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(July 2, 2006) --
If you post it, they will come. In March, El Monte RV
Inc. quietly opened a satellite office in Reno and
started taking bookings for recreational vehicles on
its website. Even though it was charging roughly
double the rate it asked in the San Francisco area,
with prices over $5,000, El Monte sold out its small
inventory for the Burning Man period “almost
immediately,” according to Joe Laing, a company
spokesman.
“We didn’t think it was going to be very big,” Laing
said. Yet with only five vehicles initially available,
the selling out should not have been a surprise. The
company rents hundreds of RVs to Burners each year,
Laing said. Unlike some of its competitors, the
company likes the idea of the event, although none of
its employees have ever attended. Laing noted that
late summer is a busy time for RV rental agencies.
In addition to Burning Man, there are two big NASCAR
races over the Labor Day weekend near El Monte’s home
base in Southern California, and these are popular
with RV renters, Laing said. Burning Man and NASCAR
put a strain on El Monte’s resources, which show up in
pricing that may strike Burners as unfair or, in the
case of Reno, absurd.
“We are not gouging,” Laing said. “We have to make
money. We are trying to still make availability.”
While the annual pilgrimage to Black Rock City may be
central to Burner planning, other RV renters have
different goals. What this means for companies that
rent RVs is that all of a sudden in the late summer,
there is a lot of demand for vehicles in California.
El Monte’s web site shows that it has 10 locations in
California out of 31 nationwide, including 10 on the
East Coast. El Monte’s problem is that late in August,
it has a lot of demand in two specific places but its
RVs are scattered across the country. Not only does it
have to get its vehicles to those offices, it then has
to figure out how to redisperse them to its other
locations afterwards, either via one-way rentals or by
hiring people to drive the rigs. There’s also the
labor-intensive question of cleaning RVs that have
spent a dusty week on the Playa.
Somewhere, Adam Smith is smiling. El Monte sets its
rates at levels that make it worth its while to get
RVs to where they are wanted. Which is why, if you
wanted to rent a 26-foot, Class C RV in Reno (the
smallest size available via the website) from August
27 to Sept. 5 of this year, the base rate was $5,921
in mid-May. Taxes, insurance and mileage are
additional. The same size vehicle in Oakland would set
you back $2,721 but would cost just $1,701 in Las
Vegas.
If you are coming from California, your choices are
limited, but Burners arriving from elsewhere would be
smart to rent an RV in places like Las Vegas, and Salt
Lake City, adding a few extra days to the contract but
still paying hundreds or thousands of dollars less
overall.
Laing had a few additional tips for Burners who want
to rent RVs, either from El Monte or one of its
competitors. One was to rent as early as possible. El
Monte employs the same kind of yield management system
that airlines use, which adjust prices in response to
early demand. As the rental date gets closer, rates go
“higher and higher.” It also might be worth
negotiating a one-way rental. Once Burning Man and
NASCAR are over, it’s the fall season, and national RV
companies may want to move their vehicles to
warm-weather zones like the southwest. So Burners
coming from the Northeast and Midwest might find it
cheaper to rent in their home towns and drop their
units off in Nevada or California, flying home, than
to book a round trip. It’s worth calling the rental
company office and asking if they have any one-way
deals, since these aren’t always listed on web sites.
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