Utahns are making big bucks renting out their RVs during the pandemic

But chasing spare cash through RV shares can sometimes be a rocky road.

(Photo courtesy of Mylee Brown) Mylee and Chris Brown rent out their retrofitted camper van on apps like Outdoorsy, and saw great success during the pandemic. Editor’s note • This story is available to Salt Lake Tribune subscribers only. Thank you for supporting local journalism.

Apps and tech startups have gotten us accustomed to sharing our cars , our homes and even our backyard swimming pools . And during the pandemic, a growing number of would-be entrepreneurs are taking advantage of Americans’ cabin fever and lending out their camper vans, travel trailers and RVs.

The demand has been there for a while. There’s the social media scroller who wants to dabble in #vanlife without plopping down a big wad of cash. Or the retiree who wants to escape for a weekend to the mountains, without waking up to an achy back or lack of plumbing. Or the parents who want to go on a family road trip, but don’t have the space to store an RV. For the past few years, platforms like Outdoorsy , RVnGO and RVShare have connected those customers to camper owners looking to make some spare cash to cover their loan and insurance payments.

But when the pandemic grounded flights and made staying in a hotel with a bunch of strangers a risky prospect, even more travelers turned to RVs.

“Like many businesses, early on we saw a dip happen and cancelations,” said Evan Hopkins, Outdoorsy’s vice president of global sales and customer operations. “But once people saw how they could still travel, and this was one of the best and safest ways, we saw huge growth.”

From March to July of last year, bookings on the platform rocketed up by more than 4,500%, the company reported. In June 2020, compared to June 2019, bookings had spiked by 400%. Since Outdoorsy launched in 2015, nearly three out of every four of its bookings happened in 2020 and 2021. And Salt Lake City, with its proximity to national parks and other outdoor attractions, is among the platform’s top 10 most popular destinations.

“There are people who never thought about going on an RV trip before” the pandemic, Hopkins said. “It opened their eyes to something different.”

The rental platforms typically provide insurance for the trips, and the RV owners clean and sanitize the vehicles between guests. Most owners also provide basics like linens, cookware and bug spray.

Hopkins said when he rents a camping trailer for his family, he typically likes to have it delivered to the campsite.

“We show up and it’s like a hotel right on the lake or in the mountains,” he said. “The other nice thing about delivery is the owners like it. They’re more confident in themselves [pulling it], parking it and setting it up.” The Utahns hauling in RV cash

Salt Lake City resident Mylee Brown works as an accountant, but wanted to make a little extra money on the side. Investing in a van and retrofitting it into an adventure-mobile-for-hire seemed like an obvious choice.

“I have wanted a camper van my entire life,” Brown said. “I am a total hippie, Utah, mountain-loving gal.”

Brown and her husband found and purchased their perfect van, a Ford Transit, in January 2020. When the pandemic hit a few months later, it was scary at first, Brown said. But being forced to work at home gave them more flexibility to retrofit the vehicle into an Instagram-worthy ride, just in time for the busy summer travel season.

(Photo courtesy of Mylee Brown) Mylee and Chris Brown rent out their retrofitted camper van on apps like Outdoorsy, and saw great success during the pandemic.

The van has been consistently booked until November, Brown said. They charge $160 a night and require a minimum of three nights.

“We only have to rent out one or two good trips to cover our costs each month,” Brown said. “We didn’t anticipate how busy it would be, which is a good problem to have.”

In 2020, Brown said, the majority of her clientele was Utah locals. But as travel restrictions eased and people got vaccinated this spring, about half of her renters now fly in from out of state, and they’re booking longer trips.

The venture is so successful the couple is looking to invest in a second Ford Transit that they’ll retrofit over the winter.“I’m pregnant,” Brown said. “So we’re going to make a baby-friendly van for 2022.”Garrett Allred in Ogden also got involved in RV sharing because he […]

source Utahns are making big bucks renting out their RVs during the pandemic