop-up camper for a while. But, we had never had a full size trailer. At this point in our life we have 2 teenagers and the idea of everyone tent camping is a bit uncomfortable at best.
So, we were planning a summer vacation to Garner Texas State Park and Bastrop Texas State Park. I considered a cabin, shelters, even staying in nearby hotels when I came across RVShare.com. The website is similar to AirBnB where people rent out their RVs to others who are looking to use one for a weekend.
Initially, the website was simple to use, just find the area that I want to pick up from and figure out the number of days and miles. If you are going to reserve an RV you will need to have pretty secure plans to be able to know how many miles you are planning on traveling as they charge by the night, by the mile.
I realized fairly quickly that when I start thinking about gas mileage lost from pulling something, plus the per night, plus the mileage fees this was not going to be cheap. But, I noticed that many of the RVs had a delivery option. So, rather than looking for trailers I could pull that were near my home I instead starting looking at trailers that had delivery that were near the destinations. This worked out awesome. We could rent two different trailers in two different places and get our outdoorsy experience without towing, setup, packing up a trailer, and worst of all backing into a spot.
Finding the right one was a bit of a pain. If you like researching things like this it can be fun, but you will have to find all the options and compare prices. Since these are leased by individuals there is no set pricing structure. Different people charge different prices by the night, by mileage, by delivery sometimes free within a specific mileage, by security deposit, and other fees like cleanup, black water flushing, generator use…
You will quickly find the one that says $100 a night is twice as expensive as the one that says $165 a night. If you use AirBnB you will be used to this sort of issue. You are best off using a spreadsheet to keep track while you look for the best option. But, we found two that were in our price range that would deliver to the campsites that we had reserved at both state parks.
Other than the variance in pricing, the process was very easy and smooth. The security deposit came from my card on file and everything seemed to take care of itself.
The experience in the actual campers varied a bit by the owner. The first trailer we used was brand new. It had no defects. The owner had the trailer set up when we arrived and walked us through how to do anything and everything we would want. He had included a few camping chairs, tables, grill, charcoal, sheets, plates, cups, flatware.
We found out later that he was lacking condiments, pot holders, and some things were hard to find since nothing was labeled. This was mostly due to the owner being new at renting out RVs. We learned that the Texas heat in the middle of the night can overpower a RV air conditioner without additional fans. We also learned renting a brand new trailer is slightly unnerving because there is no wear and tear on the vehicle.
The second trailer we used was older and the couple renting it to us had been doing it a while. We arrived late so they had set everything up and texted me a code to get in the trailer. This one had everything and was well labeled. The trailer being older had some cosmetic issues, but didn’t affect our stay and even put us at ease that we weren’t going to break anything. The couple having been leasing out longer had all the condiments and fans over each bed making the sleeping situation a bit comfier.
In the end we enjoyed our RVShare experience. It is important to consider things like the age of the camper not just because there is less chance of losing deposit money from damaging a pristine vehicle, but also because some of the older units are a few inches wider. Because if you are an out of shape camper like me, those few inches change your world. Consider things like the number of people it can sleep. A converted table will sleep 1 short adult comfortably (my wife will attest to this), a converted couch 1 adult comfortably with feet hanging off the end, a twin size bed… Just because they say it can sleep 10 doesn’t mean you realistically can. There are small differences like if there are walls or curtains, fans or not, does the site have water and electric or do you need to pack in water and use a generator…
Overall, I would suggest anyone thinking about becoming an RV owner should go with a dry run on RVShare first.
Comentários