Outdoorsy Reviews

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.

After requesting the contract or who their insurer was they never answered and are evading the request. My guess is they self insure and make their real money on that. This is not legal, under my state's law they must insure through a carrier licensed in the state, and they don't seem to be registered. Their cost structure is deliberately opaque and their after trip charges nearly doubled the cost I had already paid. They have a website that is confusing and never spells out exactly what the costs will be. They do not give you paper receipts so I can't post one. Outdoorsy is a very sketchy company. I won't use them again.

A few weeks later my daughter inquired about vehicle features and found out the vehicle was sold a year and a half ago and the owner can't get Outdoorsy to remove it. I contacted customer service to cancel and refund all my money. I was told they won't refund my money unless the vehicle owner verifies my claim. Now the vehicle owner has become unresponsive too. If you try to cancel the reservation on Outdoorsy they keep a service charge of $145. It's a total mess and Outdoorsy accepts no responsibility in validating a reservation, or vehicle availability or promptly refunding my money. For a finish, I'm now disputing the charge with my credit card company under fraud protection. Outdoorsy took my money, won't refund it, for a vehicle that isn't available. These people are scammers! Watch out!

The best of all is that Outdoorsy holds no fault. They don't check up, make sure these people renting RVs have everything ready and working like a legit company should. There was even a checklist not filled out that Outdoorsy provided but they don't care, they got paid. That's why when you get on the website there's pages of crap that basically says we dont care!!!! We got ripped off, over 2 thousand dollars and no one's to blame. We didn't even take the thing it was so nasty and they still charged us full price.... screwed over big time!!!! If you're booking out of Woodlands TX area the trash out RV is "Drive Forester Drive" Unlimited miles!

The perplexity arises from the incongruence between this statement in September and the subsequent revelation that our reimbursement was not granted. It leaves me questioning the intentions behind your earlier message. If they had already conveyed to Outdoorsy that they should not reimburse us, it raises concerns about transparency and open communication.

I sincerely hope that nobody never has to face with a situation as harrowing as the one my family and I experienced, which was a genuine and unfortunate accident. Having your child hospitalized for 43 days, particularly on the very day we were scheduled to pick up the rented RV, is an extraordinary and challenging circumstance. Regrettably, I must express my disappointment with Outdoorsy, not dealing with this situation as a exceptional one. The insensitivity during this ordeal has left a profound impression, so I caution potential renters to be wary when dealing with Outdoorsy.

I am left completely in the dark and have no idea what is going on or even if their "insurance protection" will actually provide the service the renter paid for. The damages exceed 5,000 and will take weeks to repair but I can't even order parts or anything because Outdoorsy has left me in the dark. The renter paid a security deposit but Outdoorsy is holding onto that as well. Outdoorsy made over 1,000 on this rental alone (in fees) yet I'm the one with a damaged RV and no answers.

We sent photos of poor maintenance and the text messages where the owner admitted to having prior issues with the problems we experienced. Outdoorsy (after a couple months of back and forth with them) sided with the host. Thankfully we put a hold (highly recommend) on the credit card before we returned the malfunctioning trailer. Immediately on return, Outdoorsy went after our $1000 deposit, for several days, after they said they wouldn’t. Please don’t rent from this company. They allow hosts to rent unsafe RVs and from what we’ve researched seen to side with the host.

I requested the host to contact me about the issue and the Host blew me off! They didn't answer my question, they said thanks for the rental and asked if needed any help, to just ask, really! I just did. Get this, the answer came back to me just a few minutes after my initial contact with the host in my town of Coeur D Alene Idaho, time-stamped 4 hours after my initial inquiry. I called customer service and they told me that if cancelled two weeks ahead of time it would cost me $200. I will probably never see my $905.69 again. Rent at your own risk!

But then, Outdoorsy hit us with an unexpected $600 charge for supposed damages! We were taken aback, as nothing was wrong during our rental. We disputed the charges and went through a back-and-forth email battle with Outdoorsy. Eventually, we managed to get only half of the money back (keep in mind that they take an extra $1000 deposit for future damages).

The most frustrating part is that we contacted Outdoorsy to remove the glowing review we left for the RV owner, as it no longer reflected our experience. Outdoorsy, unfortunately, refused to remove the review. This means that our positive review is still misleading other potential renters who deserve to know the truth. Outdoorsy's review process is deceiving and flawed, enabling hosts to exploit the system. This was not the first time we've felt that a host abused this system. It leaves us questioning the fairness and reliability of the reviews on their platform.

As a caution to others: Outdoorsy requires a $1000 deposit for damages, so be prepared for that. Take detailed pictures before and after your rental to protect yourself from false claims. Do not write a review until you get your full deposit back, as you won't be able to edit or remove it afterward. It is simply unjust and not ethical to refuse someone the right to edit or remove their review, especially when the circumstances have changed. Numerous other review platforms allow such modifications, so it is surprising that Outdoorsy does not offer this basic courtesy. I strongly advise future customers to be cautious when dealing with Outdoorsy. Their deposit and review system needs a serious overhaul to ensure fairness for all parties involved. It's not right for customers to feel cheated and misled by misleading reviews and unfounded damage claims. ⚠️⚠️⚠️ Don't let yourself fall victim to Outdoorsy's flawed practices! ⚠️⚠️⚠️

For one, you will notice the huge crack across the entire windshield along with two big divots where rocks have chipped at the windshield. Though it does not interfere with your line of vision, any rock or stone that hits it next has the potential of breaking the entire windshield while you're diving. 2. There is no rearview mirror in the van so you only need to use the side mirrors which the driver’s side is also cracked. 3. The main door of the van does not open from the inside causing a significant safety concern. If you need to get out of the van you need to climb over the cabinets behind the front seats. 3. When braking you will notice a sound when the brakes are “engaging” according to the host. The steering wheel will also shake significantly. If traveling through the Rockies you will be going down some very steep roads and the brakes and shaking will make anyone uneasy. 4. The van provides no privacy.

The host will provide you with a curtain that you will need to hang up using binder clips. I stayed at several campsites and when the lights are on in the van, you will see right into the inside from both the back windows and the window on the main door. Again making anyone uncomfortable when needing to change or sleep. Other minor issues 1. The van offers no ventilation, therefore you will need to crack the windows open for any type of air to circulate through. 2. There are wires just left scattered on the floor creating a trip hazard. 3. Your drive will not be quiet as there are drafts coming from the windows and doors. 4. The heat/cool work intermittently.

Review of the host: 2 days before my departure the host emailed me to let me know that the main door of the van did not open in front of the inside. I shared with them my concern regarding safety and they assured me that the van would be “fixed” for my arrival. Hours later they submitted a cancellation via “outdoorsy”. I explained to both the host and “outdoorsy” that they have left me the option of not canceling because there were no other rentals for my travel period. I had all my campsites reserved and leaving me with only 48hrs to find an alternative put me in a very bad position of potentially having to spend thousands of dollars more to change my car rental and accommodation, if I was even lucky to be successful and booking anything last minute. “No bad days” has several people running their rental that seem to not have good communication with one another. The day of my arrival my flight was delayed by 2 hrs.

I notified the host 4.5 hours prior to let them know that I would be there at said time. When I landed I was greeted by the host being annoyed because that is not the “time that was agreed upon” When I told the host during my 2nd day of the door “still not” working, they suggested that I interfere with my trip so that I can drive the van back to them 1.5 hrs away so they can see it. Not once did they ask if they could come to me to check it out. The day prior and day of my departure really goes to show the type of host you will be dealing with. My rental agreement stated that I was to drop off the van by 1pm. The day prior I messaged the host to confirm drop off time. They mentioned to me that it would be 9:30 or that they can rent the van for an extra night.

I mentioned that I did not think that was an option because I was told they had a renter that evening and needed the van back by 1pm. They then just responded with “oh yea, we need it back by 9:30”. I told them that the rental agreement stated 1pm. Even with the messages regarding fixing the van door, there was a lot of contradicting going on. The morning of my departure, I was notified that my evening flight was canceled. I made arrangements with the airline to get on an earlier flight. I informed the host that I would have to drop off the van at 10:30 due to the change of flight. The response by the host was, “It does not work that way, you need to drop off the van at either 9:00am or 1:00pm”.

I again explained the situation I was in and that I had no control over the airline canceling my flight and that I needed to take the next available flight home. This was not taken with any ounce of understanding from the host. I understand that this creates an inconvenience to the host but again you would think that there would be some empathy shown by the host and that they would try to accommodate meeting you at the time you can drop off the van. Unfortunately, the conversation escalated to the point that Outdoorsy needed to be contacted and really didn't provide much assistance. The host made me feel so nervous that I would either miss my flight home or that if I just dropped the van off they would report it stolen if they were not there to receive it. Fortunately, the host was there and to say that the exchange was less than pleasant is an understatement.

I was called a “Karen” and that my life must be so miserable because I was inconveniencing them with my situation and not doing as they wanted me to which was, “You have until 9:30am to bring back our van” I informed them I was 2 hrs away and that I messaged them as soon as I got off the phone with the airline. Their response was, “Stop making excuses and start driving” Again, I understand the current situation puts us all in an inconvenient position, however the lack of understanding and mistreatment provided by the “young” host is completely unacceptable. Outdoorsy always took the side of the host. Even when I put a dispute to my credit card, they submitted their contract stating that are not responsible for host vehicles. OK, so you as a company are okay with advertising vehicle that are in poor quality and have significant safety issues. Please do your due diligence before renting a vehicle from this group.

Outdoorsy has done everything to defend the owners of the RV and have left us responsible for over $600 in repairs that we made to the owners RV in order to get home. The owners are claiming we were responsible even though the blowouts happened on separate axles on separate sides of the vehicle on separate days. The owners were negligent from the very beginning and the spare tire had less than 20 pounds of pressure.

The air conditioner was disgusting. It was filled with filth and it ran at less than half capacity before we repaired it ourselves. The black tank was filled with weeks of human feces from the previous renter. On top of that the owners sent us out in a death trap of an RV with 13 year old tires, Had never been replaced, were bald, and had visible sidewall damage before we left. The owners tried to blame us from the damage from the beginning, saying it was our driving that caused the issue. These Gaslighters couldn’t except responsibility for even the simplest thing with their RV. Outdoorsy never stood behind us. You should expect the same, if you have any issues with your rental you will be screwed do not rent from outdoorsy under any circumstances, just rent from a traditional brick and mortar they will be much more professional.

This venture is receiving a lot of venture funding and it doesn’t deserve to because they aren’t operating at industry standards of customer satisfaction. I attend Harvard Business School and I will be telling everyone about my experience in the coming semester. My family and I took a trip and we were left high and dry by outdoorsy and the owners the entire time. Besides waiting for over 22 hours for service calls and missing two days of our trip, we were left personally responsible for the repairs to two tires that were damaged before we took the RV out, the owner said they were fine and we trusted them assuming that everything would be OK. However this was not the case.

Outdoorsy is so favorable of the owners that you will never get your money from them. Even if they are clearly in the wrong and even if they leave you in the lurch and screw you over. Buyer beware. I would never recommend the service and will be telling everyone to avoid it. Outdoorsy has not made anything right and the owners have left us high and dry. We are out over 600 extra dollars for our rental out of our pocket on top of missing two days of our vacation waiting for repairs that were due to deferred maintenance on the owners negligence. Outdoorsy will invariably respond to this message with an automated response. You can look at their other reviews and they are copied and pasted, there is never any resolution after these messages and do not expect that your issues will be resolved because ours were never resolved and they still have not been resolved. If I could give zero stars out of five I would.

Unfortunately, Outdoorsy is not transparent about their fees, and it is up to the customer to catch the overcharges. It took me a chat session, an email, and a long phone call to even get the real story on the "Roadside Assistance" charge. The story changed several times and they still refuse to waive the fee. I resorted to filing a dispute with my credit card company and will see what happens. Obviously, we will not use Outdoorsy again.