Sooooo…we tried renting the camper out. Turns out, it’s a great idea, if you don’t care about your camper.
You really have to let go of it. We de-personalized it. Cut back on the extras, stocked it with new kitchen items, new sheets and bed protectors. We even offered linens at no extra cost.
We got screwed every single time. Maybe we were too nice. Maybe we didn’t explain something well enough, but every rental was an issue. Even by people who OWNED a fifth wheel, and were renting ours for the rest of their group.
It does seem rather crazy how expensive camper repairs are compared to the quality of the camper. Nothing is solid wood. Everything is built with weight in mind. And temporary usage.
The first rental, was the previous blog, where he wrecked it within 2 hours of picking it up. Those stairs still don’t feel right. The repair and payment went quickly, only because his deposit covered the repair. He was not happy about it, and did not let it go easily. He fully expected us to go buy some eBay part, fix it ourselves and save him some money.
I’m not sure where someone would think thats ok. That wouldn’t happen with a car. So why expect it with a camper?
Anyway, 2nd rental, for a week at the races. They continously used a honey wagon service, which never gave solids anytime to dissolve. We are STILL trying to clean the sensors and get dried sludge out of the tank.
What we did discover right before dropping the unit off to the 2nd renter, is that our wonderful 1st renter, flushed paper towels down the toliet. Who does that? We dont even do that at home.
So after the second rental, we spent several hours removing paper towels. And, they left it an absolute mess, including putting clothing stickers on the wood, for me to go through and peel off after the fact.
I decided at that point we were not charging enough for cleaning.
Maybe if we had been better able to maintain it at our house, it would have went smoother. Not being able to clean and store and prep it at home was a real challenge.