Recreational Vehicle Rental Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2021 - 2026)

Renting an RV in a good condition with desired features at a low cost is the most preferred choice of many customers. The facility of comparing various RV rental prices offered in an area has always been the growing concern among the majority of customers. Thus, to help the customers regarding the availability of RV rentals in an area, platforms, like RVshare.com and Outdoorsy, have been widely operating in the market since 2013 and 2015, respectively. The above platforms provide a one-stop-shop for customers who are looking for RV rentals.

Such platforms increasingly grew across the global market during 2015-2018, connecting various RV rental groups, like independent dealers as well as private owners. These platforms share the rental opportunities to the customers from the above available groups and provide RV booking either through online or face-to-face meetings. The growing RV rental information platforms provide ease of booking an RV, which has further driven the RV rental market.

In 2017, nearly two-thirds of RV rental operators in North America expanded their fleets, and 80% of the RV rental operators saw adequate profit margins with double-digit revenue increase. The remaining 20% of them saw inadequate profit margins.

In 2017, the RV rental fleet increased by more than 12% compared to that of 2016.

North America captured the largest share of more than 50% of the global RV rental market in 2017, as well as in 2018.

The United States acquired a major share of more than 50% of the North American RV rental market in 2017, owing to the growing RV parks that further encouraged customers to prefer rental over owning an RV. The United States has nearly 14 million privately owned RVs, out of which, more than 60% preferred to offer their RV for rent, instead of keeping it idle in the garage.

The growing RV rental sharing platforms provided a greater opportunity for the privately owned RVs to lend rental services in North America. During the forecast period, North America is anticipated to continue capturing a major share of the global rental RV market, owing to an increase in the number of RV parks and campgrounds in the region. For instance, Kampgrounds of America Inc. (KOA) has approximately 490 parks across North America, located majorly in the United States and Canada. As of 2016, the KOA has added 41% more park model RVs since 2012.