Making money from your motorhome

[dunnah01]

I'm surprised at how 'cheap' motorhomes are to hire. A lot cheaper than hiring a canal boat! And not a massive amount more than hiring a decent car.

There clearly is money to be made by big hire companies though. You see loads at big events like Le Mans and F1 races and there is a big motorhome hire place in Inverness just for the NC500 trade. I imagine these companies get very good deals from motorhome manufacturers though and sell them on in a few years.

A fairly typical 4 berth motorhome form Just Go is £875 for 7 days mid September. I imagine most motorhome owners with a typical use of 4000 miles a year would save a lot of money by hiring instead of owning!

Just Go also ship all their vans out to New Zealand for 6 months of the year to double the length of their season.

 

[VXman]

Just listening to the podcast. It's just a advert for this guys particularly hire company who hires out your van and takes 50% .

 

[The Wino]

Just listening to the podcast. It's just a advert for this guys particularly hire company who hires out your van and takes 50% .

 

[The Wino]

Now that does sound a good way to make money. Someone else supplies the capital sorts out the repairs and takes all the risk and you take 50%for not doing a lot!

 

[UptheGas]

Well said,
I read the pod cast, you buy a £50-60k MoHo, you hand it to them, they hire it out you get £3k. over what a month?, a year?, or the 3 -5 years it’s rented out?, as they don’t want it after 5 years old. They said it works out at about 10% of the value.. well let’s say you paid £60k in 5 years at 15 k miles a year 75,000 miles in the clock, your 60k unit is now worth 30k tops, you made £6k tops, it’s had a new set of tyres and 5 services and habitation checks, you may need new mattresses and cushions and the drivers seats will be well worn, that’s cost you 3k.
So yes you made £3k and lost £30k value it’s just cost you £27k to let other people wear out your MoHo…the business model is great for them, they don’t have to outlay a penny and get you suckers to lay it all out instead while they coin in half of the rental money. Talk about money for old rope..
you would be mad to even think about it..

You also have to factor in that you wouldn’t be paying storage fees . living Locally I know a lot of those who place their motorhomes with them don’t have the space at home. Pretty sure they go half’s on the upkeep bills as well.
We discussed the possibility of it with Matt but decided against as it wasn’t for us but it’s not a bad deal if you don’t mind others using your Moho.
He‘s a very knowledgeable guy who knows what he’s talking about despite some of the comments on here.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[our poppy llll]

I understand what you are saying - up to a point. However, given current trends, a MH purchased today for £60k will still be worth a lot more than £30k in five years time. Our van is just 7 years old and I think we might well get back more or less every penny we spent buying it new, if we decided to sell it now. Admittedly, it has relatively low mileage; is quite a popular and well specified model; and which are like hens teeth to find.

But in any case, MHs do not depreciate at anything like the rate cars do, for example.

In 5 years, I would not pay anything like £60k on a Hired out MoHo. With even as little as 30k on the clock. Such a vehicle even if cared for exceptionally well, will have been hammered. I have sold 2 MoHo and bought my third and got as much as I paid for them but both only had 4k miles on the clock. people who are owner users will care for their Moho more because it’s their pride and joy.
What I can’t understand is why would you buy a Moho and let someone else rent it out and take 50% of the rental… let them buy their own Mohos to rent out, oh wait a min, too big a risk isn’t it. Let someone else have the risk. That’s their model.

 

[Ernesto]

I get that no one on here is into hiring out their van - I’m not for sure. These things are just so fragile and complex.

But IF someone wanted to hire it, say maybe it was the difference between being able to afford one and not, this way looks the most sensible I’ve heard of.

Buying and renting out is a mugs game - but renting on an agency basis is about the only way I could see it coming close to working.

 

[philann]

My brother had some he hired out, leased direct from the dealer and changed every few months. There was so much wear and tear and damage that he had to have one permanently on standby so that when a damaged one came in he still had a spare to go out with the next people who had booked otherwise he would have to cancel.
It got to too much hassle with people phoning at all hours with problems and expected him to drive to wherever they were and fix it immediately!

 

[mikebeaches]

My brother had some he hired out, leased direct from the dealer and changed every few months. There was so much wear and tear and damage that he had to have one permanently on standby so that when a damaged one came in he still had a spare to go out with the next people who had booked otherwise he would have to cancel.
It got to too much hassle with people phoning at all hours with problems and expected him to drive to wherever they were and fix it immediately!

Exactly so. And I know from first hand experience of managing and renting out someone else's van for them for almost a year.

 

[The Wino]

I must admit to not watching the video as I can't see us renting ours out but if they charge 50% on the rental it sounds pretty expensive compared to charges on holiday rental property. If there's a decent return why don't they buy their own fleet and rent them out the remaining 50% should easily cover the money costs?

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[mikebeaches]

I must admit to not watching the video as I can't see us renting ours out but if they charge 50% on the rental it sounds pretty expensive compared to charges on holiday rental property. If there's a decent return why don't they buy their own fleet and rent them out the remaining 50% should easily cover the money costs?

Not absolutely certain, but I believe the company does have its own fleet of rental vans.

However, I have a neutral stance - I know the guy because I've stored my van at his premises. He is affable and from my perspective, good to do business with. And I hope he continues to be successful running his growing company. No more, no less.

 

[MisterB]

Goboony seem to do the same thing and have lots of vans advertised

We actually do sometimes similar to renting out, but it's our home we rent out as an Airbnb for weddings at a local venue, usually the bride and her family and go off in the motorhome for a couple of nights at a local site. We don't do any longer than 6 X 2 night bookings to keep below the tax threshold of £6.5k, below which you must declare it, but pay no tax, above which must declare it and pay tax at your normal rate.

When we are away for longer we advertise on here for house sitters, who can stay in the garden for free!

We used to have someone who managed it for us and foolishly accepted a booking 18 months ago while we are away in August, so I am doing a quick trip back to sort things out. We now block off our holidays to stop that happening.

 

[Jim]

This is the Motorhome Matt who told people in an authoritive sounding youtube video how to find their MAM was to add the two axle weights. He seem a nice guy but creates lot of fluff content to get you to his shop and hire company.

I mentioned his mistake in the comments and he did acknowledge me. But it's still up there confusing people.

 

[VXman]

You also have to factor in that you wouldn’t be paying storage fees . living Locally I know a lot of those who place their motorhomes with them don’t have the space at home. Pretty sure they go half’s on the upkeep bills as well.
We discussed the possibility of it with Matt but decided against as it wasn’t for us but it’s not a bad deal if you don’t mind others using your Moho.
He‘s a very knowledgeable guy who knows what he’s talking about despite some of the comments on here.

He said all you have to do is (apart from buying it) is to insure it. Now I don't know if he meant for yourself or the insurance for the punters. All other maintainance repairs are 50/50. However, I'd expect there to be more repairs when hired than if it was only for my use.

 

[Roby2008]

If it came to the decision of renting it out to keep it or sell it then it would be sold, for me it is an intensely private space which I don´t care to share.

Cost effectiveness doesn´t come in to it, it is there when I want it and that´s what matters.

I hired a MH a few years ago (not in the UK) and all the bottoms of the doors and units inside got scratched from the wheelchair, did I declare it to the hire company.........no, 3 different colours of shoe polish and some elbow grease and it passed inspection....never trust anyone you hire something to

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[mikebeaches]

He said all you have to do is (apart from buying it) is to insure it. Now I don't know if he meant for yourself or the insurance for the punters. All other maintainance repairs are 50/50. However, I'd expect there to be more repairs when hired than if it was only for my use.

Ref insurance, I also don't know for certain - but I'd definitely assume and expect it would be for the owner to insure the van for their own use, and the rental company would put in place secondary and independent insurance for when it is out on hire, and no doubt with a wacking big excess.