An RV is a fantastic way to vacation and do it your way. You control where you go, what you see, what and when you eat, and even where you sleep. But, you still pay for insurance, licensing, and taxes on your RV throughout the year, even if you use it for just a few days of the year. What if you could rent your RV and earn up to $17,000 a year to not only pay for these costs, but earn you a second income? This idea is taking RV owners by storm.
Sharing Physical Assets Through a Peer-To-Peer Economy
Unless you’ve lived under a rock for the past few years, you know about Uber, a taxi cab alternative. With Uber, an app on your smartphone hails a ride from private individuals who are using their own vehicles and are registered as Uber drivers. The Uber app uses time and distance to compare rates and gives you the best deal.
Uber is based on a new economic concept called collaborative consumption, a basis for peer-to-peer businesses such as Uber, in which the underlying theory is that by sharing a physical asset normally not in use, you boost the value of your piece of property. Conversely, when an asset, such as an RV, is not used, its value is wasted.
Considering your RV, each month it’s sucking money from your hard-earned paycheck. It also drops in value with each month that it ages. So, while it sits idle, you’re spending money on a piece of property, which is conversely losing its total valuation. You’re in a lose-lose situation, because you’re spending money on property that continually drops in valuation.
A primary concept behind collaborative consumption is that when you separate the value of an asset—in this case, your RV—from your immediate possession, money has a chance of changing hands and everyone comes out ahead. You make additional cash on an asset that was idle and someone else gets to enjoy your RV while they’re on vacation. It’s a plus-plus proposition.
This type of arrangement involves sharing. You share the use of your RV with someone, who in turn pays you to enjoy the comfortable transportation and the instant housing capability of your RV. Trust is required. You need to trust an entity to provide you with RV-rental candidates who respect the value of your RV and handle it as if it was their own rig. There is a risk, so insurance is required for this idea to work correctly.
There Now is an Uber for RVs
The Uber concept was adapted to lodging with Airbnb, except that instead of getting from one place to another using private people who are driving their vehicles, you rent an apartment, or home for a night or a week from a private property owner.
Think of it as getting a hotel room from a private individual, instead of from a hotel company. So, if there is an Uber for transportation and an Airbnb for lodging, why isn’t there a similar entity for RVs?
Actually, a peer-to-peer entity exists for RVs. The first such enterprise to create such a business was
RVshare.com, which began offering RVs from North American private owners in August 2014. Because RVshare is the first to provide this service, it’s also the most trusted and the largest peer-to-peer RV rental business in the world.
The sharing nature of a collaborative consumption peer-to-peer business model works well with RVs. According to the Recreational Vehicle Industry Association, over 9 million United States (U.S.) households owned an RV in 2015 and the average owner spent anywhere from $5,000 for a tent trailer to $500,000 for an A Class motorhome in order to use their RV for only three weeks a year. There are huge numbers of idle RVs that could earn their owners an income.
What Kind of Money Does an RV Produce?
The income you earn depends on the type of RV you own and what area of the country you live in. For instance, average per day rental prices run from $75 to $175 for tent trailers, from $125 to $250 per day for Class C RVs, and from $150 to over $300 per day for Class A RVs.
Listing your RV for rent is free. RVShare takes a commission as low as 15 percent after money is earned on your rental. A secure payment system through RVShare processes rental payments and security deposits from renters, which moves funds directly into your bank account.
Now, imagine that instead of your Class C RV sitting in your driveway collecting leaves falling off trees, you rented it out when you weren’t using it.
If you set your rental price at $250 per day, a six-day rental would produce a gross total of $1,500. Add several rental bookings up and in one year you could easily earn a net income of $17,000. One Class A RV owner says he earned nearly $68,000 in income for the year, which isn’t bad for a piece of property that normally sits idle.
For almost all RV owners, the rental income pays for the RV’s monthly finance payments. The average RV owner earns between $10,000 and $20,000 per year in extra income renting out their RV when they aren’t using it.
The Bottom Line
Modern RVs take the comfort of users’ homes into a vacation setting. By sharing your RV with renters, you let them enjoy this unique vacation experience. Better yet, you make money on an asset that usually eats up a portion of your hard-earned income.
Instead of sitting in your driveway, aging, your RV is earning you additional revenue. Using the peer-to-peer enterprise, RVShare, is a win-win situation for all involved.
For more information and to find out how much you can earn renting your RV check out
RVshare today.
