A Motorhome hire agency is a company which hires privately owned motorhomes to customers. This practice is common in the UK, where several agencies dominate the market. Motorhome hire is a type of vacation rental

Vacation rental

Vacation rental is the renting out of a furnished apartment or house on a temporary basis to tourists as an alternative to a hotel. The term vacation rental is mainly used in the US. In Europe the term villa rental or villa holiday is preferred for rentals of detached houses in warm climates...

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History

Motorhome hire agencies emerged in the UK in 2005, after motorhome hire as a practice began to take off with holidaymakers in the UK. In recent years, motorhome hire agencies in the UK have become increasingly popular for two reasons. Firstly, many UK motorhome owners have sought to earn an additional income from their motorhome due to recession-related issues such as job losses. This led to many motorhome owners fearing the repossession of their vehicle. Secondly, UK holidaymakers were looking for a cheaper alternative to overseas travel and travellers from outside the UK benefited from a favourable exchange rate

Exchange rate

In finance, an exchange rate between two currencies is the rate at which one currency will be exchanged for another. It is also regarded as the value of one country’s currency in terms of another currency...

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How It Works

The concept of motorhome hire is similar to that associated with holiday cottage

Holiday cottage

A holiday cottage is a cottage used for accommodation, which has become common in the United Kingdom and Canada. They are typically small homes that vacationers can rent and run as if it were their own home for the duration of their stay. This gives them the freedom to eat in, eat out, stay in bed...

 rentals. Motorhome owners list their vehicles with a hire agency. The vehicle is typically given an online profile and marketed by the hire agency.

Bookings come through the agency and the company deals with all the financial matters and insurance

Insurance

In law and economics, insurance is a form of risk management primarily used to hedge against the risk of a contingent, uncertain loss. Insurance is defined as the equitable transfer of the risk of a loss, from one entity to another, in exchange for payment. An insurer is a company selling the...

. The customer is then able to collect the motorhome from the owner and the owner is paid a fee.

Most UK agencies work on a commission basis. For example, hirer X may pay £1000 for a 1 week hire. The motorhome hire agency will then subtract the VAT and insurance costs before paying a commission

Commission (remuneration)

The payment of commission as remuneration for services rendered or products sold is a common way to reward sales people. Payments often will be calculated on the basis of a percentage of the goods sold...

 percentage to the motorhome owner. The percentage paid varies between different companies with some paying 50% or lower, and some up to 75%.

Whilst the vehicle is on hire with the agency it is protected by their insurance and breakdown cover

Breakdown cover

Breakdown cover is a service that provides assistance to motorists whose vehicles have suffered a mechanical failure that is significant enough to leave them stranded at their present location....

. In the event of damage or an accident, the motorhome hire agency will retrieve the necessary cost of repair from the hirer.

Any motorhome owner can register their motorhome with a hire agency provided that they can supply it in clean working order to customers.

Taxable Income

In the UK, residents are required to declare income from the hire of motorhomes, whether privately or through an agency, to HM Revenue and Customs. This applies whether the overall earnings are below or above the taxable threshold.

Industry Developments

The first major motorhome hire agency industry development came in 2006 when the first online availability search was implemented by Motorhome Group. This was also coupled with online booking; allowing customers to book and pay for privately owned motorhome over the internet. At the same time, motorhome owners could log onto an online profile to track the status of their bookings and edit their motorhome information.

Another development which was introduced in 2009 is SMS

SMS

SMS is a form of text messaging communication on phones and mobile phones. The terms SMS or sms may also refer to:- Computer hardware :...

notifications. Text alerts are sent to motorhome owners when their vehicle receives a booking with the motorhome hire agency.