This is not like renting from a van hire company that has its own fleet with depots.

You are renting from individual owners, with the insurance, hire infrastructure, breakdown help etc being provided by the Shareacamper company. You need to research in detail to see which van/owner would work for you. You can communicate with the owners prior to booking via the webapp - make sure you do that. Our initial potential owner had a tight change over time, from one rental to the date we ideally wanted. After communication with the owner he (sensibly advised, as we were concerned) that he would not have enough time (in case of any damage from the previous rental) to guarantee that we would have the van on time. So we carried on looking.

The owner we went with (Damon) was excellent and his van we superb (even with a TV loaded with films on a hard drive). Our communication worked really well. You need to arrange a suitable pick up and drop off point (and mutual time). Damon came to our carhire drop off place with the van and took us through everything on the van (he had a great manual folder prepared). For drop off we arranged Supermarket car park near the airport (this was Christchurch South Island), did the final hand over and checks, then he drove us to the airport.

Again communication with the owner is key, while touring South Island, we had Whatsapp with Damon. So when I panicked, thinking the nearside wing mirror had been cracked while driving, he reassured me that this hairline crack had been done already (and indeed he had shown me this at the original collection point). So remember, you as the renter have a responsibility in this whole process, these are peoples vans. So pick your owner carefully.

As to the company itself. We had no problems, so did not really test them. But they were helpful with questions.

Reviewed over 5 years ago and experienced in February 2019

SHAREaCAMPER has been amazing !

The Customer Service Team are very helpful and do their very best to help in a sticky situation.

The Owner on our trip was very nice and gave us some local tips.

Bond refund was done within 10 working days which is totally acceptable.

I would definitely recommend these guys and wish you all the best for the future ! See you next year :)

Reviewed almost 6 years ago

Hired a camper for a 3 week tour of the North Island and totally enjoyed ourselves.

There's a huge variety of campers to choose from on Shareacamper, from budget non self-contained vans to luxury motorhomes. We ended up hiring a 3 berth campervan for my wife and young child. It was a slightly older van but was still self-contained and didn't break the bank. If we've gone to a motorhome company it would have costs us 40-50% more. Some of them are not even self-contained, so you can't freedom camp.

You deal directly with the owner and make payment through Shareacamper. In our case the owner offered to drop off the camper when we arrived at the airport!

Reviewed almost 7 years ago

THIS COMPANY IS AWFUL!!!

We had the most frustrating experience with them. The way they handle insurance is OUTRAGEOUSLY UNFAIR! We feel we were unfairly charged over $2,500 NZD. I would NOT rent with them if you can avoid it. I cannot express how angry we are with this company. We are not the kind of people who leave reviews but we felt we just had to with this business. DO NOT USE THEM!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If you do, make sure you read every piece of fine print about the insurance. They are an absolute rip off.. Very angry and disappointed customers.

Reviewed over 4 years ago

Renters be aware!!

I agreed with other reviews on this website. Be extremely careful when renting through this company.

First of all, the way the bond is handled. The excessively high bond is not 'reserved' on the Credit Card but actually taken taken from the credit card and put in escrow. This means I actually had to give this money to my bank for the duration of the hire to prevent paying interest on it too. Make sure you have the full bond available on your checking account if you rent with this company. Furthermore, the bond is taken in NZD on my euro based credit card. This means paying twice for converting between currencies. In the end, this practice cost me €140,- in unexpected costs (15% of total rental price). It is complete needless since they can choose to 'reserve' on your credit card, like any normal rental company. This shows their complete lack of interest to the customer.

The camper van we received for 2 weeks of use was not how we expected it at all. It was used by the owner for no more than a weekend away and it showed. For instance, we had no storage capacity and the bed was only 1.60m wall to wall. There is nothing you can really do about this when renting through ShareACamper. There is also not really any way to know (or warn others) that this particular camper has these problems since there is no review capability on the website. This would be my number one reason to never hire with this company again. Furthermore, you are pretty dependent on the owner of the vehicle to be honest, since there is no review system there is nothing to keep them honest.

Risk. You will have a high risk of ending up without a vehicle. In case of cancellation by the owner, or breakdown of the vehicle, you can not get a replacement vehicle. This can potentially ruin your holiday. This is a flaw with the ShareACamper model that I don't expect them to be able to ever fix.

Reviewed over 4 years ago

Terrible terrible terrible!

Correspondence with customer service team at ShareaCamper has been completely ignored A complete disaster from start to finish, from the initial hire to getting my bond back. It was an awful process and I felt completely undervalued as a customer. I’m still waiting for my undisputed $3500.00 bond refund weeks later and was told to double check my c/c account. Ummmm, I think I would know if I’m missing $3500.00. Now going through disputes legal team with my bank. The owner of the van on the other hand was amazing. If you are new to hiring caravans, do not use this company. Hopeless customer service, hopeless at providing important information, such as your vehicle needs to have a certain towing capacity ect ect list goes on. Not a happy camper.

Reviewed almost 5 years ago

This is not like renting from a van hire company that has its own fleet with depots.

You are renting from individual owners, with the insurance, hire infrastructure, breakdown help etc being provided by the Shareacamper company. You need to research in detail to see which van/owner would work for you. You can communicate with the owners prior to booking via the webapp - make sure you do that. Our initial potential owner had a tight change over time, from one rental to the date we ideally wanted. After communication with the owner he (sensibly advised, as we were concerned) that he would not have enough time (in case of any damage from the previous rental) to guarantee that we would have the van on time. So we carried on looking.

The owner we went with (Damon) was excellent and his van we superb (even with a TV loaded with films on a hard drive). Our communication worked really well. You need to arrange a suitable pick up and drop off point (and mutual time). Damon came to our carhire drop off place with the van and took us through everything on the van (he had a great manual folder prepared). For drop off we arranged Supermarket car park near the airport (this was Christchurch South Island), did the final hand over and checks, then he drove us to the airport.

Again communication with the owner is key, while touring South Island, we had Whatsapp with Damon. So when I panicked, thinking the nearside wing mirror had been cracked while driving, he reassured me that this hairline crack had been done already (and indeed he had shown me this at the original collection point). So remember, you as the renter have a responsibility in this whole process, these are peoples vans. So pick your owner carefully.

As to the company itself. We had no problems, so did not really test them. But they were helpful with questions.

Reviewed over 5 years ago and experienced in February 2019

From start to finish hiring the camper van was a great experience.

The owner couldn't have been more helpful, the van was easy and a pleasure to drive - and hiring this way allowed me a once in a lifetime experience of visiting the Catlins with my family, while having the flexibility of having my own smaller vehicle.

Fantastic, and highly recommend the experience.

Reviewed over 5 years ago

They cancelled our booking twice, second time it was only 4 days prior to our trip, in high season.

We left cold and stuck as virtually anything with 4 wheels was already booked out in NZ.

Reviewed almost 6 years ago