RENTERS BEWARE! I know it is very enticing to see a 2019 RV for rent here on Outdoorsy! It caught our eye for sure! We ended up renting it for 4 nights and overall I would have to say that we would CERTAINLY NOT recommend renting this RV.Our Experience:The initial communication was very welcoming and very nice. We made our reservation June 10th for a reservation starting on July 3rd.June 27th: I contacted the owner asking about the freezer and if it can keep popsicles frozen because we knew it was gonna be a hot july 4th weekend in the desert. It was not until that time that we were told that the refrigerator and freezer in the new RV was broken and that it would not be ready for our trip. They also told me they already bought a minifridge to make up for it and put it in the RV. I didn’t want to go searching for a new RV and I didn’t want to cancel our plans so we decided we were ok sacrificing the space a minifridge would take inside the RV in exchange for a refund of the $75 RV delivery fee.NOTE: at the end of the day the minifridge was too small and we ended up having to buy lots of regular ice and dry ice (not cheap) for our frozen items.July 3rd: Initial walkthru. Everything was nice and clean. The kitchen sink faucet was super wobbly. they plugged in the clean water and electric.July 4th: I texted the owner because the shower was not draining. It was also when we were showering when noticed the shower head mount was super loose and just dangling. After some back and forth we determined that we just needed to hookup the drain and flush the gray water. From then on the communication with them was not the best.Later on I asked how to put the kitchen table down as a bed because it was not coming out as easily as I have been able to in other RVs. Her response to my text irked me a little but I let it go. I did say I didn’t need a demonstration because it is pretty basic and I figured that the instructions would be in the instructional manual they left if I really needed it. I attached screenshot of the text for reference.July 5th 8:13am I receive a text from the owner asking if there were any issues. At this point it basically felt like were babysitting her precious new RV instead of PAYING her good money to rent the RV. There were little things that we noticed that were not working properly since she asked if we had any issues I let her know. Her response to me was baffling.Here is the word for word exchange via text (I have attached screenshots as well):8:13am
Owner: Morning!! Everything going well? Any issues?8:17am
Me: Everything is going well. Little things are annoying that we saw already when we did the walk thru. Like the kitchen sink* kinda dances and it’s hard to consistently get the temp water u want. I went up for cold and almost burned my hand. Had to move it around to finally get cold. Also the ac air pressure is really weak in the back. Besides that no issues. emptying regularly as instructed.
8:26am
Owner: Yeah, it’s an RV, not a house. You guys are the second family to have rented it, so its brand new. The ac pressure in the back is weak, probably because you’ve opened all the little vents throughout the coach. If you were to close those little ones, leave the big one open and open the little one in the bedroom, it would be stronger. Little trial and error things. Also, an RV AC unit doesn’t cool things down like a home, it only cools it down maybe 20 degrees lower than the outside air temp.8:27am
Owner: Have you been shutting off the water heater when you light it? The water heater only gets to 120 degreesI found her response to be condescending to say the least. I’d also like to note that we didn’t touch any of the air vents….July 7th: Pickup and Walk ThruOwners arrived around noon (on time) to pick up the rv and do the end of trip walk thru. We walked around the entire outside of the rv and opened up storage, electric and drain cabins to check. Went inside the RV and both owners walked around and looked throughout the RV prior letting me know that there are no issues but told me that our security deposit will be held for 7 days if there are any claims.July 10th: I received a claim from the owners against my security deposit for $175. Here is the claim below:“Hello, We have to charge for the excessive cleaning fee for the RV. It took 4 hours to clean the RV this morning. There was jelly stuck to the floors and seat cushions, play dough (or something like it) on the floor, hair and excessive dirt on the floor, there was hair in the drain of the shower, games pieces were missing from the cat game, crayon boxes were torn up, there was trash left in the cab bunk, dirty solo cups in the storage department, grease on the backsplash, trash in the trash can, etc. We leave cleaning supplies in the RV so the RV can be cleaned on return as stated in the conditions in the rental agreement. Please let me know if there are any questions regarding this! Thank you!”My issues with this claim:1. We PREPAID a $75 cleaning fee - so what is this fee for?
2. We cleaned the RV prior to pickup - because thats how we roll
3. Owners did not mention anything about excessive dirt and hair on the floors or hair in the shower drain during final walkthru (because there was none)
4. If it was supposedly bad enough to make a monetary claim for excessive cleaning, it should have been VERY obvious during final walkthru. Excessive dirt and hair on the floor? what a joke.
5. We emptied any trash we had while we were cleaning. If there was any left, it would have been very minimal and left by accident. Doubtful it would be significant enough to file a monetary claim for leaving excess trash behind
6. Her cat game was missing a piece already. We didn’t say anything as they were provided for “Free” but next time we will speak up because owners will try to bill you for stuff that was already lost
7. “Grease on the blacksplash” IMO that would fall into the covered $75 cleaning fee. (btw we also cleaned the stove so it would have been minimal. I really feel the owners are getting extremely nitpicky or completely forgot that we paid a cleaning fee.
8. “Hair in the shower drain.” Need I say more?We are fighting their claim and we ABSOLUTELY DO NOT recommend that anyone rent from these owners. They may be inherently nice people but their expectations as first time RV owners and “landlords” are way off. We left the RV in a nice tidy condition to make sure we were well within a $75 cleaning charge. This is a complete joke. Unless you plan to park the RV in a garage, camp with booties on, and only cook outside, expect a claim on your security deposit. You've been warned.
