Outdoorsy.com Review - Peer to peer RV rental in the USA outdoorsy.com Review

We used Outdoorsy to rent a massive 36 foot class A RV for 12 days. Cost was around 2500 USD. The same size vehicle and period would have cost over 7000 USD from a commercial rental outfit.

OK.. the bus is 10+ years old and you will expect a bit of "wear and tear" on a vehicle that old - but that's better in many ways as you less likely to lose your deposit.

You can't get a "one way" rental with this site of course, as you have to return the bus to it's owner.

Take good care on the Outdoorsy site when searching. I "smelt a rat" on a lot of listings - I have no verifiable evidence, but a lot of listing that don't have any reviews, and/or empty calendars suggest RV rental companies are using the site to rent their vehicles - when you commuicate with them they say strange things like "I am a private renter. Give me your email address and I'll send you the quote". Why someone would not put the pricing and calender information into the Outdoorsy system and let me just book in there is a mistery? Why tell me he is a "private" renter and then give me a "quote"?

I looked for a renter with a lots of reviews, that looked genunine, and had a calendar with at least some bookings.

We found a great guy in Seattle. He did give me a heart attack just as we were about to get on the plane from the UK - the booking was cancelled! - but when we landed he explained it was just a case of "trigger finger" and he'd accidentally cancelled the booking - everything was fine.

At this time I contacted Outdoorsy support - if you find yourself having to do this (will only be in circumstances such as mine) there do tend to take a long time (like 3hrs) to answer queries - but they are quite competent when they finally do answer - so be prepared to wait.

I would suggest booking months in advance as by the time we travelled the RV's calendar was full.

A couple of other things I'd offer to anyone in our situation and about renting RV's in general:

You can drive a RV up to 45 foot, but that really is big, and you'll have to watch the "tailswing" when turning so you don't hit anything. It is wide (as are roads in North America), make sure you've "walked around" the bus and mentally absorbed just how big is it. Stick in the middle lane near overhanging trees, and watch the camber of the road when passing parked trucks etc. on the right hand side. I used to drive buses in the UK when I was younger so this wasn't a problem but the wife flat out refused to drive it.

We did often put the kids to bed early (in the master bedroom), and we wound up sleeping on the camp-bed in the main lounge and this really should be for kids.

The RVs are generally gas (petrol) engined. This means all fuel stations will have your gas, as diesel is less widely found. You will use a LOT of gas - it is cheaper than Europe, but ain't free. If your route has a lot of hills, mountains or twisty roads expect to burn even MORE gas. Enjoy though - this is a real experience.