Anyone rented their own VW Beach before?

[Paul Philpott]

Hi there ,

I’m interested to rent out my VW beach by hiring it out when I’m not using it & see there are a number of service providers but maybe too much choice?! So I wondered as I have a Beaxh and not an Ocean if their is demand, it’s less than 2 years old with low mileage, so any recommendations for different companies to use and maybe an idea of what you might make per week if fully insured etc ...

I will use the Beach this summer but only have 5 weeks holiday and we have a 2nd car, so I was thinking about it, as with everyone on staycations post Covid I was curious to maybe earn a bit of cash and let others enjoy when I’m not able to enjoy it, so I wondered if anyone might share their insights on this

thanks for any opinions.

cheers

 

[Lambeth Cali]

We have friends who rented their Type 2. The wife spent all her time cleaning it. The husband told me they spent more on repairs than they ever made.
A California is mechanically more robust than a Type 2 but every little switch costs a fortune if broken. Our water pump broke, £600 for VW to fix. What if they’re kids spill Ribena on your seats? Can you imagine renters putting the roof down in a Gale?
It makes me wince just thinking about it. We get lots of friends who joke about borrowing our Cali. My wife knows that will never happen. Good friends rented a motor home and smashed a window and then tried to get out of paying for it to be fixed.

 

[Borris]

I'll start by stating that I have no experience of hiring out a Cali Beach, so you can stop reading now if you wish. However, here's my ten penn'orth for what it's worth.

I suppose whether you would want to do it or not depends on you personal attitude to ownership. If you are happy to do so then fine. I can't imagine why their wouldn't be a demand for a Beach hire vehicle although being multi purpose, I think you would probably have to lay down a list of permissible uses otherwise it could lead to abuse and subsequent damage. Since a Beach can be anything you want it to be including a campervan, a people carrier and load lugger, it's safe to assume that some of those hiring will take the opportunity to use your pride and joy to the maximun by doing all sorts of extra things including diy store and tip runs etc.

If you are hiring it out as a camper van I suppose you'd need to supply the basics for cooking and possibly a small fridge as well. You would need to have a bomb proof hire contract set up and take a healthy deposit to cover any minor damage etc. You would also need to allow time at the end of each hire contract to clean, service and effect any minor repairs etc before the next customer arrives. You would also need to devise a good hand over and have some sort of plan if the previous hirer has done something to render your sole vehicle inoperable for further hire until fixed. I'm sorry this is all obvious stuff which those with actual experience of hiring out will be able to give you much more detail.

It's not something I would ever consider but that doesn't mean it's a bad idea. I'm sure that most customers would treat your van with respect and a good insurance policy should take care of any major damage. However, it's the insurance that you might find a little tricky. Many people have had issues finding insurance for their Beach recently and the hire aspect will almost certainly add a new complication.

One good thing is that being a less complicated Beach there is much less to go wrong or get damaged than on a full fat Ocean. Providing your handover is good you shouldn't have too many phone calls.

I wish you good luck with your enterprise.

 

[clarinetbcn]

The problem with renting is that although the design of the Cali is generally good, which is why we bought them, the finishing details are cheaply made and not robust. Most of us are fanatical about caring for our vans, and things still get broken. Imagine how things would go in the hands of someone inexperienced, even if they are careful.

 

[Ch1pbutty]

I wouldn’t lend ours (or any past vans) to friends or family, let alone a stranger.

There are specialist insurers offering cover, but your van will be off the road whilst any damage has been repaired. The renter will just write the damage deposit off and walk away leaving you with the hassle.

We hired a lovely split screen once from a company near Exeter and managed to lock the keys in the van after walking to the pub (near Harlyn Cornwall.); The hire company drove a spare set to us in the middle of the night, but wouldn’t take any cash for their trouble. They said it happened a lot. So you need to be prepared for similar events.

 

[bluedogcampervan]

I’m going to speak in favour of renting out a Beach. We make a reasonable part of our living operating a campervan hire company. Until this year we used conversions based on the Transporter but decided to go down the route of renting out Californias. We’ve just had our new Coast delivered and have ordered a Beach for delivery mid summer (fingers crossed). We ordered the Beach because not everybody wants a wardrobe and twin hobs, and because it’s a versatile vehicle for people who love the outdoors, benefitting from a full width downstairs bed (we’ve gone for a three seater). My top tip would be to spend time being thorough at handover, and be careful to highlight fragile areas and processes that are specific to the vehicle. We take a security deposit of £1000 which would cover most incidentals short of a full insurance claim. Cosmetic damage will remain for the season and be fixed in October/November. Insurance is arranged in one of two ways - an annual policy, or by continuing to have your own off hire policy and arranging insurance at a day rate. When we started doing this it enabled us to fund our own high end camper, which we were fairly precious about. The only way to make this work is to stop looking at your Beach as your van, but as an asset of your business. Easier said than done! But we love it, it means we can have some nice vans at our disposal and if residuals stay strong an uplift when we come to sell them relative to the final payment on our PCP finance. There is definitely a market for a Beach as a hire vehicle, many of our customers would choose this over an Ocean in the interests of simplicity.
Message me if I can help with any of your questions. Ben