How Much To Rent RV For A Month

Are you looking to take a break and go on an extended vacation without draining your wallet dry? Maybe you just need a cheap place to stay for a month?

No travel mode can compare to exploring nature through the comfort of an RV rental. They are perfectly affordable means to plan your trip, giving you so much to explore.

While planning for a trip, it’s worth asking how much it’ll cost to rent an RV for a month. As a direct answer, the estimated cost is about $1,500 to $4,500 a month, averaging at $50 to $150 per night.

However, you should know that these costs can vary a lot with your rental dates, the company you’re renting from, the type of RV, etc. You could go the luxurious route, spending $10,000 per month on a top-tier motorhome and parking it in pleasant campgrounds offering all sorts of amenities. Or you could opt for a free campground in a smaller pop-up camper for only $1,200 a month.

Depending on your budget and preferences, there's a lot that goes into planning a road trip on an RV. If you’re looking to learn more, this guide offers everything you need to know about how much it costs to rent an RV a month.

‍How much does renting an RV Cost?

To help you out, I've broken down the various determinants of renting an RV and covered every aspect, including model, nightly rates, and rental costs. Continue reading to learn more!

There are many options to consider while booking a rental RV, such as the length of your stay, vehicle model, size, cost of daily mileage, and amenities. But, if we're looking at the price of a Class A-type RV for a night, you can expect about $200 per night.

While a smaller Class A RV is easily available at $100 a day, the bigger ones with diesel engines can cost as high as $500 a day. Since these deluxe motorhomes offer home-like comfort and amenities, they are ideal for family vacations for 4 to 5 people.

Planning a road trip on an RV needs thorough research. From choosing the right type of vehicle to sketching out a route to booking campsites in advance, you must carefully plan your itinerary to make the most of your trip. If you are looking for some serious road trip experience, booking an RV park is as important as renting an RV that works best for you.

The only thing that could complicate finding a good RV park, however, is the total number of available parks in a given area. Since the RV industry and snowbirds are so large, there are multiple parks you can choose from. You might have to sift through a complete list of RV parks and narrow the number to a good selection.

Factors Influencing Rental Costs

Besides the monthly rental prices of RVs, there are a couple of other charges you might need to consider. These are discussed in detail next.

Amenities

Experiencing an RV lifestyle to its fullest might not be possible without the utilities and amenities offered both inside an RV as well as in the RV parks where you wish to stay between your road stints. In particular, during your long RV travelling, you’d always want a place you can shower, cook, clean, and spend the night. This should also be accompanied by other necessities, such as bedding, toiletries, cooking utensils, and cleaning supplies.

If you're renting from a peer-to-peer company, these costs would usually be included in the rental. Although, this isn't always the case. Hence, it's worth looking into it before confirming your booking.

Mileage

You can be provided with anything from unlimited miles to being charged up to $1 per mile. It really kind of depends on where you rent your RV from.

These charges can drastically influence the total cost of your trip over longer distances. Plus, with the cost of gas added to it, you could be looking at some pricey payments. To get a better estimate of how much it is to rent an RV a month, you should book your rental after determining the expected mileage costs (if any).

Insurance

It’s not uncommon for a rental company to have a solid insurance plan. In fact, in this day and age, it’s kind of hard to find a company without insurance coverage.

With that being said, another great way to save on extra expenses is to properly read your insurance plan (if offered). This includes taking the time to understand charges and looking for any hidden fees.

You can also choose between a premium and standard deductible during the booking process. Depending on your choice, insurance has a significant effect on the overall cost of RVs. The final price would also be affected by numerous other factors, such as the RV’s location, value, and age.

Security Deposit

Almost all RV rental companies require that renters pledge some money upfront as a security deposit. It’s the easiest way to ensure their investment doesn't depreciate in value after use. A security deposit also helps the rental company to fix or replace something that was damaged or lost by the renter.

However, the amount of the deposit varies with how it is calculated. As a result, it could potentially factor a lot into how much it costs to rent an RV a month. Factors influencing this calculation include the type of RV or the driver's age, among others.

That being said, security deposits have an upside. You would get a refund on these costs minus any damages incurred during the closeout process.

Add-ons

Last but not the least, you need to ask yourself about the kind of add-ons you'd be adding to your rental. RV owners or rental companies often let customers customize their rental packages and simply charge extra for these additional facilities. These include cleaning services, propane, sewage dumping, set-up, delivery, generator use, toll road fees, or outdoor equipment.

Types of RVs

To truly understand how much it is to rent an RV a month, you need a better sense of the "standard" and "expected" range of rental rates for your RV models. I will now explain them in more detail.

Class A Motorhome

If you’re looking to stay in comfort and luxury, Class A RVs are the perfect option. They’re motorized bus-like vehicles that are packed full of the choicest amenities. There's enough space on them to have eight or more people sleep comfortably.

However, all of these benefits come with a cost. In particular, Class A RVs are the most expensive and have the worst fuel efficiency among the many RV options available to you. Their typical price range is about $150 to $450+ a day.

Class B Motorhome

Class B RVs are considered the smallest motorhomes on the market, and they are built on a van chassis. They come with a suite of facilities, although these might be restricted by the motorhome's limited space. If you're okay with a cozy fit, they are worth their cost of $80 to $350 a day.

Class C Motorhome

Class C motorhomes lie between Class Bs and Class As. They’re medium-sized RVs with a diverse range of facilities, some aspects even on par with the Class A motorhomes.

In particular, Class C is an ideal option if you want more breathing room without splurging as much on a Class A type. You can find them adequately equipped with different features (bathroom, dining area, storage compartments) at an agreeable price range of $125 to $450.

Travel Trailer

Unlike your typical RV, a travel trailer is towable and not motorized. So, you'd have to have your own vehicle capable of pulling the trailer before traveling anywhere. However, if you already have something like that, you can save a ton more than renting a motorized home.

This is due to towable trailers being exceptionally cheaper than similarly-equipped RVs. In fact, they are medium-sized and come with many basic facilities. And you only need $80 to $200 to rent a travel trailer per day.

Truck Camper

Similar to a travel trailer, truck campers are one of the cheaper alternatives to renting an RV. They are quite small, so they don’t really work for groups larger than three people. And the features you’re offered are usually sparse. On the other hand, if you look past the small space and a lack of features, it’s a decent low-budget choice - you can rent them daily for only about $50 to $250 a month.

Fifth Wheel Trailer

Fifth wheels are the most luxurious towable RVs on the market. They're classy, unwieldy, and still spacious. You basically get all of the benefits of a Class A motorhome without spending a fortune. The only disadvantage is that you'd need a pretty heavy-duty vehicle for towing a fifth-wheel trailer. If you manage to find something like that for cheap, the trailer only costs $125 to $250 daily.

Factors Influencing Campground Rates

Believe it or not, the most expensive part of renting an RV isn't really the cost of renting the vehicle itself. RV parks usually cost more, and depending on your preference, the prices can skyrocket. These RV parks come in all sizes and shapes, and the rates will vary according to how much the space is worth, plus the facilities it offers, such as campgrounds, picnic tables, restrooms, laundry, and showers.

You'd notice notable differences in parking costs when shopping around. Let’s look at which factors influence and add up on the cost of staying at an RV park.

Season

Depending on the time of the year, you can always expect a different price. This is based on the simple law of supply and demand. During summer, people would want to camp out in their RVs more often. This results in a demand surge, encouraging RV parks to raise prices to keep up with their dwindling supply.

Meanwhile, if the supply overcomes the demand during a different season, you'd expect to pay lower fees and save some bucks.

Duration

If you're planning on staying for only a month or two, you would be charged a higher rate than if you decide to stay for a longer period. For instance, a park in Florida would charge you $300 a month for a short-term stay. On the other hand, if you want to sign up for six months or longer, the price would drop to $200.

Utilities and Amenities

Some RV parks would throw in everything you’d need to live in comfort and style. They would have tons of amenities for the price you're paying. However, you may need to ask for the price of these facilities personally because some owners do not like to state their rates on their web pages. This is done in hopes of not scaring off potential customers.

Location

Just like real estate, RV parks camping rates can depend a lot on location. When the park is in an expensive state or location, you can expect a higher nightly or monthly fee. For instance, parks in Maine charge up to $1,400 a month, whereas Oregon is only about $350 (give or take $10).

State Sales Tax

In some states, you might get a tax inflicted upon your overall cost of staying each month. And if this tax is applied to RV parking instead, the rates could be even higher than in other states.

Extra guests

For some parks, you might be charged an additional fee if more than two people stay in your RV during the stay. This charge could vary significantly, depending on the preferences of the owners of the park you're staying with, and in some cases, these rules can even apply to pets.

Mandatory fees

As brushed upon earlier, a couple of unavoidable fees can add to how much it costs to rent an RV per month. These will include mandatory rental fees, insurance, and taxes. Whether or not you encounter them depends a lot on where you rent your RV.

Most states demand sales tax on all rental vehicles (including recreational vehicles and motorhomes). These taxes usually make up for the costs of certain expenses, such as waste disposal from RVs. For instance, a state might impose environmental or vehicle license taxes to offset the cost of damages or maintenance from running your RV.

Likewise, you might also be required to compensate for potential damage to the park by paying additional fees or deposits. In particular, rental insurance can drastically affect your RV rental cost. Some rental companies would charge more for this type of insurance than others.

How can you save money?

Knowing the factors influencing the cost of renting RVs and leasing campgrounds, it's not hard to come up with some good ideas to save money.

You should just remember that the price of RV rentals would align with camping seasonality and renter demand. Try to avoid your typical peak-camping season to steer clear of higher-end pricing.

You can also try talking to the owners. If you're lucky, you might be able to get monthly or weekly discounts, saving you about 5% to 20% off the base rate. In particular, these markdowns are very common off-season through custom quotes or seasonal discounts. Listings usually show these pricing specials. But if they're unavailable, you can just reach out to the owners.

Would you be able to lease an RV?

When considering how much it is to rent an RV per month, people tend to look into ‘travel trailer leases’ or ‘recreational vehicle leasing’ alternatives to a long-term rental agreement. Although these leases are possible, you need to understand that RV lease agreements don't work the same as those for cars or similar vehicles.

The main difference between these two types of leases is the period these agreements last for. In particular, RV lease agreements are much shorter than those found at car dealerships. You don't get leases that last for a year or more for an RV as you do for cars. Their durations are usually only about a week or month.

Short-term vs. long-term

As a rule of thumb, you should know that extended leases result in significantly discounted deals. If you don't see a noticeable difference in pricing between long and short-term rentals, chances are that the owners are open to negotiation.

This is because every owner would want you to rent for extended durations, so they'll try to incentivize you by offering lower rates. Otherwise, they’d just be losing money for the time the RV is not rented or standing idle.

For instance, some RV owners might rent out an RV for about $50 per day for a month. However, for two weeks, you can expect this price to be much higher at about $75 a day. This is because during the two weeks that the RV is not rented, the owners are earning nothing.

In consequence, you can expect the daily rates to be the highest. These are then followed by monthly and weekly rates. So, if you’re looking to find the lowest rates during a year, you can benefit from the combined savings from seasonal discounted rates and long-term rental discounts.

These rates would rise with a spike in demand during peak seasons. Although, for the off-season, you'd notice owners dropping their rates to generate interest in their listings. When these long-term discounts are compounded with off-season discounts, you’re bound to find cheaper rates.

Is it cheaper to rent an RV than a hotel?

To be honest, there's no easy way to answer this question. There are simply way too many factors that play into the cost of RVs and hotels alike. Though hotel rooms can cost up to $100 to $400 per night, if we're considering a long vacation, hotels can also lower prices for extended periods.

Although, one thing I can say for sure is that RVs are definitely better for more affordable and relatively comfortable travel. The cost of renting an RV per night can be as low as $50. Depending on your location, this can be coupled with free or cheap camping grounds. You can cook your own meals instead of eating out or eating from hotel kitchens, and more people can squeeze in an RV as opposed to a hotel room.

Not to mention the freedom of choosing where you go and stay is a definite advantage of renting an RV over a hotel room. You can enjoy complete control over the route, stopovers, and the cost of renting an RV, while hotels do not offer the same kind of leverage.

Don't be surprised by fluctuations

On a final note, I'd like to say that price fluctuations are a completely normal part of determining how much it costs to rent an RV per month. Since every owner and RV is unique, they'd always be different prices for the same durations or RV models. Hence, don’t be alarmed or disheartened by these variations.

Some owners might be comfortable with offering discounted rates, while others might not be so accommodating. To find the cheapest rates, you need to do solid research, speak with other renters and continue looking for the best-discounted rates from long-term or off-season rentals.

Gather your loved ones and hit the road!