How to Make Money Renting Out Your RV on Outdoorsy
Updated
You list your motorhome, camper van or trailer on Outdoorsy or RVshare, guests book it for trips, and the platform pays you after their trip starts. Outdoorsy's own price guide puts typical rates at about $75–$150 a night for a travel trailer and $150–$250 for a Class C, but Outdoorsy keeps 20–25% of the booking, and repairs, storage, insurance and depreciation come out of the rest. At around 60 booked nights, a paid-off RV can clear a few thousand dollars a year. One bought on a loan just to rent often loses money.
▶Watch this first
"Is it worth it to rent out your RV? | One year of using Outdoorsy & RV Share." — Drive North. Picked from a real creator, not a GigWiz production.
✓What you actually need to start
- An RV with a clean title. Outdoorsy excludes salvage/rebuilt titles; RVshare only gives physical damage protection to units 20 years old or newer.
- A personal RV policy that allows renting. Normal policies have a commercial exclusion. Roamly quotes $600–$1,200/yr for a motorhome, as little as $150/yr for a small camper.
- A vehicle that passes the platform's insurance verification and a safety inspection by a certified mechanic within 90 days of each booking (Outdoorsy).
- Somewhere to keep it: your driveway, or outdoor storage at about $75–$200 a month (Neighbor national range).
- Turnover kit: cleaning supplies, kitchen basics, bedding, hoses, a walk-through checklist, and 15–20 good photos.
- Time and a bit of mechanical skill: every trip means a handoff, an inspection and a clean.
New York-registered motorhomes are largely excluded from Outdoorsy's damage coverage. Check your state before you list.
👣The steps
💵The money, honestly
| Example setup (60 booked nights a year) | You keep after 25% host fee | Left after yearly costs |
|---|---|---|
| Paid-off travel trailer at $110/night | $4,950 | About $2,000–$3,800 before depreciation |
| Paid-off Class C at $200/night | $9,000 | About $3,400–$7,400 before depreciation |
| Class C bought to rent: $50K loan at 8%, 10 yrs | $9,000 | About −$2,800, and it still loses value |
Nightly rates are mid-range picks from Outdoorsy's and RVshare's own 2026 price guides. 60 nights is our assumption for a summer-heavy season, not a platform statistic; RVshare says peak rates run 30–50% above off-season. Fees use Outdoorsy's 25% starting host fee.
Yearly costs used: rental-friendly insurance ($150–$1,200, Roamly), maintenance ($1,000–$2,000), storage ($0 at home up to $150–$200/month). The trailer row uses Roamly's low-end $150 insurance, $1,000 maintenance and $0–$150/month storage; the paid-off Class C row uses $600–$1,200 insurance, $1,000–$2,000 maintenance and $0–$200/month storage. The loan row adds a $607/month payment and assumes $1,200 insurance, $1,500 maintenance and $150/month storage. Part of a loan payment is principal you get back if you sell, but RVs lose 10–25% in year one and roughly 5–10% a year after that (estimates vary by source).
⚠ The reality check
- The platform takes a quarter. Outdoorsy's host fee starts at 25% of the booking subtotal, including your cleaning and delivery fees, with a minimum of $15/night for drivable RVs. It drops toward 20% only as your revenue grows.
- Interior damage and breakdowns are your problem. Outdoorsy's standard comprehensive and collision coverage excludes interior damage (unless optional Damage Protection applies), and its host protection excludes mechanical failure and wear and tear. Guests are hard on generators, awnings, slide-outs and toilets.
- Demand is seasonal. Summer and holiday weekends fill. RVshare says September–October rates run 20–30% lower and April–May 15–25% lower than summer. Winter depends heavily on where you live.
- Buying an RV just to rent rarely works. A $50K loan at 8% costs about $7,300 a year before insurance, storage or repairs. At $200 a night after a 25% fee, that's about 49 booked nights just to cover the payment.
❔Questions people actually ask
The GigWiz verdict
- You already own a paid-off RV that sits unused most of the summer.
- You live near a busy travel market and can handle handoffs, cleaning and small repairs yourself.
- You'd have to finance an RV to do this. The loan payment eats most of a realistic season.
- Your RV is a New York-registered motorhome, has a branded title, or you can't stand strangers in your rig.
The RV is the capital. If you have to borrow to buy it, the rentals mostly pay the bank, not you.
Sources: Outdoorsy: Service fees; Outdoorsy: Fee structure and payouts; Outdoorsy: Host comprehensive & collision coverage; Outdoorsy: Summary of Host Protection Policy; RVshare: Terms of Service; RVshare: RV rental prices by type; Outdoorsy: RV rental costs, nightly rates and fees; Roamly: Insurance for renting out your RV; Bankrate: RV loan rates.