Any honest views / data on becoming a Cali hire business

[2into1]

12/18 months ago there was great interest / activity in folks renting out their own Cali’s to subsidise their running costs, and even buying an extra Cali to generate a profit through hire.

I saw a few threads suggesting folks who’d tried it had hit some problems, but they were sparse on details.

I’m wondering if those that tried it or investigated it seriously would like to share their experiences here (anecdotal and hard data on costs of insurance / storage etc)?

 

[sidepod]

All of your summer weekends written off with handover/collection.?

 

[Freeley]

Damage that you need to get sorted before it goes out again.

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

 

[2into1]

Just bumping this. Have all small scale hirers been paid off by *****etc (you know who) and BMVS to keep quiet about how much they are roping in?

 

[sidepod]

We genuinely considered it when we bought the new van. Keep the old one and rent it out.

It’s deffo worth it but we couldn’t find a way around being there every Friday/Sunday.
I’m not retired so that’s a big issue for us.
If you are then you can go off and play mid week.

 

[westfalia]

Just bumping this. Have all small scale hirers been paid off by *****etc (you know who) and BMVS to keep quiet about how much they are roping in?

When you´re on to a good thing, you don´t share it.

Insurance would be a big cost and the vans would always need to have warranty, sell
them with 6 months left on it.
You´re not gonna be renting many out this time of year, more like from april - sept.

I´m out.
By the way, how much is it for a weeks hire ?

 

[Martin]

As quite a few of you will know I had two Cali's being hired out a couple of years ago. For me it was just a hobby to run along side the club however it very soon ended up being another full time business as we were virtually booked back to back from March until October on both vans.

Don't get me wrong, you can make very good money from hiring out your Cali, you will get your insurance back in just a few peak season hires however the big problem for us was it ate into our weekends in a big way, it also affected my other businesses so in the end we sold it. I think If I was still running it now I would possibly have around 8+ vans as there are not enough campervans out there for hire to meet demand, especially for peak season as people seem to book nearly a year in advance.

Anyone that is thinking of doing it, you really need to do it as a business, you also need to be able to detach yourself from the vehicles as being your own (I struggled with this) also as I mentioned above, you need to be able to give up your weekends all through the summer time, plus be prepared to wait around for people on a Friday night stuck in traffic on the M5 and having to do a hand over at 10pm at night in the dark !

If you are happy to do the above and you are business minded you will have a sucessfull hire business virtually gauranteed !

 

[69 Campers]

I agree.....

 

[daveyboydanger]

Sadly the market for a Beach didn’t seem too hot. We had two hires in 6 months. Was gutted as we’d spent a lot on insurance and creating a nice website. Maybe we’d done something wrong but it just seemed our northern location and vehicle wasn’t the most desirable combo!

 

[69 Campers]

Location is key, we are located South of France just above Cannes / Nice

1 hour from Italian border and 4 hours from Spain

With cheap flights into Marseille and Nice we offer an excellent location to start the road trip..... and then there's the weather : )

 

[daveyboydanger]

Location is key, we are located South of France just above Cannes / Nice

1 hour from Italian border and 4 hours from Spain

With cheap flights into Marseille and Nice we offer an excellent location to start the road trip..... and then there's the weather : )

Sounds slightly nicer than Preston.

 

[larrylamb]

Location is key, we are located South of France just above Cannes / Nice

1 hour from Italian border and 4 hours from Spain

With cheap flights into Marseille and Nice we offer an excellent location to start the road trip..... and then there's the weather : )

Sounds horrendous, give me Lancashire anyday

 

[larrylamb]

Sounds slightly nicer than Preston.

What! Home of "Volkswagen Van Centre Lancashire", surely the biggest supplier of Cali's to the forum.

 

[calicalling]

There is a couple in Bath who are hiring out their Cali on Airbnb at £235.- a day, yes that's £235.- a day! No takers so far it seems...

 

[OConnors]

We hire out Calis and classic vans as a business. The vans get completely trashed and it is so expensive to repair internal parts with calis. The roof will get folded in half after 6-7 hires. Broken table legs are common, glass tops smashed, stains on seats, damage to doors when they try to rotate seats without opening them, fuel in water tank, lost keys, wedged rear seats, petrol instead of diesel in fuel tank, broken blinds, scoured cooker tops, bent chairs, kerbed wheels, broken taps, cupboard doors knocked inwards, damage by cricket balls hitting van, sliding cupboard doors always coming apart, lots of hedge scratches and to top it offeverybody seems to cook kippers for breakfast. Plus about £1200 p.a insurance and a £50k investment. Anybody who thinks it is easy money think again. You just have to let a lot of minor damage go but it soon adds up and the van starts to look shabby. If your Cali is your pride and joy hiring it out is not for you. Also most people want them the same time as you. In the summer.

 

[BRC]

Insurance seem good value! Who's that with? As for the rest , yes I'm sure it not for the faint hearted but in general(I'm sure there are exceptions) most people will accept that they have to pay for breakages? I see you try to keep change over days on Fridays, good for you but uses up an extra days holiday for (uk)customers?

 

[blakeley]

No hire company is actually going to say its a doddle are they !!

 

[OConnors]

No definitely not!

 

[2into1]

and a £50k investment.

I suspect many of the big guys profit from their resale after a years use, from a combination of upfront discounts we could only dream of, and the ever increasing list prices.

 

[OConnors]

Yes that is definitely the case with motorhomes. You wouldn’t believe the hire company price on some European made models. We bought two £50k motorhomes for £33k plus VAT a few years back direct from the factory. I don’t think anybody gets much of a discount on a California. Maybe £1-2k max.
And a little bit of damage that came back yesterday ref my earlier post above. Just to prove the point!!

 

[Bellcrew]

No hire company is actually going to say its a doddle are they !!

We hired a T5 cali from the very pleasant Southampton Co., whilst carrying out the normal pre-hire condition check we noted a hole had been punched in a kitchen cupboard, the hirer was philosophical about this, I would have been outraged.

 

[OConnors]

We hired a T5 cali from the very pleasant Southampton Co., whilst carrying out the normal pre-hire condition check we noted a hole had been punched in a kitchen cupboard, the hirer was philosophical about this, I would have been outraged.

We had somebody light a disposable barbeque in a van once!

 

[2into1]

in a kitchen cupboard

£396 plus fitting!

 

[BRC]

There’s a reason for the four figure deposit when you hire....

 

[69 Campers]

Please view our discussion thread in T5 /T6 general