Outdoorsy Reviews

My husband informed the owner that we did not go off-roading, nor did we hit any bumps, so we found it unbelievable that the hubcaps fell off when we had possession of the RV. We suspected the owner might be lying as we had had no walkthrough with him and he could have easily slipped the hubcaps off after we had returned the vehicle. Even still, my husband offered to pay him $200 for hubcaps that we found online, but the owner said he would file a claim with Outdoorsy’s insurance that we had to purchase at rental time. The owner did not file a claim within the time that was allowed before our security deposit was refunded. Later, he filed a claim with an estimate for two hubcaps that was significantly more than $200. He did not provide any evidence that he bought these new hubcaps.

Outdoorsy’s insurance found us not liable for the missing hubcaps as there was no evidence of theft or collision/damage. We agreed with this assessment as we did not feel we lost the hubcaps and were now even more suspicious of the owner. The owner subsequently asked my husband for the money directly, and we said no as we agree with Outdoorsy’s assessment that we were not liable for the alleged loss.

Now, on August 5th (almost 4 months after the rental), my husband received an email from Outdoorsy informing us that the owner wants to charge us additional fees for the hubcaps. We are at a loss as to how a company/owner think they can keep trying to charge fees 4 months after a rental, i.e., after a security deposit was refunded and after a determination that the owner has not proven theft or damage occurred to his vehicle. Imagine a hotel or Airbnb trying to charge damage fees 4 months after your stay and after all charges have been determined to be settled. At a minimum, Outdoorsy needs to establish a time limit for owners to try to collect additional fees. If a security deposit has been returned to a renter, the renter should have the right to assume that the matter is closed to additional “damages”.

After reading all of the reviews with experiences similar to our own, we feel lucky that we were smart enough to cancel our credit card before Outdoorsy charged us any more fees. We feel like we dodged a bullet and would never rent from them again. The system is either intentionally setup so that owners can charge fees at their whim or it’s a severe flaw in their rental system. Either scenario should make buyers beware of this company.

Hosts seem to be a mixed bag...one I dealt was extremely responsive and willing to work with me on my reservation, but ultimately his costs were far too high for my trip ($.95c for every mile >100). Another host took a day to respond and when I needed him to contact customer service on behalf of my reservation, I was ghosted. I'm not naive, I understand that "fees" are a way of life these days, but this was rather extreme and made the entire experience feel quite uncomfortable and seedy.

We were lucky to drive to our destination and back with a battery that wouldn’t hold a charge, and a generator that would work intermittently leading us to shut everything off to the back cabin for the entirety of the trip. Add to this over $350 in additional charges for things that we never discussed nor used, and the need for dispute resolution afterwards, it made our experience even worse. Never rent from this company!

During our rental over the 4th of July, the power cord + surge protector failed...resulting in a smoking, melted plug. We were left with no power, no A/C, and we are in Texas in the middle of Summer. To our surprise, the the owner filed a damage claim against us which resulted in many headaches and countless hours of wasted time-with no real help from Outdoorsy. In fact, whenever I called, I could only speak with someone in the PHILIPPINES-never the same person, and never a last name. Sometimes someone would respond via email, but would not be available by phone. There was always a promise to escalate, but no follow-through.

We had actually purchased the stationary insurance (also called excess insurance), which we learned that they defer to YOUR PERSONAL AUTO POLICY FIRST. When I went back, I eventually found this in the fine print, but had to click through several pages and links to get to-essentially a rabbit hole. After the owner was told by our insurance company that this was not a qualified claim (and subsequently denied), he then pursued it with the Outdoorsy stationary policy-which was also denied. He told our insurance company that he would pursue it through the security deposit. They then emailed to ask us to approve a charge of $400-to pay for their faulty equipment-even after 2 denials stating that we were not responsible for their equipment failing. We declined.

We cannot get anyone at Outdoorsy to help us with this, though we have reached out via phone and email multiple times. Today we learned that Outdoorsy has charged our card for ANOTHER $750-the original amount of our deposit. After another call and another request to escalate-they are telling us that they have released it. I have yet to confirm that with my CC company, but will need to make sure that all future attempts to charge us will be denied. A side note of the stationary/excess policy-they also add an additional charge for roadside assistance-which you should not need if you are not towing the vehicle. In fact, the policy becomes null and void if you move the camper for any reason on a stationary policy. We would never even think of trusting Outdoorsy again-it's really just a platform, taking a cut, and cheaply outsourcing their customer service. There is no protection and no one to call who can do anything to help.

Outdoorsy is not much of a service but provides a great disservice to both the renter, to whom they charge exorbitant fees and force the sale of often redundant insurance products but also the owner, from whom they take a 25% cut, even when the owner didn't ultimately keep those funds. No other platform keeps their fee, especially an exceedingly high one, on money you don't actually net. In this case I wanted to refund my renter $750. Trouble is, Outdoorsy only paid me $562.50. I can't refund money I never received and Outdoorsy refuses to return their $187.50 cut of those funds that, again, are not in my bank account, to the renter. They refuse to explain what they are keeping that $187.50 for and I don't know a soul who could rationalize why that money wouldn't be refunded to the renter.

This wasn't always the case- a few years ago the owner's fees were 20% and Outdoorsy was reasonable to work with. Fast forward to today and the company has started selling their own insurance product to renters (95% of whom don't need it), tacking more fees onto renters, upping their cut of the owner's payout. You would think service might improve with all this extra income Outdoorsy is netting but it's gone downhill. Their smartphone app is bush league and barely functions, customer support is responsive but offers no actual solutions. You only get a real response by posting negative reviews. I see stories online of Outdoorsy asking renters who purchased Outdoorsy's insurance to use their regular insurance anyways and put Outdoorsy in a second position. This is now a company that thinks it can have it both ways and come out on top in every situation.

I would love to see another business disrupt Outdoorsy and provide a quality, peer to peer, platform for rentals. Most renters already have adequate auto insurance that covers their rental. Most owners need little more than a platform/market on which to rent their rigs and a payment processing service that allows for security deposits to be held appropriately. What nobody needs is Outdoorsy in the middle of it all, bilking all parties for every penny they can. As an owner, the fact that they keep a 25% cut of money you don't get paid really says it all though.

Yesterday, I finally click the link, I do the verification, and today still nothing. I contacted them today, and now I need to send the registration to their email....good thing I contacted them because if not, I would be still waiting to hear from them. RVShare took me only 10 min to verify everything, but Outdoorsy poor in communication, and if they are like that with a host, I don't want to see what customers have to go through.