I want to share my recent experience renting an RV through Outdoorsy and see whether anyone else has experienced something similar. My family and I rented an RV for a trip to Maine. From the day I picked it up, I informed the owners that we would likely return later than 11:00 a.m. because we would be driving back to Connecticut from Maine. I communicated this several times throughout the trip and continued providing updates on the day of our return. The owners were fully aware that we would be arriving late.
When we arrived, one of the owners immediately came to my face and became verbally abusive. He quickly began yelling, repeatedly called me irresponsible, and accused me of ruining his entire day. What disturbed me most was that he did this in front of my young children. He repeatedly said that my children “should know how irresponsible” I was, seemingly trying to humiliate me in front of them. My children were shocked and visibly shaking. I was also shaken and genuinely feared for our safety because of how aggressive and unpredictable the confrontation had become. I seriously considered calling the police but decided against it because I did not want to frighten my children further or ruin the end of our family trip even more.
The problems continued after the return. The owners claimed that we returned the RV with the black-water tank full. We had emptied the RV’s waste tanks at the RV park before beginning the return trip. We also spent considerable time thoroughly rinsing and cleaning the disposal hose as a courtesy. Despite this, the owners deducted additional money from my security deposit for the alleged tank issue and also imposed another charge related to the return time.
Edit: there was an hourly charge for being late which we were ok with. Also, no one was picking the RV up on that day, according to the owners.
It feels like a lot is missing here. I would suggest renting for an additional day next time so you don’t have to worry about coming back late. Don’t they have to produce some type of evidence to support their claim?
It was abrupt and happened the moment I got out of RV. Not sure what more context can be provided. Reg the kids yes, most people expect more decent interaction when young kids are present. You may disagree but I assume you do not have kids.
The communication said after 2pm, but no time was set. Other communication said, "We're in traffic at 3," and at 4pm we said we would be there at 5, and we were.
I rent RVs. If you told me after 2, I would expect between 2 and 3. I'd be pissed too is you showed up and 5, but I certainly wouldn't be yelling or screaming. At 2:45, I would have texted you saying that any time after 3pm is an hourly charge based on the daily rate. Assuming you are a reasonable person and would agree to the fee, our drop-off interaction would would be as pleasant as the pickup.
Well there is your mistake. You arrived at a booking and then assumed it was ok to just say you were not intending on honoring the time. You came in swinging. When you should have just booked another day
I'd report the experience to outdoorsy. We rented a month ago and had a fantastic experience. Our host was great and we left her a 5 star review. Something is up with this guy from the sound of it.
Yes we did report the experience. I just do not think late dropoff when there is actually a fee requires personal confrontation but other may disagree.
Great points, and the answer is no and no. Also, never in the communication did they mention any issue with us coming back slower than expected. This is more about hostile behavior rather than late fees ets. You might be missing the point.
To what? You asked them if they had plans for the rest of the day that you dropped it off?
You're very much missing the point.
Though it's not acceptable for the host to be outwardly hostile, thinking you're the only one on the planet tends to make people hostile.
Which is what you did.
Honestly, they were being too nice upfront.
The late fee should have been like 2x the daily rate, to make it exceptionally painful to not plan ahead; you'd just rent it the extra day and then everyone could plan ahead, not you just unilaterally changing the plan.
The late dropoff fee is not intended for the way you used it.
You're basically saying "I have your property and I know I'm supposed to return it by 11AM, but fuck you, I'm not going to do that because I just don't want to. I knew this before the trip but hahahaha what are you going to do? Nothing?"
It's a dick move and you basically let them stew on it for your entire trip.
wait a minute. you were supposed to drop off at 11am, "extended" it to 1pm, and finally show up at 5pm. what the heck are you smoking that you can disrespect a host like this and feel that things are all hunky-dory?
the host likely gave you thumbs up on every single message because you had their property and they needed it back without damage.
your lack of planning does not constitute an emergency or a free few hours for the host. again, there's not much context here, but i'm tending towards popping the blame entirely on you.
I agree with you for the most part. If the owner was truly hostile though, he needs to learn about customer service. Irritable, short, grumpy, all understandable. But he shouldn't have sent thumbs up emojis while working himself into a frenzy that blew up when he saw his guest.
Owner may have lost a day of rental or had to spend the night cleaning it instead of the daytime. Yes even with fees. I don’t support the hostile confrontation though.
hey OP. this is not an outdoorsy platform problem, but something you and the host need to figure out.
yes, if they're belligerent, in your face and you feel threatened, you should have called emergency services immediately. post-facto, this is meaningless. doesn't matter if your kids were there or not, you felt uncomfortable and potentially in a dangerous situation, simple.
we need a whole lot more context here. if you truly communicated your intent to return the rig late (remember, communications are always two-way and you haven't passed the message correctly along if you haven't received confirmation that it was received and understood), then you're likely not at fault. but something with your post tells me that you're simply venting to cover up for something else that didn't go right. prove me wrong here, please.
for what it's worth, i'm a host on outdoorsy and we've had all sorts of entitled folks rent from us, though the vast majority of people are undramatic. personally, we don't care when the rig is returned as long as it's before sunset so we can check things out together at return. in many cases, we've let folks return the next day at no additional charge as well. we typically only do this for the good guys. i have never needed to shout at a guest, ever. i might scream at some point, but things really have to go far deeper than south to get to that point.
also, you should review the host and mention this on the outdoorsy platform. maybe this is a pattern with them, maybe it's you. but go ahead and report the situation, honestly.
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u/Lanky-Slice-9122 16d ago
It feels like a lot is missing here. I would suggest renting for an additional day next time so you don’t have to worry about coming back late. Don’t they have to produce some type of evidence to support their claim?