Privately owned Outdoorsy – which bills itself as the Airbnb of RV-centric vacation travel and has raised north of $80 million in capital since being founded in 2015 – saw sales explode 4,500 percent from March to June, the company tells Yahoo Finance. Momentum has continued for the RV rental platform through the summer: Labor Day weekend sales have already surged 227 percent from a year ago.
“The pandemic has changed the way Americans think about travel. In terms of mass market hotels, mass market cities and airports, they have chosen to hit the road in recreational vehicles, camper vans, trailers as a way to avoid the pressure of life and lockup. And importantly because you can travel in one of these vehicles where you are maintaining disinfected environments. It’s a socially distant activity by design, and it seems to have become a national pastime in the last 90 days,” Outdoorsy co-founder Jeff Cavins told Yahoo Finance’s The First Trade.
Click here to see the full report from Brian Sozzi at Yahoo Finance.
The major upswing for Outdoorsy finally brings some validation to Cavins, a long-time executive in corporate America and a well-known name in Silicon Valley. For quite some time, Cavins had trouble raising money to support Outdoorsy’s growth as venture capitalists didn’t believe in the model.
