My friends and I (5 total) rented the Coachmen Freelander BH32 for a week, and while it wasn't a totally negative experience, I will say that the RV made the trip more complicated, stressful and unpleasant than if we had simply not bothered with it. This is the review I wish I had read before choosing to rent from this company.
Positives:
1. The owner/manager (Matthias) was flexible with our pick-up and drop-off time, which was appreciated.
Negatives:
1. The RV was more beat up than expected. Very old and very "broken in" to say it nicely. I would definitely check out the RV you'll be renting in person before you book so your expectations aren't high.
2. It was very loud while driving and made some pretty alarming noises.
3. When we got it, the grey and black water tank we're NOT cleared out. The fresh water tank as well as the propane tank were not filled up. Matthias said that it was to save us gas money. I suspect he just didn't want to or have time as he never gave us the option. He mentioned having just used the RV for himself the week prior if I'm not mistaken. I was under the impression that everything would be cleaned out/filled up when we arrived to pick it up.
When we arrived at an RV park in Bend, we proceeded to clean out the grey and black tanks, which had a pretty good amount of "content". Mind you no one in our group had used the bathroom yet. It just didn't feel right to immediately be cleaning out someone else's feces. Maybe that's a normal thing when you rent RV's? I don't know.
4. The refrigerator smelled like fish and never got cold the entire week we had it. We ended up having to throw out a lot of our food because it spoiled.
5. The camping chairs that were offered were old, beat up, and damaged.
6. Many of the compartments for storage already had stuff in them, both inside and outside the RV. We were counting on having more storage. For example, we told him that we would bring our own linens, but many of the cabinets/drawers had a bunch of bedding in them. There was a large tackle box in one of the drawers and other random things. It felt very disorganized. More like we were borrowing a friends run-down RV and less like we were renting from a reputable rental company.
7. Also, he wanted us to get insurance for the RV through our own personal insurance. I called a bunch of different insurance companies and almost all said they don't do "episodic insurance" and that the rental company should offer insurance. They all thought it was strange that the rental company didn't offer it and some even recommended finding a different RV company that would. After, I looked at the terms in the RV Rental Agreement from Redding RV Rentals and it says that they provide insurance. I'm not sure what the deal/motivation is with this. Maybe he doesn't want to have to deal with his own insurance so he makes you get it covered.
8. When we arrived at our destination to dry camp we immediately realized that nothing electrical would stay on unless the generator was working (no lights, no refrigerator). So we proceeded to run the generator to try keep the refrigerator on. Eventually we gave up because the only reason we were running the generator was for the refrigerator which never got cold anyways, so we just moved our food to coolers. If the generator was off, the RV would make what I now know is the "dead battery" beeping noise. Not even the sensors would work without the generator on. After the 3rd day of running the generator for about half the day, nothing would work even with the generator on. No A/C, no microwave, nothing. We had to get a jump to bring the sides in so we could drive it back to Redding which added a few hours on to our trip. The mechanics that helped us with the jump said the battery was extremely corroded and in bad shape. When we got back and told Matthias he said it "looked fine". I wish I had taken a picture but I was so exhausted at that point I didn't even think of it. The battery was disintegrating. Thinking back now, the house battery was obviously shot the entire time, which is why it couldn't hold a charge to keep the lights on in the RV for more than a minute without the generator, and why it eventually completely crapped out and nothing in the RV worked anymore after a few days.
9. Matthias dismissed every complaint we had. It felt very "gaslighty" for lack of a better word.
10. When we would come back to the RV at the end of the day, it smelled like feces (none of us went #2 in it). I don't know if that's normal for RV's, but we would always have to air it out because it stunk.
So as you can see, what was meant to make our trip more leisurely, ended up making it more complicated and unpleasant. I will definitely never rent from this company again. I would suggest doing some research and possibly paying a little more for something that will contribute to your experience, not take away from it. read more
