RV rentals for family road trips have all but dried up, according to rental executives. Health professionals and people too vulnerable to potential COVID-19 infection to fly commercial airlines now make up the bulk of rental consumers.
Cruise America, which has 130 North American RV rental locations, and other RV rental providers have seen big drops in business since the coronavirus pandemic hit, Cruise America Vice President Michael Smalley told Alton, Illinois-based newspaper The Telegraph.
“Everything has come to a complete standstill,” Smalley told The Telegraph. “It’s like slow motion. The shelter-in-place order pretty much eliminated any leisure travel for the moment.”
He noted that 40 percent of the company’s business comes from European tourists, who have almost entirely stopped booking reservations.
People who work in essential industries—first responders, health-care professionals and utility company workers—continue to seek out RV rentals, Smalley said. By serving this clientele, he said, Cruise America is helping other businesses stay open.
Smalley also noted that the company was founded in 1972 and survived the oil embargoes of the 1970s. He expressed optimism the company would also survive the present crisis.
Click here to read the full article in The Telegraph.
