Our first Outdoorsy rental experience began with us finding an RV with unlimited mileage. The owner said that the listing of unlimited mileage was a mistake and that the app messed it up. We ended up having to pay for the extra mileage.The owner walked us through all of the RV controls when she dropped off the RV. She showed us how to prop up the TV, which was broken from the stand. When not in use, she said it would be fine laying down on the top bunk (above the front passenger seat).Once on the freeway, the TV started to slide out over the passenger seat and felt very unsafe. A cabinet also flew open and all of our food flew out. Some stripping on the outside of the RV was peeling off and as we continued to drive, it peeled off more and more. We pulled into a gas station to secure the TV because we were scared that it would completely slide out and hurt someone. We purchased a bungee cord to secure the cabinet that was broken and we fixed the stripping that was loose.The listing said that the RV included a backup camera and when I asked the owner how to use it, she said that the backup camera was uninstalled a while ago because other renters caused 1000’s of dollars in damage by using the backup camera and not being careful. The owner said they could come pick up the RV or we could bring it back if we were dissatisfied. At this point, we were in another state-we had planned this trip for our daughter’s 18th birthday and we couldn’t just cancel the trip once we had started it.To this day, the listing still claims that there is a backup camera. It also claims to have an outdoor shower but that is also a lie.The ad on the Outdoorsy app claimed “your host is committed to a thorough Cleaning regimen informed by CDC guidelines” but the RV was far from clean. When my partner opened the door on the passenger side of the RV, she found a lollipop stick and a red braid on the first step. When we opened the pull outs, there was trash and dirt on the floor (more than the grime that was present on the other parts of the floor). The microwave was full of splatters. A prior renter had heated up some spaghetti or chili and red sauce was everywhere inside. Not to mention that the whole microwave was rattling and shaking like crazy the whole time we were driving because it was loose in the housing.The back bedroom was not only missing a privacy panel, the floor between the bed and the wall was full of debris. The wall also looked like it had water damage which makes sense because at one point we had a small amount of water leaking from the floor at the wall. We don’t know exactly where it was coming from.One of our biggest issues was the toilet clog. A few days into our trip, we found that the toilet was clogged and I sent the owners a message right away.They asked if anything but toilet paper had been put into the toilet. We definitely did not. The owner also suggested that we pour water down the toilet. We tried pouring water in but it did not help.The owner suggested that we put a hose down the toilet to break up the clog. We did not have a spare water hose or a stick to put down the toilet.Once we arrived at our next destination, the clog had not gone down so we rented a hotel room and started calling Outdoorsy customer support and roadside assistance for help. Outdoorsy was finally able to schedule a technician to to come out the next day. As the Outdoorsy representative instructed, I submitted the receipt for repairs to Outdoorsy for reimbursement from either the RV owner or Outdoorsy. (I never received a refund).Before our trip started, when she dropped off the RV to us, she did not give any details about how often to dump nor how to generally care for the toilet/black water tank.Many of these issues could have been resolved by having a manual or binder in the RV or even available online. We stay at many Airbnb’s and the home owners always include this. We were surprised that a home on wheels wouldn’t have this type of manual, especially for first time RV renters such as us.The owner also did not specify that I had to bring the RV back with a full tank of gas. It didn’t say it anywhere in the listing, nor was it in our contract. Yet I was charged $187 for a full tank of gas which is much more than I ever spent on a fill up of gas at any stop during our trip.After our trip, we had to go all the way to fair claims to try to get a full or partial refund from the owner for all of the inconvenience, including the repairs that were done. We only received a refund of less than $100 because the contract states that any repairs need to be covered by the renter and because we rented the RV as is.
8 Photos submitted by Leslie F.