Question:
I am travelling to Vancouver on my honeymoon on June 10th for three weeks.
We would like to hire a very small camper van, large enough to sleep two
adults, to drive to the Rockies and back over a period of about two weeks. I
have done various searches on the Internet to look for reasonably priced
rental companies, but have only come up with very large campers costing over
a hundred dollars a day. Can anybody give me any advice, web addresses on
hiring a small camper van from Vancouver? Would we be better hiring in
advance, or would it be easier to find a van in Vancouver whilst we are
there? Is there a particular area of the city where there are plenty of
rental companies?
Answer:
-It is expensive to rent a camper. This is because you are renting
both the camper & the Truck. I just bought a truck & camper. The truck
is a 94 & the camper is new. It cost me over $30,000 for the pair, it
would have been over 50,000 if the truck was new. If I was willing to
rent it out (I'm not), I would charge over $100 a day as well. I have
some links to rentals on my web site at http://www.vancouver.hm. Your
best bet might be to try a private rental. If you can find someone
renting out an older one at a reasonable price that won't strand you,
it might be your best bet. These are available. If you email me (go to
my website & use the form), I could try to track some down. Your other
option is to buy an older one and then sell it to a dealer when you
leave. This might be a cost effective way for a 3 week period, but you
are likely to take at least a $2000 hit on the difference, so maybe
not, and you take a risk of mechanical breakdown.
-I don't wanna burst your bubble for your honeymoon plans, but you need a
reality check: you are simply not going to find an RV rental in June in Canada
for less than $100 a day. Most of the larger companies are charging $200+ per
day for a class "C" motorhome -- and that's with only a minimal mileage
allowance and there are tons of extra charges for cleaning, linen, utensils,
generator usage, etc.
Private rentals may be available at a bit better rate than through the large
firms (check the classified ads daily at www.vancouversun.com -- that's
Vancouver's main daily newspaper; probably the most ads for RV rentals would
appear in the Friday and Saturday issues.)
Remember that large firms have service and support networks in place to help you
if you experience mechanical problems; Mr. John Doe who rented you his personal
RV out of his home in Vancouver is most certainly not going to travel up to
Banff to help you if his camper develops engine problems, and chances are you're
going to end up footing most of the repair bill (and lotsa luck getting a
reimbursement from Mr. Doe.) Also, make sure if renting privately that the
owner is properly insured for renting out his vehicle. Lots of owners try to
get by without telling their insurance company that they're renting out their RV
. . . then an accident happens, the insurance company becomes suspicious when
they find out that some guy from Europe was driving (while Mr. Doe was still
swilling beer on his front porch in Vancouver), uncovers the rental business,
and refuses to pay the claim. Mr. Doe might ultimately be stuck paying for the
repairs to his unit, but you would be on the hook personally for all damages and
injuries to the other vehicle(s) and its occupants. That, of course, could
easily run into the millions of dollars.
In any case, don't even THINK about trying to rent something at the last minute
in Vancouver. Most Canadians will be finalizing their summer vacation plans
about now and will be reserving for their own vacations; by mid-May any kind of
RV even remotely worth renting will be fully booked for the summer.
