When I think about renting an RV I instantly think about the RV’s I see on the road that have “I am a rental” painted all over them. In fact I think they have 1-800-rv4rent painted all over them. I looks kind of tacky and weird but what else are you going to do.
I have rented from Cruise America before and my experience was actually pretty good except having all the verbiage all over it saying it is a rental. I rented one with a few friends to attend an away football game across the country so we could tailgate on our own and so we did not have to worry about hotel rooms.
It was an awesome experience and the ease to rent and travel was as easy as can be.
The big advantage was that we were renting from a major city and they are located in most major cities. If you need one outside of a major city then good luck because you are out of luck. So they are very limited as to where you can pick one up but if you are going to a major city in the United States you will find one so don’t worry about it.
Our RV was very clean and well kept up. I felt safe driving it and I had no problem sleeping in it.
What bothered me with it was again we were a big driving advertisement for them. Everybody could tell we were renters and for some reason that made us feel like amateurs. Even though we were amateur RVers we did not need everyone to know it.
You also have to be careful with how far you are planning on driving for the trip. They do have certain amount of miles you are limited to and if you go over it you pay a lot for the extra miles. Just make sure you ask the rental guy all about it and have your trip very well planned out in the beginning so you can try and arrange some adjustments while in the rental process.
A great alternative I found to Cruise America is RVShare.com. It is basically the same concept as Airbnb but it is for RV’s and campers. Check out my review of RVShare here.
What is great about it is you can choose which type of trailer you want and where you pick it up or have it delivered. You pay a little extra for insurance but it is well worth because who knows when an accident could happen. And what I really like is you are helping out someone who might need help on some payments or just needs a little extra cash.
You are still limited to the total amount of miles you can go but if you plan accordingly this should not be a problem. If you are planning on doing a big cross country trip then I would not recommend this and go with Cruise America but if it is just small and local then go for RVShare.
I am no writing this to rip on Cruise America because I really had a good experience with them but I just want you to be aware that there are other options out there. When we rented from Cruise America it was really our only choice so we didn’t know if we were getting a good deal or not.
It’s always best to have a few different options and then choose what is best for you and the situation you are in.