How? On which platform are you? What is the rate you are renting out and how much does the platform take?
We will, after our 2nd child will be born 
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Mycamper.ch, the rest is in the FAQ. They are not cheap, but mostly effortless in terms of CAC.
Hi! Are you still doing that?
Any bad experience? What happens if one of the renter crashes your vehicle?
Thanks!
the platform has a full casco coverage, independent of your own.
the deductible will be invoiced directly to the client.
on top of that you have a deposit in your hand.
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Any thoughts about the new cali?
Looks like less space for more money…
Even if i like two or tgree features im not 100% convinced about the seats and the table is now always stored in the back.
Since the T3 it has always been less space…
To bringe the thread back to life (and to brag a bit) we just bought a cali 6.1 and are happy to start the season soon!
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Congratulations @Kay4rElle!
OP of this thread here, hopefully you will have as much fun and great memories as we have had with ours. We have had it for 2 years now and I’ve almost spent 80 nights in it 
Kind of triggered by owning the van, we will even have a 8 week mini-sabbatical this summer and we will go for a tour in Scandinavia with the van.
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Hi @user137
Thanks a lot for sharing your experience in the VW California thread. I found your comments about renting it out on MyCamper really interesting, especially the idea of using the rental income to offset part of the ownership costs.
I’m currently thinking about buying a VW California Ocean (T5 or T6, ideally below 150,000 km). The main reason would be to use it with my family, but I would also like to rent it out when we are not using it.
I live in Ticino, and after looking at MyCamper I only found two campers in the area with some rental history, so I’m trying to get a better feeling for the real demand here. From the outside it looks quite limited, but I’m wondering if this is simply because there are not many vehicles available, or because owners usually keep the calendar open for their own plans rather than renting it out.
I’d be really interested to hear about your experience:
- Roughly how many rental days did you get per year?
- Did you often receive requests that you had to decline because you wanted to use the van yourself?
- Where did most of your renters come from (German-speaking Switzerland, French-speaking Switzerland, Ticino, Germany, Italy, etc.)?
- Do you think the location makes a big difference for demand on MyCamper?
Any insights would be really helpful. I’m trying to understand whether a California in Ticino could realistically cover part of the ownership costs.
Thanks again!
It changed everything when MyCamper bought the current platform they have about 3 yrs ago - they are neglecting the Swiss users and favoring the (much larger base of the) Scandinavian sector.
They also got super greedy and are asking 30-40% commission by now, so the profit is not there anymore, I quit about two years ago as all the liability was left with the owners and they took the profit. It was very inbalanced.
Europcar rents VW Californias (Beach Edition), that and the surrounding van rental companies might be your competition.
A California is a fantastic asset and a very good holiday tool. If you have the time and chance to play a digital nomad, I highly encourage you to try, even if you end up not renting it. Selling it on Year 2 gives you almost net zero loss, but certainly less amortization than if you rented one for 3-3 weeks both years.
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How does a campervan compare to putting a tent in a car?
Last few days I camped out in the garden with the kids since it was so hot inside. Tent was surprisingly quick and easy to put up so I wondered if it is easier (and cheaper) to buy a big tent instead of a specialized campervan?
Obviously it isn’t as convenient and you would need a campsite instead of any old place you can park a campervan. But unless you go camping a lot, I think rental or tent could be a good option.
The main difference is The Swag.
depending on the van you are comparing with a tent. A van can come with small kitchen (no need to install it every day), fridge etc.
When you are once installed on a campsite I think the difference becomes bigger the more the weather gets worse..
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it has insulation
it has electricity
it has heating
it has actual beds (some of them)
it has a gas cooker inside when it rains
it has noise-insulated windows (some of them)
you can actually stand up inside (in most of them)
it has a large sideways-opening suncover (die Markise)
it has a table and chairs stowed away
it has a fridge (most of them)
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you park, you set up the roof, you sleep.
No need to get out of the car at all. We have camped in weather with 100km/h wind or with strong rain an i was glad to be in a car an not just a tent.
Also, the car is big, so you have lots of space (and dont need fill it with a tent). We love to use it in winter with all our Ski gear, or in summer for bikes and more.
Yeah. I can see the appeal vs putting up a tent during a storm 
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Thanks, that’s really helpful!
Our situation is a bit different from someone buying a camper mainly as a rental business. We’re a family of four with two young kids (2 and 4), and we’d mainly use the California ourselves for around two weeks in summer to drive from Switzerland to Spain, plus maybe 5-7 weekends during the year and some winter day trips/skiing.
The idea would basically be to rent it out whenever we’re not using it. I’m not really looking to make a profit from the rental side — ideally I’d just like the rental income to cover the fixed costs of owning the van.
Do you think that’s a realistic plan in Switzerland/Ticino? Or, based on your experience, would you say the rental demand is too low nowadays?
Also, do you know Yescapa? I’m right next to the Italian border and I’ve noticed there seem to be quite a lot of professional owners on Yescapa in northern Italy, so I’m wondering if that could be another option.
And out of curiosity, if you were in my situation today, would you still buy a California and rent it out occasionally, or would you just rent one whenever you need it?
Thanks again — your experience is really useful for me before I spend CHF 30k on one!
I can’t tell you if it’s worth buying and renting in Ticino. We live in Zurich and that’s an entirely different market segment.
Driving to Spain sounds nonsensical. Much cheaper and faster to fly down, even with 4 people. And I wouldn’t put the kids into a 10-hour drive either. But that’s entirely your call.
The new California is VERY small though. Two adults will not comfortably fit either upstairs or downstairs. (Both beds are 114cm wide). So for a real car you need the T6.1 Calis.
Last bit of input: don’t expect anything good for 30k. Calculate 60-65k for new or last edition T6.1 or about 50k for 4yrs used.
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Thanks a lot for the honest answer. When you make a plan like this, especially when there’s an emotional side to buying a camper, it’s actually really useful to have someone point out the critical parts.
Regarding the price, I’ve been looking around and with a budget of CHF 30–35k it seems possible to find a T5 or T6 Ocean, automatic, less than 10 years old and under 150k km. My thinking was that this could actually make more sense for us, since our personal use would be quite limited. I don’t really want to put CHF 60–70k into a camper that we’d only use occasionally.
Also, I’m thinking about depreciation. My rough assumption is that if I buy a 10-year-old one for around CHF 30–35k, after 5 years I might lose maybe CHF 5k in value. With a newer one at CHF 60–65k, I’d expect the depreciation in those first five years to be considerably higher.
So the idea was basically to buy an older one, use it for ourselves when we want, and rent it out enough to cover the fixed costs and hopefully limit the depreciation.
But maybe I’m missing something important in that calculation, which is why your opinion is useful.