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Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Alternatives to hiring a campervan from Britz

By Tim Ahern


If you're looking to hire a campervan or motorhome in Australia, then you can guarantee that in your search, you will come across the company "Britz". However, before your commit to hiring anything from them, great as they are, you should at least consider some of the 60 alternative companies in the market. Below you can find out about some other well known, and not so well known alternatives.

Britz is clearly the dominant player in the Australian campervan hire market. Not only due to their own brand of vehicles, but through their extended family of Kea, Maui and Mighty Campers as well. The biggest competitor to them is Apollo Campervans, which is the largest privately owned brand in Australia. It consists of Apollo Campervans, Cheapa Campa and Hippy Campers. Apollo offers a very similar price and experience to Britz and so any research in to campervan hire in Australia should definitely look in to what Apollo are offering. The 3 aforementioned brands from Apollo cater to three different target markets of Superior, Mid range and budget respectively.

If searching for a campervan rental in the budget price range, you are going to find Hippy Campers and Mighty Campers, however you are also going to come across Wicked Campers. Wicked are a key player in the budget market but make little impact on the other market segments, so if looking for a mid-range or luxury style, don't bother with Wicked. Wicked have a reputation for being unruly and unreliable. They, as a company, are known bend rules and ethics and also have a reputation for under-servicing their vehicles. However, they are also dead cheap and the vehicles work often enough that they have expanded their fleet across the world in to many, many countries. They are a business model success story. However, if the stories you hear are true and you are looking for a budget alternative, then try looking in to Awesome Campers or Travellers Autobarn. Awesome Campers has had rapid expansion in the last couple of years so must be doing things to keep people coming back and Travellers Autobarn has been winning awards for some years now. Put them on your list to research for prices.

But Britz really is aimed at the middle to upper price range of campervans. So what are some alternatives in this range? Well, staying clear of the aforementioned camper companies that are owned by Britz and Apollo, one mentionable alternative is Around Australia Motorhomes. This company is going for the luxury motorhome market and are definitely hitting their mark. No skimping with this crowd! Their fleet consists mainly of top-end Winnebago's for the clientele that want space and luxury during their travel. If this is you, then definitely get a price from them before booking anywhere else. Independently owned, they pride themselves on client satisfaction and are a small enough company to care what the end user thinks but large enough to have a number of vehicle options.

If looking in the mid-priced campervan range, then you should at least keep an eye out for a group called Energi Motorhomes. They don't tend to appear early in Google search results unless you are specifically looking for them, but their vehicles and their feedback are both of good quality. Energi seem to pop up in results for price-comparison websites that compare 10 or more campervan hire companies, so if they are not in any results you come up with, keep looking. If you don't get a comparison price on these guys, you are short-selling your research when trying to find the best bang-for-buck, mid range company. The vehicles are generally quite new with the latest bells and whistles and the pricing is normally pretty good.

Additionally, in the mid range price market, keep an eye out for Camperman Campervans. Recently they have been becoming a major player in a market that is full of also-rans. They have been one of the fastest growing companies in the mid to upper price-range, offering new vehicles that fit nicely in to the market. Whilst they are definitely pushing their new vehicles, they are still holding on to some of the older ones that they had when they were smaller. With these older vehicles, they can still tap in to the cheaper end market too. They have bases up the whole length of the east coast of Australia and so they offer quite an alternative to Britz and the other major players that are in this market segment.

So, if you are looking for a cheap campervan, a mid range motorhome or a luxury RV, there are definitely alternatives available to the dominant Britz range. I have only covered a handful here. If are hiring from Sydney, the largest Australian city, there are over 30 companies that have depots available to you. Make sure when researching which company to hire from, you look for a website that gives at least 20 different companies in the results for your search criteria.




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