‘RVezy’ Partners with Dealers for Online RV Rental Marketplace – RVBusiness – Breaking RV Industry News
As sales of recreational vehicles fall across Canada, an Ottawa startup that connects RV owners with renters via an online marketplace is using its platform to steer potential customers toward dealerships, according to a report by the Ottawa Business Journal.
Founded in 2016, RVezy lists more than 15,000 RVs, tent trailers and campers for rent in Canada and the United States.
The company, which charges a 20% service fee for each transaction, boomed during the pandemic as travel-starved North Americans flocked to the site when COVID-19 restrictions curtailed air travel and made staying in hotels and Airbnbs less palatable. As a result, RVezy, which has about 80 full-time employees, saw its revenues grow nearly 40 per cent between 2021 and 2023.
CEO and co-founder Will Thompson says revenues have been “normalizing” over the past year as other forms of vacationing make a comeback. But he expects traffic to get a bump this summer, thanks to a new partnership with a segment of the industry that once considered RVezy a major source of competition: RV dealerships.
Last fall, his firm quietly launched a new marketplace that connects private sellers and RV dealers from across Canada and the U.S. with consumers who can rent the vehicles through RVezy as a “test drive” before deciding whether to buy them. RVezy has since inked partnerships with close to 20 groups representing hundreds of dealerships.
Click here to read the full report by the Ottawa Business Journal.
