Requesting RV Rental Recommendations in Reno
April 16, 2024 6:21 AM Subscribe
Looking to rent a smallish RV in Reno in mid-July. Seat/sleep 3. If you have personal experience, positive or negative, with any RV rental agencies in Reno, would you share it please?
Response by poster: Personal recreation. My understanding is that Burning Man will be in August, so I'm hoping to beat that wave.
posted by bricoleur at 4:44 PM on April 16
posted by bricoleur at 4:44 PM on April 16
Response by poster: And I will have returned the RV weeks before Burning Man, so I would not be depriving anyone of an RV for that.
posted by bricoleur at 4:46 PM on April 16
posted by bricoleur at 4:46 PM on April 16
Funny, I just got back from an epic trip through the desert-ish scrubland of southwest Texas in a rented RV.
Outdoorsy
RVshare
These are two services that put RV owners together with RV renters -- think AirBnB for RVs (or Turo for RVs). In prep for that trip, last year I tested out both of them with shorter rentals, and they both worked fine. For the big trip that we just completed, I ended up using Outdoorsy, but it really was a toss-up. Outdoorsy has a slightly slicker UI and shows slightly more data.
Search them both and I'm sure you will find LOTS of options in the Reno area.
posted by intermod at 6:21 PM on April 16
Outdoorsy
RVshare
These are two services that put RV owners together with RV renters -- think AirBnB for RVs (or Turo for RVs). In prep for that trip, last year I tested out both of them with shorter rentals, and they both worked fine. For the big trip that we just completed, I ended up using Outdoorsy, but it really was a toss-up. Outdoorsy has a slightly slicker UI and shows slightly more data.
Search them both and I'm sure you will find LOTS of options in the Reno area.
posted by intermod at 6:21 PM on April 16
Oh, I forgot the major downside: the owner can cancel on you at any time, including just before your trip, just like they can with AirBnB and Turo (in theory they get penalized for it, but IMO it's toothless). This has always created a bit of a nailbiting experience for me in the runup to the rental start, although I've never actually had that problem.
With a proper company / agency, they don't have just one RV, and if the one designated for you develops problems (like the previous renter wrecks it), they have another one to switch you to. Personally I like the granular control of the person-to-person model, where I know exactly what trailer I am getting.
posted by intermod at 6:39 PM on April 16
With a proper company / agency, they don't have just one RV, and if the one designated for you develops problems (like the previous renter wrecks it), they have another one to switch you to. Personally I like the granular control of the person-to-person model, where I know exactly what trailer I am getting.
posted by intermod at 6:39 PM on April 16
Surprised at the number of commercial RV rental options in Reno, at a glance...
I give a tepid recommendation to CruiseAmerica, fairly or not... I've rented from them once and it did the job. The bad stuff upfront: the RV I got was not entirely functional (some tank fill indicators broken, a lot of electrical outlets out-of-commission, the vehicle had a dismaying habit of uptaking dusty air into the sleeping compartment and storage area), and there were no second-options from the lot I used. Granted, this was in New Jersey, not Reno. But the RV held up for 2,600 miles over 10 days... can't knock that. We were offered a discount for our trouble.
The good thing about CruiseAmerica is that they're national and, from a customer service perspective, very professional and consistent. They publish an app that has a standard manual for all the models; they have a ton of instruction/FAQ videos as well. Maintaining it, including propane/water fills and waste dumps, was easy. It handled well-enough on the interstate. The low height (12') and width make their RV models pretty accessible to a lot of roads. Their standard 5-bed RV would probably be luxuriously roomy. You can book online for anywhere, right now. None of the RV's disabled features were a dealbreaker for our trip. And their offer of a "Zero Damage Plan" is kind of amazing; I was told that, as long as you pay a small fee upfront, you can return it with the roof torn off and you'll be waived of any liability for it. (They probably shouldn't have said that. But it was good peace of mind)
I never priced them out against any competitors so I don't know if you can get a better deal... I would check the local reviews. Still, it's one usable option in case your search leads in all kinds of sketchy directions or in case most of the others are sold out for some reason (summer vacation season).
posted by brianvan at 12:32 PM on April 18
I give a tepid recommendation to CruiseAmerica, fairly or not... I've rented from them once and it did the job. The bad stuff upfront: the RV I got was not entirely functional (some tank fill indicators broken, a lot of electrical outlets out-of-commission, the vehicle had a dismaying habit of uptaking dusty air into the sleeping compartment and storage area), and there were no second-options from the lot I used. Granted, this was in New Jersey, not Reno. But the RV held up for 2,600 miles over 10 days... can't knock that. We were offered a discount for our trouble.
The good thing about CruiseAmerica is that they're national and, from a customer service perspective, very professional and consistent. They publish an app that has a standard manual for all the models; they have a ton of instruction/FAQ videos as well. Maintaining it, including propane/water fills and waste dumps, was easy. It handled well-enough on the interstate. The low height (12') and width make their RV models pretty accessible to a lot of roads. Their standard 5-bed RV would probably be luxuriously roomy. You can book online for anywhere, right now. None of the RV's disabled features were a dealbreaker for our trip. And their offer of a "Zero Damage Plan" is kind of amazing; I was told that, as long as you pay a small fee upfront, you can return it with the roof torn off and you'll be waived of any liability for it. (They probably shouldn't have said that. But it was good peace of mind)
I never priced them out against any competitors so I don't know if you can get a better deal... I would check the local reviews. Still, it's one usable option in case your search leads in all kinds of sketchy directions or in case most of the others are sold out for some reason (summer vacation season).
posted by brianvan at 12:32 PM on April 18
Follow-up: based on coincidentally finding out more info about CruiseAmerica, I'd say "absolute last resort" rather than a fallback option. I thought you should know that my opinion changed. It is not rare to get an RV from them with various issues.
Also, it may help to do some basic vehicular status checks (tire pressure, oil level) for any RV you rent, in case such simple things were overlooked by a busy rental lot.
posted by brianvan at 10:03 AM on April 19
Also, it may help to do some basic vehicular status checks (tire pressure, oil level) for any RV you rent, in case such simple things were overlooked by a busy rental lot.
posted by brianvan at 10:03 AM on April 19
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posted by samthemander at 9:08 AM on April 16