Anyone interested in a longer term hire, rather than buying? (1 Viewer)

[pinkie]

Hi,

Right, i am looking to buy a motorhome to rent for longer term hirers (1 month+) for the snowbird market to overwinter in the sun.

So i have to pose the question, is anyone (obviously those who havent bought yet) interested in using a motorhome hire that will deliver to your door, so you can load at leisure for your trip abroad, and if so, what would your 'must haves' be in deciding to book?

The font of knowledge that this forum has is greatly appreciated!

 

[Rob and Val]

Hi, Pinkie

For the cost of renting for 1 month+ you'd be well on your way to BUYING an older second-hand mo-ho. If you bought an older mo-ho it would give you the opportunity to see if you enjoy the lifestyle. If you do, then you could trade it in for a younger model (where have I heard that phrase before!) or, if you find out that motorhoming is not for you, you could sell it - possibly even at a profit as prices rise depending on the season.

 

[androidGB]

I suppose the only thing that may be against this idea is that a prolonged rental of say 4-5 months may work out more expensive that buying a van and reselling.

Especially if they bought in the Autumn and resold in the Spring


Andrew

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[pinkie]

Thanks guys and understood.

Im thinking more perhaps for people who have a smaller budget and/or dont want to put down a load of cash/be bothered with buying and selling etc....

I would have thought there must be some people who would prefer to hire than buy....although what do i know? I have been known to get it wrong!

 

[Gaston aires]

Hi I looked into this once before and I found the insurance costs were astronomical.
This is why the rental costs are so high I guess.
There are companies which rent your vehicle as a package and they charge according to the season, length of hire etc. They only rent newer vans as well.
In the end I lost interest in the project.
Phil

 

[makems]

Both the above replies assume that a person has the financial wherewithal to actually buy a MH. It depends very much on how much the rental is going to be.
It needs to be significantly lower than some of the rental prices I have seen quoted previously which are the thick end of a grand per week.
Depends very much on the target market I suppose. You need to imagine who is likely to be attracted to such a deal and why they would rent a MH rather than say rent an apartment somewhere for a month which might be much cheaper

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[pinkie]

Good point makems, but its all about the journey isnt it? You see nothing flying and renting an apartment, and to be fair thats a totally different market.

Ok, im already 'just' doing camper hire in scotland, although i need to organise better for winter income.

I think even with rental apartments you would charge a fraction of weekly (x 52 ÷ 12 = ) rentals for long term over winter lets and the same applies to hire vehicles. So a £1000 a week van (£4333/month) would be hired for say £1500 a month.

Which i think makes it more do-able for people.

Thoughts please?

 

[pinkie]

Anyone?

 

[teddybear]

As the new Van was late arriving we decided to fly to Portugal and rent an apartment over Christmas, enjoyed it but,if we had been in the van would definitely not stop in the same place for so long.That is the difference between M/H and apartment hire

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[Four of us]

I think £1500 per month might attract people who want to give it a try. We were going to hire before we bought ours but didn't as it was soo expensive and the type of van we wanted wasn't available.

 

[Rolly]

Worth looking ERYRI motorhome s hire give you idea what they charge.

 

[MR. FUSION]

Just out of interest do you have a mileage cap or rate. Driving down to Spain and maybe touring could put a lot of miles on the van? At £1500 PCM is your insurance enough to cover a write off or major damage by the hirer ? What happens if the van needs recovery ?? What happens if the water pump packs up, I can see the local Spanish repairers greasing their palms with tourist rates!!

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[Snowbird]

I know a guy who does very nicely renting out classic VWs in the Lake district. But that is a specialist market. Some like the retro idea and are willing to pay for it. Personally, I always thought they were a pile of under-powered junk that were not fit for purpose.

 

[DBK]

I think it might be possible if you based yourself in Spain for the winter and people drove or flew down to collect the MH from you. By being local you would be in a better position to sort out problems. Of course you would then be running a business in Spain with all that that would entail.

 

[Figaro]

At £1500 per month i doubt there's much money to be made after you deduct your costs and doing it on a small scale.
Going rate for hiring a newish van is £100 per night (double) but you could probably negotiate a discount on that for a months rental.
Just my opinion

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[androidGB]

The other consideration is what van you would purchase.

You mentioned the Snowbird crowd in your original post, from that I took it to be those that go for 4-5 months.

I imagine they would prefer a large Euro van or an RV.

Also the posters who mentioned problems with the van in Spain make very good points, this could prove a nightmare to sort out from a distance.

Lots of things to ponder

Andrew

 

[MR. FUSION]

Just out of interest do you have a mileage cap or rate. Driving down to Spain and maybe touring could put a lot of miles on the van? At £1500 PCM is your insurance enough to cover a write off or major damage by the hirer ? What happens if the van needs recovery ?? What happens if the water pump packs up, I can see the local Spanish repairers greasing their palms with tourist rates!!

BTW I am not being doom & gloom, but I saw a hire van driven deep into a Spanish emergency escape pit last year. Easy mistake for novices particularly with the confusing signage and the fact the gravel was the same colour as the road surface Recovering that was going to be a major heavy-duty recovery operation......not sure what driving a van at 60 mph into tons of gravel would do to it....so this would hopefully all be covered by insurance.

 

[makems]

Good point makems, but its all about the journey isnt it? You see nothing flying and renting an apartment, and to be fair thats a totally different market.

Ok, im already 'just' doing camper hire in scotland, although i need to organise better for winter income.

I think even with rental apartments you would charge a fraction of weekly (x 52 ÷ 12 = ) rentals for long term over winter lets and the same applies to hire vehicles. So a £1000 a week van (£4333/month) would be hired for say £1500 a month.

Which i think makes it more do-able for people.

Thoughts please?

I dont think the likely prospects for MH rental are the same as apartment rental. But I made the point to make you think about what WHY someone would want to rent long term and what sort of person that might be. You have to work back from this perspective to define your market properly. Then you need to decide whether that market exists in sufficient numbers to be commercially viable, how to access that market and what price would be attractive to those potential customers.
At that point you can start working out whether this is a viable business or not.
@John Laidler makes a really good point that this might be a market better run from Spain than Scotland if you are targetting the 3-5 month snowbirds.

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[deleted-member02]

Also worth bearing in mind that a good Spanish apartment might only be 450-500 euros a month to rent during the winter months.
Think motorhome hire at 1500 is a hard sell in comparison...

 

[pinkie]

Just seen all these points, thanks guys.

Ultimately i want to create winter income so i can spend winters abroad myself, but looking at all your comments there are probably easier ways.

Decided to do a 'budget' tour of spain in june from barcelona to cadiz in the vw t5 probably driving back up through portugal and then make a decision....but i shall possibly wait another year and get a mortgage on a holiday rental in spain instead.

Breakages on a depreciating asset are indeed painful!

 

[Robert Clark]

but i shall possibly wait another year and get a mortgage on a holiday rental in spain instead.

Nooooo !!!!!

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[MattR]

Nooooo !!!!!

As he says. Market is saturated. Not helped by Brexit.

 

[Figaro]

wait another year and get a mortgage on a holiday rental in spain instead.

There are so many pitfalls in doing that.........but were sounding a really negative bunch on here having already put you off a moho for rental.
Just tread carefully and make sure the numbers add up, then get someone who knows the market and you trust to advise you.

 

[Robert Clark]

I've often thought that if I was going to invest in another business, it would be a camperstop.

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[pinkie]

Snowbird,
I looked at the old vw campers before being advised what a nightmare they are in maintenance before getting my t5.

With campers you need a lot of vans to make proper money and obviously a short season.

Its not easy......!

 

[pinkie]

Yeah i know the market is saturated in Spain but i was thinking 'city'.....but thats for the future, im not rushing into anything (for a change )

If it was for me i would go motorhome everytime, as it suits my travelling nature, but it's the income factor.

Meant to say thanks Makems for another useful post!

 

[gus-lopez]

[QUOTE="makems, post: 2312522, member: 18264"
@John Laidler makes a really good point that this might be a market better run from Spain than Scotland if you are targetting the 3-5 month snowbirds.[/QUOTE]

& the thing is with Spain that it would be better done with a Spanish registered /insured vehicle as it is the vehicle that is insured. Anyone who is over the requisite age can drive it.
Go on milanuncios & you will find 00's of private owners who rent there Mh' s as the insurance basically covers anyone .

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[MattR]

Yeah i know the market is saturated in Spain but i was thinking 'city'.....but thats for the future, im not rushing into anything (for a change )

If it was for me i would go motorhome everytime, as it suits my travelling nature, but it's the income factor.

Meant to say thanks Makems for another useful post!

I think that AirB&B has probably killed profit from short term lets in many cities; the market doesn't have demand for so many more rooms being available.

 

[pinkie]

I think that AirB&B has probably killed profit from short term lets in many cities; the market doesn't have demand for so many more rooms being available.

I would beg to differ on that....quality apartments in good locations are always in demand. Airbnb has opened things up but the rentals are so variable.