Motorhome Rental Group... (1 Viewer)

[AndyRiff]

Hi,

We are thinking of renting out our MH, just came across the Motorhome Rental Group, has anyone had any dealings with them or others?

 

[DanielFord]

Hi,

We are thinking of renting out our MH, just came across the Motorhome Rental Group, has anyone had any dealings with them or others?

Not heard of, or used them, but I did a few searches for them using my resources. They are not a limited company, not in itself an issue, but always makes me suspicious.
They don't own any vans, they are simply an agent renting their customers vans. Personally I don't like that arrangement. I'd be inclined to advise you to look to a rental company that owns their own vans, that you can inspect prior to rental.

 

[wigster]

I think they want to rent there own van out i maybe wrong often am

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[TheBig1]

once you have seen how some folk treat rental vans you will change your mind. taking all the costs involved, including rental insurance, repairs, servicing and depreciation, its a lot of hassle for the amount of income

a chap i knew locally set up such a rental agency 10 or more years ago and tried to talk me into buying a van to rent out. I did the figures and although the weekly income looked good, the costs and hassle involved put me off.

say you rented the van out and it was trashed inside, written off, badly damaged or stolen, then you have to factor in the loss of income and letting future bookings down. my aquaintance was telling me he had seen and dealt with the consequences of all those things over a couple of years. put me right off though

 

[PP Bear]

Met a really nice couple on a site who had arrived in a rented motorhome. They had 3 very young kids and a dog and were totally new to motorhoming and wanted to give it a try.

I popped over to see them as we'd got chatting and they were asking my advice and you'd be horrified at how they were treating it. Mud, muck and 3 small kids meant that the interior was coming in for some harsh use and lots of spillages, mud from the dog, dirty kitchen area and cooker etc.

To make matters worse, the guy couldn't judge the width of the vehicle and had run the near side into a bus (that had stopped to pick up passengers). The bus had stopped with its steering wheel turned to the right, in preparation for pulling out guess, and the motorhome had scraped its way along the exposed tire. The front bumper was cracked, as was the mirror and mirror guard and the entire near side had black rubber scrapped along the side.

When he showed me the damage and asked my advice, I told him to contact the company and report the issue (I don't even know if he had stopped at the time, or had just driven on from the bus). I helped him t-cut the rubber scraps from the side, but couldn't do anything about the scratches, the cracked bumper and damaged mirror.

You have to remember that no one will treat your beloved vehicle like yourselves. Most who rent, will be doing it either as a whim (and they've always wanted to try it) or are thinking of getting their own motorhome at some stage. Nearly all will be complete novices and not have the care or skill that you have, when it comes to looking after the vehicle.

The guy lost his deposit I believe, but he didn't seem that worried, but imagine if it had been your motorhome and returned in need of a full deep interior clean and repairs too.

Not only that, I'd hate the idea of a load of strangers sleeping in my bed and using my loo and shower. Wouldn't rent out my home, so the same applies to my motorhome.

Good luck if you decide to go down that route and keep us posted.

 

[Geo]

Dont

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[Peter JohnsCross MH]

Dont, would you let a stranger into your home on an ad hoc casual basis?

Peter

 

[MillieMoocher]

Not heard of the company you mention.

Personally I'd not want to rent out our MH, but as a source of income it might work out positive for you to buy another MH just for rental, that way you can get an income which hopefully outweighs the depreciation over the period of ownership and then sell the MH on after 2 or 3 years and start the process again.

We hired a MH from Motorholme a couple of years back, and they put this proposition forward. Not for us though...too much effort.

But if you do want to look into it, this link might be helpful

http://www.motorholme.co.uk/free1.asp

(Edit - this takes you to their home page, click on the "owners" tab to get to the bit I'm on about)

I don't have any association with the company, and am not saying it's a good or bad proposition. Just trying to help!

 

[deleted-member02]

I wouldn't fancy six lively adults taking my 8m Burstner to a festival for a week.
Seen some shocking occurrences over the years, broken windows and awnings, overflowing cassettes, sun loungers on the roof and so on...
Think carefully before letting out your pride and joy!

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[cornish boy]

Not heard of, or used them, but I did a few searches for them using my resources. They are not a limited company, not in itself an issue, but always makes me suspicious.

I took a quick look in the T&C's, the company is registered - Company Registration Number 05921160. I checked on Companies House and the registration is up-to-date.

In answer to AndyRiff's question.
The only other things I noticed when taking a look was that they are very clear that the rental agreement is between the owner (you) and the hirer and MRG are only acting as an agent. Not that unusual, but does mean that technically you have to deal with any issues that arise during and post rental.

 

[mikebeaches]

We acted as 'managers' for a friend who decided to buy a new family-size van to let out. We had the space at home to store it and it was before we had our own van, so could use it when it wasn't on hire.

It proved popular and was out for much of the summer. But boy did it pick up some scrapes and damage, both inside and out. Nothing quite serious enough to put it off the road, but all pretty stressful nonetheless. And getting spare parts for MHs is not always a quick process. I don't think it ever went on a single hire without returning undamaged.

It is as others have mentioned, folk are not familiar with driving such a large van or don't realise how fragile they are, or are perhaps just plain careless. We queried a dent and scratch in a side panel of the van - 'oh one of the kid's bikes fell over on it'. Another one, 'oh we caught the roof on the canopy in the filling station', and so it went on...

There was a tracker in the vehicle which could be monitored live online - used google maps and gave constant speed read-out. Remember one trip it went to Barcelona and we could see it doing over 80mph for hours at a time down the autoroute.

No, I don't think we'll be renting our van out any time soon...

 

[Silver-Fox]

Is it only me that treats a hired MoHo as his own

As and when we get a MoHo no way on earth would i rent it out, especially seeing how some people treat their own vehicles.

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[DanielFord]

I took a quick look in the T&C's, the company is registered - Company Registration Number 05921160. I checked on Companies House and the registration is up-to-date.

I found it now, I did a search for the name motorhome rental group, but the company has a slightly different name.
They definitely don't own any vans, their reported assets are tiny, less than £10,000, but they seem to owe a lot of money to the bank!

 

[cornish boy]

I found it now, I did a search for the name motorhome rental group, but the company has a slightly different name.
They definitely don't own any vans, their reported assets are tiny, less than £10,000, but they seem to owe a lot of money to the bank!

It looks like the money is in fact owed to the parent company - Universal Motorhomes Limited. Difficult with abbreviated accounts to see too much although first impressions is that the parent company is viewing their shareholding in the child company as an asset. It may of course have a huge T/O and customer base which is viewed as valuable in terms of goodwill if sold, but abbreviated accounts make it near impossible to tell.

Edit.
As a thought, the parent company may have invested in some motorhomes which they have 'loaned' to the child company to rent out as method of protection from the Charge held over the child company by the bank.

 

[AndyRiff]

Dont, would you let a stranger into your home on an ad hoc casual basis?

Peter

We own a pub

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[TheBig1]

We own a pub

so you are used to mopping out vomit and getting stains out of furnishings

 

[Peter JohnsCross MH]

We own a pub

You shoud be good for fellow Funsters to overnight in the Car Park then !

Peter

 

[AndyRiff]

You shoud be good for fellow Funsters to overnight in the Car Park then !

Peter

At the mo we are a Brit stop but won't be in this years book B)

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[maxi77]

It looks like the money is in fact owed to the parent company - Universal Motorhomes Limited. Difficult with abbreviated accounts to see too much although first impressions is that the parent company is viewing their shareholding in the child company as an asset. It may of course have a huge T/O and customer base which is viewed as valuable in terms of goodwill if sold, but abbreviated accounts make it near impossible to tell.

Edit.
As a thought, the parent company may have invested in some motorhomes which they have 'loaned' to the child company to rent out as method of protection from the Charge held over the child company by the bank.

It is also a means of letting the child company fold without putting the parent companies assets at risk. It has happened that child company fails and a second child company appears overnight using the parents assets again, with little recoverable for the creditors of child 1.

 

[Minxy]

At the mo we are a Brit stop but won't be in this years book B)

Why is that? Will you still let MHs stay?

 

[Cotswoldiver]

I did this with my last VW. Mainly to help with the ever escalating running costs. Not through this company but another that basically just set up and supported the website and negotiated the insurance - think of it as a holiday cottage letting website just with wheels instead of bricks. I had it listed at a premium hire rate, took out an additional insurance policy for each hire in the hirer's name, arranged a separate RAC breakdown cover and always had the right to let or not to let. The aim was to rent it out a maximum of 3 times a year. I certainly didn't make a bundle of money doing this but it covered the cost of having power assisted steering fitted and a couple of other bits and bobs .... but and in my opinion its a huge but even though I had a tracker fitted that the hirer was not told about, the income did not compensate for all the worry and sleepless nights and also how it restricts you when the vehicle is hired because you are the point of contact. I did this for two seasons but even though my Autosleeper on paper is more reliable than the VW there is no way that I would ever consider renting it out to the general public

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[cornish boy]

It is also a means of letting the child company fold without putting the parent companies assets at risk. It has happened that child company fails and a second child company appears overnight using the parents assets again, with little recoverable for the creditors of child 1.

Yep, once HRMC, the VAT man and the bank under the terms of the charge have had their feeding frenzy there normally isn't much for the creditors. And just to add insult to injury, you still need to pay the VAT element of your invoice at the end of the VAT quarter knowing that you are likely at best to only get 1p in the £1.

 

[Ksagic]

If you LOVE your own MH then the simple advice is DO NOT...

 

[treetops1]

We rented a van before buying one ,it was 10 months old it was a death trap ,apart from spending a few hrs every day refitting doors .light fitting ,we never was shown round the van they just took our rental ,insurance and £500 bond .I got the van for 1week we went to France ,after one day I found the steering in the rain was impossible the front end was so light I was skimming over the puddles we ended up going back to Calais for 4days which we enjoyed then took the van back .All the pans were rusty . The mattress had a big hollow in the middle .i could not open a rear locker with most of our clothes until we took it back and they spent half an hour opening it . The people who had used it before must have animals .I did not complain as the van was not being maintained for fear of getting the blame we were happy to get our £500 bond back.Regards buying a van to allow someone to rent it ,I would first reccomend having an injection in the brain . But we did realise it was for us and we love it but the kids can borrow the house when we are away ,they can use our cars ,but even the pet lips ,they will never be able to borrow the van that's cast in stone and if they cannot nobody can .

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[Peter JohnsCross MH]

Yep, once HRMC, the VAT man and the bank under the terms of the charge have had their feeding frenzy there normally isn't much for the creditors. And just to add insult to injury, you still need to pay the VAT element of your invoice at the end of the VAT quarter knowing that you are likely at best to only get 1p in the £1.

If its a bad debt or unpaid invoice you can reclaim any unpaid VAT

Peter

 

[cornish boy]

If its a bad debt or unpaid invoice you can reclaim any unpaid VAT

Peter

We digress from the OP's question but you still have to pay the VAT at the end of the VAT quarter even where there is no chance of the invoice being settled either in full or partially.
You can claim VAT relief on written off invoices (or part values) due to insolvency but only after the statutory six months has past from the date you accept that ownership of the goods invoiced transferred to the debtor or the invoice was due, whichever is the later.

 

[Wildbill]

Would I rent a house my van it's been a to old to rent out but if it was no no no never
Seem one come back to a company at Askern near Doncaster can't describe the mess it was in broken units filthy disgusting and mess
The toilet was a full so thay used the bin
There excuse the had scratches the side weren't getting deposit bake so didn't care
Bill

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