Camp West

The camping van rental company Roadsurfer ventures into the USA. It's the culmination of rapid growth for the time being. What the Munich-based company hopes to gain from the move.

The relationship of the US-Americans to nature is a special one. This is evident from the fact that in the country, which is otherwise critical of any government intervention, the concept of a national park is largely uncontroversial. Everything may be privatized, but the most beautiful patches of land in the U.S. are state-owned and accessible to everyone.

It is a country entirely to the taste of Markus Dickhardt. He himself went camping in the U.S. several times as a student. "What other country is so synonymous with freedom and the outdoors," he says. Now the co-founder and CEO of camping rental company Roadsurfer wants to gain a foothold in the world's largest economy with his start-up. On June 1, Roadsurfer will open a station in Los Angeles, initially with 30 vehicles. If things go well, more are expected to follow soon.

The company has been in existence since 2016 and is now the largest camping van rental company in Europe by its own account. Through the platform, nature enthusiasts can rent the mobiles of most major manufacturers, such as Volkswagen or Ford. That doesn't sound revolutionary, but Roadsurfer actually filled a gap from the very beginning. That's because classic car rental companies are staying away from the market, as Dickhardt himself discovered when he wanted to rent a bus for a vacation with some friends in 2016. "The car rental companies didn't have anything on offer, and there wasn't a specialist yet either," he recalls. So, without further ado, the trained social media specialist created his own offer.

Since then, things have really only been going up. Because camping vacations are in vogue. Overnight stays at campsites have been increasing almost every year since the start of the millennium. According to the Caravaning Industrie Verband (Caravanning Industry Association), the number of camping van registrations is also constantly reaching new record levels. The latter means that manufacturers can hardly keep up with production, which in turn makes rental models such as Roadsurfer attractive - quite apart from the fact that buying a camper is also expensive. The corona pandemic also gave a boost recently, after all, in times of virus, a quiet vacation in nature is more attractive than a trip to a crowded metropolis.

Roadsurfer has used all this to expand throughout Europe. The Munich-based company now covers twelve markets, with 36 locations by the end of 2021. The next step is now to be offered by the USA. "The status there is about the same as it was for us five years ago," says Dickhardt. He estimates the market potential to be correspondingly high.

The first target group, however, is not at all the U.S. Americans themselves, even though no one at Roadsurfer would oppose them as customers.Initially, it is primarily Europeans who are vacationing on the West Coast, for example, who are to be addressed. "That's why we also chose Los Angeles as a location, because it's a hub for European tourists," says Dickhardt.

Even though going to the U.S. is initially a test balloon, they are optimistic at Roadsurfer that the location will quickly become self-sustaining. "We've already shown in Europe that we can grow and be profitable," says the founder. The costs for staff and operations are higher in the U.S., he adds, "but that is offset by U.S. rates."

In addition to making the move across the Atlantic, Roadsurfer also plans to tap into other European markets. England, Scotland, Switzerland and Sweden are on the agenda, with a total of 50 stations planned this year and the fleet to grow from 2,500 to 5,000 campers. In the medium term, Dickhardt hopes that further stations will be added in the USA. And in the north, Canada is another natural paradise that could become interesting. Dickhardt himself is already going there once this year, on vacation. Perhaps it will also be a scouting trip.