Owner Ryan Barrett has worked with vehicles his entire life. “I grew up at my family’s trucking business, but left when I was 22 years old,” Ryan tells us. “Now I work as a fleet maintenance manager at a fuel delivery business. I schedule truck preventative maintenance, work with salesmen on ordering new vehicles, order required parts, and fix the trucks when they have issues. I am the only person in the truck maintenance department so I am very skillful at repairing vehicles.”
The newest addition to Ryan’s vehicle-related jobs? Running his RV rental business!
Funnily enough, like many others, Ryan didn’t intend to rent his RV when he bought it. “I first decided to get an RV when a lot of family members also went out and bought one,” he recalls. “The plan was for a bunch of family members to get campers and all go camping together throughout the summer. At first, I was very careful with the camper and didn’t want to get scratches or dings or any blemishes in it. I was treating it like a member of the family.
“Then one of the other family members that got a camper said they were going to try renting out their camper on Outdoorsy to make a little extra money. He ended up getting cold feet and didn’t go through with renting it, but I thought I would give it a try.”
Ryan listed his rig on Outdoorsy and started getting rental requests soon after. “I got my first rental in July of 2021 with my Keystone Passport—about a week after listing it—and it was going to a small concert in Vermont so the artists playing there had a place to stay,” Ryan says. “After the rental finished, I got back and the camper was absolutely filthy. I sort of lost the ‘family member’ vibe I had because of the way it was treated after that rental.
“I believe it was a good thing that the first rental came back like this, because I got the mentality in my head that this is now just a business asset. To this day, after dozens of other rentals, I have never had a camper come back as filthy as the very first one.”
Despite that first rental coming back so dirty, Ryan stuck it out—and it’s a good thing he did, because he’s been quite successful. “By the end of that first year, I had revenue of about $8,500 for just one camper. Then as soon as the season started again in April of 2022, I added my second camper. I was planning on only doing one camper until I saw there was going to be a demand for a second, and purchased it later than I would have liked. (I made sure this year to purchase the third camper in January to have time to fully prepare for the busy season.)
“By the end of 2022, I had revenue of a little over $20,000 with two campers. For my third year in business, I have set a goal of $40,000, planning to double my revenue every year I am in business.”
At this point, Ryan is all-in and has no plans to go back. In fact, the man is so devoted to his business and his customers that he actually changed his own family vacation plans to help a renter. “Last year I had a family trip planned to Maine at the end of July,” Ryan explains. “One of my campers was not rented, so we planned on staying in that. Then the day before we were going to leave, I had a rental come through, so plans changed, I dropped the camper off at a rental, and we ended up bringing a tent to Maine. I really enjoyed staying in the tent.” In fact, Ryan says this is one of his very favorite camping memories.
Ryan’s takeaway from his Maine experience? “You don’t need a camper to go camping, but it does make for a much more comfortable experience.” We couldn’t agree more!
All About Ryan
Favorite morning beverage: “Orange juice.”
Favorite campsite meal: “Buffalo chicken dip.”
Music you like to play on the radio: “Country.”
Best game to play at your campsite: “Cornhole and Kan Jam.”
Favorite season: “Summer.”
What’s your Outdoorsy spirit animal? “Cheetah, because we are quick at delivery and setting up.”
If you could travel anywhere in an RV, where would you go? “Grand Canyon.”
