Thinking of hiring out my cali ?

[Thomas Powell]

Re: thinking of hiring out my cali

Hi Malcolm, we have been hiring out Cali out for the best part of a year now as we only really using it for around 5 weeks of the year, the rest of the time we advertise it on Ebay and Gum Tree to hire out. So far we have rented it out for for about 19 weeks since we started in March last year and in the summer hols we achieve around £750 per week. The first time we hired it out we were dreading what it would come back like but everyone takes so much care of it ( probably more than us ) we also charge a deposit just incase something does go wrong ! Insurance was also easy as many companies now offer ‘pay as you go’ policies for self drive hire. In the past 12 month we have made around £12,000 after cots plus we have had our holidays on top of this.

If anyone has any questions please pm me

Rgs

V

hi victor , new to this how do i pm you?

 

[Thomas Powell]

What issue do people have then with the dual insurance as mentioned earlier in this post? and to parking / speeding fines etc?
Is it possible to hire out while the vehicle is on HP/finance?
is there a good demand for people wanting to hire?

 

[Rippin]

That's a good point, about the speeding, I'm going to look into it, but if anybody as experience this problem can you let us know the outcome please.
George

 

[Martin]

Any speeding fine that comes through you just tick the box to say it was not you driving and send it back with a copy of the rental agreement, they will then send the fine to the hirer for payment, pretty standard procedure.

 

[buster]

We will also be hiring out our California next year via this new scheme, it would of been really useful if something was available like this when I was looking to buy as it would of been nice talking to real owners

 

[Rippin]

Hi Martin we are about to order a new t6 California but we are going to hire out our t5 convention that was done by three bridge 2 years ago, the speck is very high as it as a microwave,hot water system, shower, heater, hob, fridge, pop up roof, bike rack, solar panel, satnav, cruise control, heated seats, leather, I think that's about it.
We are just putting the details together insurance,public lability,and advertising, what I would like to know would we be able to put it with your hire vans when you get that up and running.
Look forward to hearing from you.
Regards Rippin.

 

[Fryers!]

After loads of discussions with missus Fryers we are also joining up to do this next year. We were considering investing in an apartment in Menorca but we feel this is a better option with a higher return. We plan to hire out our existing Cali to start off with and maybe add another one next year.

 

[Slovenia]

We will start hiring out our Cali based in Slovenia. At the moment I am checking the insurance and other things that have to be solved, but we have enough time during the winter to find everything out in time.
The start is planned in April 2016 or so. Even in March there is already very nice weather at the Croatian seaside that is only two hours drive from us.
We basically use it in July and August when kids are out of school, the rest of the year it is parked in a garage and not used much or at all.

 

[JohnnyP]

Our Cali is our daily drive so would not be in a position to to hire it out.

If it was not it is to previous to us to let someonelse borrow it. I knowh the care I take when I park it at the shops. Whilst we use it to the full we handle it with care I dread to think accidently how someone not familiar with a Cali could damage it. ( even after a hand over to a hirer)

:doh Bellows damage, damage to trim while turning seats, running tap with no water, whats going down the sink, snapping the arm rest off while getting in the roof bed, full fry up in the van.

My view not worth the risk Many years ago I worked for camp hire firm saw all sorts returned.
Good luck.

What happens if you run the tap without water in the tank? Is this something important to add to the list of "dont's"

 

[calikev]

Only a few weeks away now from our new project

 

[sapto]

Only a few weeks away now from our new project

Look forward to read about the pros and cons of your project!

 

[calikev]

We are now just days away from launching

 

[Paulro]

We're doing this, appreciate all the comments so far, especially from a company like BMVS who have knowledge about what it takes.

We thought long and hard before we went ahead, we're only at the start of the journey.

For us it came down to the fact that we couldn't justify or afford having such a luxury, we are very envious of those that can afford this and understanding that renting our pride and joy out will have its downsides.

We also like the idea of enabling others to have a great experience too, as well as lending to friends & family.

Our calculations are quite conservative and are based on us covering the cost of the Cali, not making a profit.

Our costs are:

Insurance: £1900
Liability insurance: £200
Garage: £1000
Misc: £1000
Depreciation: £3000
Accessories: £2000 (£1000 resale value)
Tax: £255

We brought an ex-demo outright so hopefully saved on depreciation but who knows how the future this will go.

We don't have kids so our idea is to rent out during peak periods and use the Cali for the rest of the time, we're keen surfers and I'm used to doing this out of season.

We're hoping for around £7,000 pa in rentals which should roughly cover us and take into account that we would have to pay Tax & Insurance anyway.

We're going in eyes open, albeit you never know until it all starts.

The website is up at www.vwcalifornia4hire.co.uk though we have lots to add, I'll be blogging about the whole experience too

Just checked out your website and I think it's great. You will have had a season to see how it went. I think it's great that you feel you can share the California with others who might not want the full time commitment of owning or those that are considering owning or to those that want a different experience.

I wouldn't share ours but that's our choice. We really treasure it and it's like a member of the family. Well done to you.

 

[reserves]

Just checked out your website and I think it's great. You will have had a season to see how it went. I think it's great that you feel you can share the California with others who might not want the full time commitment of owning or those that are considering owning or to those that want a different experience.

I wouldn't share ours but that's our choice. We really treasure it and it's like a member of the family. Well done to you.

Thank you

We didn't rent ours out in the end due to my Business getting much busier. That's reminded me I must take the site down.

It would of worked for sure, plenty of interest.

 

[steve and lisa]

Only a few weeks away now from our new project

Any news on this please?

 

[Martin]

Hi, hopefully very soon!

The new site is quite complex as it will have a full booking engine, the developer is in the final stages now and we will email everyone on the list once it is ready for testing.

Also, anyone else that wants to be involved please let us know..

Sorry again for the delay

 

[blakeley]

I have emailed you guys for more information, we plan to start up a small part time business doing this near year and would welcome your advice.

 

[RealMrPorter]

Given that some people in this thread are thinking about renting their Cali out I thought I’d share some of the things we learnt from renting our converted van out:

1 The cleaning between hardback and handover can be a pinch point (for back to back rentals, which you will probably have in the summer if you promote it well. We made it much easier by having two sets of ‘van-kit’ (bed covers, pans and cooking stuff, utensils etc) and simply emptied the van into one box and filled it again from another. The kit could then be cleaned ‘at our leisure’ so it was just a case of cleaning the van inside & outside.


2. Gumtree, AirBnb and similar local sites are great for low-cost advertising


3 Renting to the weekend crowd can be better for several reasons (most other rental companies only want to rent for a week in peak season, you can rent for a weekend and but almost as much for a shorter period. We even did a couple of mid-weeks in-between two weekends and so the weekly yield was better). The weekend crowd seem to look after things better, mostly they’re going somewhere to do something like climbing, riding, walking etc. They eat dinner in a pub and just make cups of tea in the van. The weekly or longer rental crowd seem to get more comfortable in their surroundings and take less care.


4 It was a pain in the backside for us when people returned the van empty (we’re some way from a petrol station). So we introduced a hefty surcharge for returning the van less than full. It came back full every time after that which saved us almost an hour driving to get it filled up and then back again.


5 You can increase your weekly yield nicely by offering driveway awnings - but just be aware that showing people how to put it up / attach, detach it and how to take it down and fold it up can be a time-consuming exercise … especially if they’re not seasoned campers


6 Including a couple of head torches is a low-cost way of making the experience a bit more premium - hardly any of our renters had their own and had not thought about needing them for walking back from the pub etc.


7 Another nice add-on is selling payg wifi dongle things. I’ve forgotten the company but there are several you can buy from wholesale and make another £20/30 per week.


8 If you have a bike rack on the back, put a couple of hefty bike locks in the van - this might just mean a potential bike thief moves on to another van rather than breaking the locks on the VW bike rack (which would be a pain to sort)…

9 We fitted the van with a dash-cam, under the rational that it would help our customers out if they were in a any kind of accident. I'm pretty certain this also had the effect of making them drive more carefully.

10. We also had a reversing camera fitted - useful if you're not used to reversing this size of vehicle

 

[Craig Pascoe]

Hi there I also been looking into hiring out our van but have now come to the conclusion that its more hassle and problematic than first appears, one issue is that you have to declare the income to the hmrc (taxman) and if you have another job aswell then I believe you would also pay a higher rate of tax on this income plus your accounts fees, I hope this helps?

 

[CaliforniaBen]

Hi there I also been looking into hiring out our van but have now come to the conclusion that its more hassle and problematic than first appears, one issue is that you have to declare the income to the hmrc (taxman) and if you have another job aswell then I believe you would also pay a higher rate of tax on this income plus your accounts fees, I hope this helps?

Not being funny but I would of thought your observation were obvious? HMRC are not going to turn a blind eye to you making a profit.

It is no hassle for us ( we only hire out the one van) as we just add the extra income to our end of year tax return, don't forget higher rate tax is only charged on the higher amount only. There are loads of benefits to offset all your accessories, tea, coffee, cleaning etc against any profit, we make around £14,000 per year after costs.

 

[larrylamb]

Not being funny but I would of thought your observation were obvious? HMRC are not going to turn a blind eye to you making a profit.

It is no hassle for us ( we only hire out the one van) as we just add the extra income to our end of year tax return, don't forget higher rate tax is only charged on the higher amount only. There are loads of benefits to offset all your accessories, tea, coffee, cleaning etc against any profit, we make around £14,000 per year after costs.

Do you advertise yourself Ben or are you part of the forum hire group?

 

[CaliforniaBen]

Do you advertise yourself Ben or are you part of the forum hire group?

Yes we are along with several other similar websites however we are looking to build our own one for next year. Our last booking of the year came back on Sunday we are now off to France and Spain for three weeks.

 

[adinalee111]

Not being funny but I would of thought your observation were obvious? HMRC are not going to turn a blind eye to you making a profit.

It is no hassle for us ( we only hire out the one van) as we just add the extra income to our end of year tax return, don't forget higher rate tax is only charged on the higher amount only. There are loads of benefits to offset all your accessories, tea, coffee, cleaning etc against any profit, we make around £14,000 per year after costs.

Sounds like quite a good retrun as we are looking to hire ours out next year as we no longer use it as much as we did and we are loathed to sell it, this could be a prefect way to keep the Cali and earn some pocket money in the process.

 

[CannonDale]

Hi all.

I'm new, not even picked up our Cali yet so I'll save an intro for when it arrives.

I was looking to hire out ours for a few weeks to help cover costs etc, mainly after reading this and other threads.

Today I called Comfort insurance for a quote. I mentioned the hiring out and would be using a Pay as You Drive insurance provider. The very friendly lady told me they would not insure me if I had any intention of hiring out and further more said it was illegal as no vehicle can be dual insured in the UK. More importantly she said neither insurance would be valid.

On her suggestion I called a company called Tradex who quoted £2500 for a self-drive and hire out policy, i.e. anyone over 25. The guy thought I'd be better off with a normal policy and PAYD for the hiring, he disputed the dual insurance issue and said this is a conflict on the National database and could be dealt with by a simple phone call to your insurance provider to let them know.

Lastly I called CaravanGuard. They too picked up on the dual insurance and went further to say that PAYD or Day Insurance was almost a scam as they cannot insure a vehicle already insured. There suggestion was to name the driver and put them on the insurance for a week.

Thoughts?

I don't think name the driver and put on insurance would work as most insurers have a for hire or reward clause. If they can avoid a payout they will!!

 

[Monty Blanc]

Hi,

Given that some people in this thread are thinking about renting their Cali out I thought I’d share some of the things we learnt from renting our converted van out:

1 The cleaning between hardback and handover can be a pinch point (for back to back rentals, which you will probably have in the summer if you promote it well. We made it much easier by having two sets of ‘van-kit’ (bed covers, pans and cooking stuff, utensils etc) and simply emptied the van into one box and filled it again from another. The kit could then be cleaned ‘at our leisure’ so it was just a case of cleaning the van inside & outside.


2. Gumtree, AirBnb and similar local sites are great for low-cost advertising


3 Renting to the weekend crowd can be better for several reasons (most other rental companies only want to rent for a week in peak season, you can rent for a weekend and but almost as much for a shorter period. We even did a couple of mid-weeks in-between two weekends and so the weekly yield was better). The weekend crowd seem to look after things better, mostly they’re going somewhere to do something like climbing, riding, walking etc. They eat dinner in a pub and just make cups of tea in the van. The weekly or longer rental crowd seem to get more comfortable in their surroundings and take less care.


4 It was a pain in the backside for us when people returned the van empty (we’re some way from a petrol station). So we introduced a hefty surcharge for returning the van less than full. It came back full every time after that which saved us almost an hour driving to get it filled up and then back again.


5 You can increase your weekly yield nicely by offering driveway awnings - but just be aware that showing people how to put it up / attach, detach it and how to take it down and fold it up can be a time-consuming exercise … especially if they’re not seasoned campers


6 Including a couple of head torches is a low-cost way of making the experience a bit more premium - hardly any of our renters had their own and had not thought about needing them for walking back from the pub etc.


7 Another nice add-on is selling payg wifi dongle things. I’ve forgotten the company but there are several you can buy from wholesale and make another £20/30 per week.


8 If you have a bike rack on the back, put a couple of hefty bike locks in the van - this might just mean a potential bike thief moves on to another van rather than breaking the locks on the VW bike rack (which would be a pain to sort)…

9 We fitted the van with a dash-cam, under the rational that it would help our customers out if they were in a any kind of accident. I'm pretty certain this also had the effect of making them drive more carefully.

10. We also had a reversing camera fitted - useful if you're not used to reversing this size of vehicle

H

Given that some people in this thread are thinking about renting their Cali out I thought I’d share some of the things we learnt from renting our converted van out:

1 The cleaning between hardback and handover can be a pinch point (for back to back rentals, which you will probably have in the summer if you promote it well. We made it much easier by having two sets of ‘van-kit’ (bed covers, pans and cooking stuff, utensils etc) and simply emptied the van into one box and filled it again from another. The kit could then be cleaned ‘at our leisure’ so it was just a case of cleaning the van inside & outside.


2. Gumtree, AirBnb and similar local sites are great for low-cost advertising


3 Renting to the weekend crowd can be better for several reasons (most other rental companies only want to rent for a week in peak season, you can rent for a weekend and but almost as much for a shorter period. We even did a couple of mid-weeks in-between two weekends and so the weekly yield was better). The weekend crowd seem to look after things better, mostly they’re going somewhere to do something like climbing, riding, walking etc. They eat dinner in a pub and just make cups of tea in the van. The weekly or longer rental crowd seem to get more comfortable in their surroundings and take less care.


4 It was a pain in the backside for us when people returned the van empty (we’re some way from a petrol station). So we introduced a hefty surcharge for returning the van less than full. It came back full every time after that which saved us almost an hour driving to get it filled up and then back again.


5 You can increase your weekly yield nicely by offering driveway awnings - but just be aware that showing people how to put it up / attach, detach it and how to take it down and fold it up can be a time-consuming exercise … especially if they’re not seasoned campers


6 Including a couple of head torches is a low-cost way of making the experience a bit more premium - hardly any of our renters had their own and had not thought about needing them for walking back from the pub etc.


7 Another nice add-on is selling payg wifi dongle things. I’ve forgotten the company but there are several you can buy from wholesale and make another £20/30 per week.


8 If you have a bike rack on the back, put a couple of hefty bike locks in the van - this might just mean a potential bike thief moves on to another van rather than breaking the locks on the VW bike rack (which would be a pain to sort)…

9 We fitted the van with a dash-cam, under the rational that it would help our customers out if they were in a any kind of accident. I'm pretty certain this also had the effect of making them drive more carefully.

10. We also had a reversing camera fitted - useful if you're not used to reversing this size of vehicle

Hi,
thank you for taking the time to detail your experience.

Who do you insure the van through and do you use a pay as you go policy for rentals or can you recommend a broker who can provide a commercial renters policy.

Many thanks for your help with this.

Monty