Unless you’ll a full-timer or have figured out how to make more use of time than most of us, RV camping is short-term, and perhaps infrequent. Many RVs, motorized and towed, sit idle much of the season – or even for full seasons altogether.
How do you make use of this significant investment if you’re not traveling and camping often enough to take advantage of it? Here are three ideas.
Set up a home office.
If you need to stay close to home but you need a better office space or just a change in scenery and you work from home, then set up the RV in the driveway to use as your workspace. You don’t need to hook it up to electricity if everything is charged the night before; better yet, use solar converters to power your electronics (just get the right one). Now, with WiFi becoming much more prominent at campgrounds, resorts, and parks – not to mention using cell phones as hot spots – it’s easier than ever to take your work on the road and work wherever you happen to pull in for the night. Workamping is a serious trend right now. The only limit is your sense of adventure.
Use it as guest quarters.
You may want to stay home, but other folks may not. For visitors needing a spot to vacation, offer your RV as their private guest quarters – with access to all the amenities in the house. This can be an advantage for guests for several reasons: more autonomy to come and go as they please, more privacy, a larger space to spread out and call their own. Set up the RV on your property, or even offer to bring it to a local campsite if your friends handle the reservation. For additional tips to make your RV guest quarters cozy and comfortable, read “How to Turn your RV into a Guesthouse” and “Tips to Transform Your RV Into Guest Quarters.”
Rent it out.
Air B&B and VRBO have been hot the past few years. Campgrounds are adding cabins and other “camp-like” structures such as yurts. People looking to get away are diversifying where they stay and looking for flexibility as well as originality. They like having a place to call their own. If you know you have a busy season ahead of you and won’t get camping very often, or you want to make some extra cash in the early or late season, then look into renting out your RV. There are websites where you can post your personal rig or trailer for rent, the biggest sites being rvshare.com and rvngo.com. There’s usually a user fee on your part, but you get to decide the nightly rate.