Outdoorsy

Outdoorsy claims that your RV is protected but it's not. We had renters do extensive interior damage and refused to pay.

Outdoorsy said that they didn't take interior insurance and although Outdoorsy sided with us they made us go to arbitration and knew that in their contract it states because we are Canadian that it's optional.

The renters decided that they weren't going to arbitration and Outdoorsy basically didn't have our backs. We have been fighting with Outdoorsy now for 6 months. We are out thousands of dollars for damage and lost income because Outdoorsy didn't follow through on what the contract states.

The deposit that the renters give was also just given back to the renters. That was our insurance that we should have gotten to help with some of the damage. This company is messed up and completely shady practices.

Outdoorsy even stated in an email to us that the insurance is to protect their guests. What Outdoorsy needs to remember is that without their owners then they don't have a company.

If you love your van, do not use Outdoorsy. It is a horrible service, as I have had a couple of bad experiences with renters who are never vetted, do not know how to operate the vehicle and have brought it back with damages.

The insurance they provide has minimal coverage, read the fine print. This is not worth it, I will never use it again.

I would not use this service. We tried to and the owner was very responsive. But after payment he ghosted us. Had to get the company involved and it’s like pulling teeth. We still don’t know if we have the RV because the owner is now being sketchy.

I think they get cancellation fees if we cancel so maybe they are that I don’t know, all I know is that we are being treated poorly and don’t have any rights. Although we will be calling the credit card company to let them know.

Do not rent a vehicle from Outdoorsy. You are only a pawn in a large $$$$ grab by unresponsive Outdoorsy. I rented a Van, the owner sent me Venmo Requests for unauthorized fees to my direct cell # and filed a claim for interior "damage" against my deposit. The owner is clearly a scammer and part of their business is ABNB.

Outdoorsy CS will tell you blah blah blah the customer is the is in their best interest. Stay away from this company at all costs.

RENTERS BEWARE!!! I am an experienced camper and rented one through Outdoorsy for my extended family to use when they visited. However the first camper I tried to rent because it said it was available suddenly became unavailable.

The owner said he had another one coming that was brand new and of course cost more to rent. I went ahead and reserved it not knowing what a piece of crap the camper would be.

Then things broke on it. I was charged almost all of my $500 deposit to replace items that should have been covered under a warranty. Outdoorsy has done nothing but give me the run around even though I have emailed and called multiple times.

They also have no way on their site for me to remove my credit card info so I’ll be calling them to take that off immediately. This company does nothing to protect the renter even though they force you to buy insurance. I’ll never rent through them again.

Recently rented an RV through Outdoorsy.com and found it to be the biggest SCAM company ever! Better hope you don’t have to file a claim as YOU will be left paying the bill regardless of being forced to purchase insurance upfront!

Conveniently, the deductible is MORE than the cost of the claim!! No repairs allowed – just FULL REPLACEMENT COST charged to us in the amount of $2331 for a $200 part! BIGGEST SCAM COMPANY ON THE PLANET!!!

Do not go here. So far, the only thing Outdoorsy has done well is take my credit card and personal private data necessary to use the credit card.

They can't get my drivers license loaded, they want to use facial recognition to prove it's me. It won't work if you've changed your haircut, gotten glasses, gotten a tan, had a laser skin peel, fixed your teeth. But after you try and do it a few times, you call them.

They make you do it a few more times while they are on the phone.. "Well honey maybe you didn't do it right, it's a new thing called 'technology'". It's too late to cancel, so they tell you to send them a few photos of yourself to prove it's you.

Experts recommend you not send photos of yourself to strangers, but Outdoorsy doesn't think it's weird. Obviously I'm not going to use them again, and I feel terribly exposed and unsafe.

OWNER BEWARE! Outdoorsy does not cover you if a renter FLOODS your camper! Our last renter did not know what they were doing so they left the water running and left the camper. When they came back the camper was flooded!

We now have thousands of dollars worth of damage and Outdoorsy will not pay for it because it is considered interior damage!!!! We thought $500 was a good enough security deposit amount. IT IS NOT!

And do not be fooled by their "fair claims" legal team thinking they will be on your side because they won't! Save yourself the same heartbreak and financial ruin that befell us and don't rent your camper out on Outdoorsy!

I would never rent anything from the Outdoorsy website again. RENTER BEWARE! I believe the company has unethical business practices in which they allow a camper owner to unilaterally arbitrarily charge renters whatever they want.

I rented a campervan, returned it, owner stated no damages (even complimented me on cleanliness), he lost the return form for us to confirm no damages, after leaving van in his possession he later charged for $870 in damages.

There’s no proof damages occurred during my rental period, nor any written estimate for damage repairs. This is a scam against renters, possibly an insurance scam. Owner asked me to sign a damage statement AFTER insurance company required it.

I refused, of course, but I was still charged. Company refuses to respond to any of my email concerns, only sending automated replies. Also, phone customer service kept forwarding me then keeping me on hold until I’d hang up (once for over an hour).

They prey on the fact you’ll give up. There’s other camper rental sites were honest and had amazing customer service... VanCraft is an example that greatness!!!

Renters beware! This review is for the 3 different parts of Outdoorsy that you may have to deal with: The vehicle owner, customer care support, and Outdoorsy business plan.

The summary if you want to skip he details: This is the worst company I’ve dealt with by far. They rely on things working well, but guess what, you are dealing with vehicles, they break, and you need to have a plan that protects both the RV owners and the renters when problems arise.

Betting on things working out well and disappearing when there is an accident or a car breaking down is not good business.

If I had this problem in the middle of the woods instead of in a straight road, I would have been seriously injured, and you would have washed your hands as you did.

Background: I rented a campervan through outdoorsy for 7 days to travel from Pennsylvania to the Smoky mountains, TN and back.

Within 24 hours, while being on a traffic jam in Virginia, 280 miles from my departure, the van’s brakes stopped working, the ABS and brake lights came on, and I almost crashed into the truck in front of me.

I assumed it was a brake line, because the brakes would barely work only when I pressed on the pedal all the way. Without brakes, I took the next exit from the highway into a gas station. I turned off the van.

When I turned it on again, the ‘engine check’ light came on, and the engine would only stay on as long as my foot was on the gas pedal, otherwise it would turn off. I took a video of the brake lights and sent it to the owner.

They quickly replied and discussed over the phone the problem. We all both agreed that it wasn’t safe to continue and that I needed towing assistance. This was a first for them and for me so we both reached to Outdoorsy.

I called the number for road assistance and they starting looking at verified service centers that could fix the van as well as a towing company to take me there.

I didn’t want to keep using that van, since 1) I wasn’t going to risk putting it through switchback roads in the woods and have another accident happen again, this time with a worse outcome.

And 2) I don’t know how long was going to take until they fix it, and I didn’t want to use my holiday time waiting for a vehicle that is not mine to be fixed.

I was then told that I would have to call Outdoorsy (a different number) to discuss this. So, I did.

The first person I talked to from customer care, after I explained the situation, she told me that it was up to me to decide what to do next, and that I could rent another RV, at my expense, to continue with my trip.

The other option was to rent a hotel, at my expense, while waiting for the van to be fixed. She also mentioned that I wouldn’t get my money back on the RV that broke down until I opened a dispute with the owner once everything settles.

When I challenged her that there is no way that I’m going to spend another dime through outdoorsy and that I wanted to speak to somebody with more knowledge about Outdoorsy’s policies, she put me on hold and then hung up on me.

I tried to contact again, this time with Vincent. He tried to help but he didn’t. Finally, while waiting for the towing company, I ended up talking to Jennifer. We spent a long time talking about options: The easiest solution (for them) is to rent another RV, but at my expense.

She said that she cannot guarantee that I will get my money back from the broken van unless the owner agreed to do it through their website so that there is proof.

This is a bad solution that Outdoorsy hasn’t even thought about, because your (personal) car is in a different location from where you are. You are trying to rent another vehicle 280 miles from where your car is.

So I asked these questions: If I rent another vehicle in Virginia, I will have to drive back to Pennsylvania to get my car. Will I be able to do that? Am I going to get charged for the extra mileage? The answer is that it would depend on the owner of the vehicle…

Obviously, this theoretical solution would never work, since no sensible vehicle owner is going to want to figure out a way to pick up their vehicle hours away from them, at their expense…

While Jennifer was looking for another vehicle, I contacted the owners again saying that unless there is proof that they will give me my money back, outdoorsy wouldn’t help much.

Thankfully, the owners understood the situation and sent me a message through the website confirming that I would get a refund. Back to Jennifer, there weren’t other vehicles available in the area.

The last option was to rent a car that I could take back to where my car is, and cancel my holidays, wait for it… at my expense. That is right.

If I needed help finding a rental (no internet where I was), or transporting me, my dog, and all the camping stuff for 1 week from the van to the rental, I was on my own.

Jennifer said that I could keep the receipts of everything and open a dispute with Outdoorsy after the fact. She was clearly empathetic with the situation but couldn’t be of much help because the company sucks.

At the end, my wife managed to rent a vehicle so I could go back to get my personal car and forget about this nightmare once for all.

In summary: -RV owners: I was lucky that these owners understood the situation and were as helpful as they could be. It was an old van, vehicles can break and you can’t predict that.

However, if they weren’t as cooperative as they were, this would have been an even more expensive problem. So, my recommendation is do not use Outdoorsy at all, but If you do, research the RV owners because you depend on them, and you cannot rely on Outdoorsy.

Outdoorsy customer care: It will depend on who you get that day. I was left hang to dry by one of them. Jennifer was as helpful as she could be. I could tell she was sorry for the inconvenience, but there isn’t much she could do given Outdoorsy’s lack of plan.

Outdoorsy business: This is the worst company I ever dealt with by far. They rely on things working well, but guess what, you are dealing with vehicles, they break, and you need to have a plan that protects both the RV owners and the renters when problems arise.

Betting on things working out well and disappearing when there is an accident or a car breaking down is not good business.

If I had this problem in the middle of the woods instead of in a straight road, I would have been seriously injured, and you would have washed your hands as you did.

I will open a dispute, and if you disappear (like in reviews from other customers) and do not take responsibility I’m going to sue you, not only for what you make me spend due to your lack of cooperation but also for the time off that you made me waste.