#vanlife community

I didn't even know that there was such a thing...

A press release issued today:

A new startup aims to provide a platform connecting homeowners with extra parking spaces to the rapidly growing #vanlife community.
In recent years, #Vanlife has become a way for people to find novel freedom in their lives, both physically and financially. Due to the Coronavirus pandemic, the accessibility of necessary resources to those who live in a home on wheels has become severely limited. While many new companies are emerging due to the rapidly growing demand for retrofitted sleeper vans, there are still many challenges concerning day-to-day living on wheels. From finding safe places to park for the night to the comfort of wifi and running water, the reality of #vanlife is still far from the idealized portrayal found in social media today.

Vanly provides a service to bridge the gap between homeowners willing to share their resources for a fee and travelers trying to find the comfort of home on the road.

The web app was officially launched for the public on August 1, 2020. Although Vanly is based in Santa Cruz, the website’s services are available to users across the country.

Vanly provides safe parking and amenities on the road while creating the opportunity for travelers to connect with the local communities around the nation.

Similarly to Airbnb and other sharing-economy platforms, Vanly allows for hosts to easily post listings of their driveways or parking spaces while also giving them the ability to accept or deny booking requests as they come, after reviewing travelers profiles. Listing driveway space on the app is completely free of cost. Additionally, hosts can also easily add extra amenities for travelers such as wifi, access to kitchen, laundry or bathroom, and set their own prices. This allows for a diversity of listings from resource minimalists traveling on a budget to the potential for luxurious stays with multiple amenities.

Vanlife community members signing up with Vanly can search for driveway listings based on their preferred cities and resource accessibility. When travelers find their ideal spot, they can send a request to the driveway host through the website. If the host approves of the request, they will be prompted to send the host the payment via PayPal. Once the host receives the payment and confirms the booking, the driveway address will be automatically shared with the traveler. The website provides a way for the homeowners to make an easy form of passive income while meeting new people from around the country.

What do think of the concept?

Mark

I see a lot of potential. If enough people get involved, it could be a very popular option.

Rick

It certainly is an interesting idea with some potential, but it's also getting to be kind of a crowded marketplace for that sort of thing.

You've got Harvest Hosts and Boondockers Welcome that already exist and are strongly targeting the vanlife/fulltime RV market. There's also hipcamp and even AirBnB has a fair number of campsite listings.

On top of it, if you're really targeting the vanlife crowd, much of that community is primarily focused on reducing expenses as much as possible, which means taking full advantage of free dry camping/boondocking in places like National Forest and BLM lands.

If this new site is going to work, it's going to need to quickly find a way to get a large enough base of places to stay to make it worthwhile to consider (which noting the site has apparently been live for a month, and there are only 4 host listings in the entire country, it's not off to a great start), and find a way to be profitable while targeting a relatively small and thrifty customer base. I will say the "pay for amenties" like wi-fi or laundry has some potential to make it stand out.

A friend of mine has been van life living for quite a number of years now. I don't know the whole story but believe it had something to do with the financial meltdown and debt. During our biannual surf gathering camping trips he has talked about it. We have not talked about how he has coped during the pandemic, but I do know that he relied on gym membership for more than exercise--a place for daily showers--so those closures for a long time must have made it more difficult. Likewise for restrooms with all the places closed or not operating restrooms for now. He has a good basic van rigged up with top mounted solar panels for cooking and refrigeration and a full-time job. There is a surprisingly large subculture out there.

This is an interesting vandwelling site.

https://vandwellers.org/

Our town does not allow sleeping in an RV at your home but I'm sure people do it. I could see my neighbors complaining! Not sure I'd be interested in renting my driveway anyways.

Utahtea

Some driveways aren't level, which (depending on which way the bed is, in a particular camper) could be interesting. Some are also too short for much more than a popup.

I feel certain that my neighbors used their RV as a temporary bedroom more than once. But with a police officer living right across the street, they were pretty discreet about it. We also have a CC&R about RV's not on the street for more than 72 hours. (We ran into a big problem with that when our rig broke down in front of our house and it took weeks to get going again.)

But if it was happening at the same house over and over again in our area, I'm sure the neighbors would catch on and report it. Perhaps in other neighborhoods too.


Donna

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Originally Posted by landmariner

.....There is a surprisingly large subculture out there.

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Way to go!! It's the utter freedom which is the attraction for most. Not being able to hop in my van is driving me insane. (In Melbourne we're restricted to 5km from home max.)

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Originally Posted by travelingman

This is an interesting vandwelling site.

https://vandwellers.org/

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That site is the most often quoted, even here. Most of us learned the ropes from Bob.

But I am puzzled as to why anyone would object to a van parked in a driveway with someone sleeping in it.... that's if they know. My van is parked right by my house, and no one would know if anyone slept in it or not. Even the fan cover opens and shuts according to the weather, without anyone in the van. The solar panels are a God-send.

But my poor Ford in the U.S. is stuck in a storage, and may not get a run on the road for a couple of years now..... if ever again. Dread the thought of it.,

Lifey

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Originally Posted by DonnaR57

We also have a CC&R about RV's not on the street for more than 72 hours.

Donna

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The 72 hour rule is a City code in our town but you can get a permit to park it on the street for up to 10 days but no hooking up to water & electric and no sleeping in the rig. Of course that doesn't stop people from parking their RV's for much longer on the street, hooking up to utilities and sleeping in the rigs. We are allowed to park our RV's in the front yard. We load our RV while in the front yard and only pull it out when we're ready to hook up the tow vehicle so it's never in the street for more than a couple of hours.


Many years ago the local beautification committee tried to make it so you couldn't park an oversized vehicle in your front yard...they had the size so small that a large truck was within the size they wanted out of site! All oversized vehicles had to be behind a fence, but we are a cowboy town and there were two many people on the city council at the time who didn't want to impose that on the locals. Besides there wasn't enough storage places anywhere nearby to handle the number of RV owners who would need spaces if it was passed. The city council also said that there were plenty of places in town that had CC&R's that would not allow it if that's what people wanted and that a lot of people, including themselves, moved to places without CC&R's because they didn't want those restrictions. We would love to put our RV behind our fence but the houses are to close together in our neighborhood to make that work.

Utahtea

I would imagine that this concept would work best (if it works at all), in areas that are more rural, hosts living outside the major cities, or on larger properties with plenty of room and no idea what CC&R even stands for.

Big distinction between people traveling in a van or RV, in need of a spot to park it for a night or two, and people who are living in a van because they have no other home, whether that be by choice, or by unfortunate circumstance. From what I've read, there's a lot of that going on in California (consequence of sky high rents). Considering how many people are unemployed and struggling to stave off eviction, I can see it becoming even more of a thing, at least for the short term.

Rick

In the UK Vanlife is a growing market, as well as those that just use Motorhomes and caravans for a holiday. 'Wild camping' (Boondocking) as it's known here is causing quite a stir as it gets more and more popular and local councils are introducing height barriers and bans on parking overnight in response to local complaints. New websites are cropping up with free or cheap overnight options where others can add to the data base. (Park4night/Searchforsites etc)The problem is the more these spots are shared on-line the more popular they become and that creates a problem with the local residents and then the councils react with enforcement policies. We live near a quiet beach area and for as many years as I can remember you would have 3 or 4 campers down there stay the night. Then came the 'power' of sharing your great find on the Internet and suddnely there were campervans nose to tail for 2 miles along the seafront and yep, the local dog walkers and residents who couldn't park started to complain and now its a no go zone for any campers between 8pm and 8am. Sometimes, oversharing is like shooting yourself in the foot !

I have heard of campers letting like minded people use their driveway and even swapping driveways for a week or two for a change of location and providing electric and water hook ups. If it does take off in a big way, I'm pretty sure it will soon be clamped down on by the local councils.
One idea that is taking off is for pubs to boost trade by offering a free place to park in exchange for simply buying a round of drinks or some ask that you dine in the pub.

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Originally Posted by Rick Quinn

I would imagine that this concept would work best (if it works at all), in areas that are more rural, hosts living outside the major cities, or on larger properties with plenty of room and no idea what CC&R even stands for.

Big distinction between people traveling in a van or RV, in need of a spot to park it for a night or two, and people who are living in a van because they have no other home, whether that be by choice, or by unfortunate circumstance. From what I've read, there's a lot of that going on in California (consequence of sky high rents). Considering how many people are unemployed and struggling to stave off eviction, I can see it becoming even more of a thing, at least for the short term.

Rick

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CC&R's are Covenants, Conditions & Restriction. CC&Rs cover the rights and obligations of the homeowners association to its members and vice versa. Many areas that have CC&R's back up the rules with fines.

Utahtea

All newer neighborhoods have them. It's one of the reasons I love my OLD Phoenix neighborhood! (And my house that's almost as old as me! ;-) I realize that there's a place for HOA's, that code enforcement helps maintain property values, but (my opinion) cookie cutter developments, where every house looks the same, same, same--those neighborhoods are missing something.

Rick

Sounds like my neighborhood and my house is about 25 years older than me and I am a medicare aged guy. So many of those CC&Rs are jokes. We don't have one, but think of this, the neighbor across the street, the wife is a Physician Assistant and they parked her parent's RV in the drive way and hooked it up to the sewer when it seemed she would have to work in a covid section at the hospital, to protect her hubby and kids.

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Originally Posted by landmariner

Sounds like my neighborhood and my house is about 25 years older than me and I am a medicare aged guy. So many of those CC&Rs are jokes. We don't have one, but think of this, the neighbor across the street, the wife is a Physician Assistant and they parked her parent's RV in the drive way and hooked it up to the sewer when it seemed she would have to work in a covid section at the hospital, to protect her hubby and kids.

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That's a wonderful solution to a such a terrible situation! I hope no one complained!

Utahtea

Our village has homeowner restrictions!

Many neighbors have very nice landscaping in front of their homes, but the beauty is blemished by sheds in the front yard.

These are waterfront homes. The village leaders have decided that sheds cannot be placed on the lake-facing side of the house because it detracts from the waterfront beauty.

The only people who can see the backyard sheds are boaters. Out nearest backyard neighbors are 100 miles away! We are on Lake Huron.

Waterfront or not, you EXPECT a garden shed to be in back of the house, not out in front. A half million dollar home with a garden shed on the front lawn just doesn’t look right, no matter how fancy the shed.

Fortunately, all of us with pre-existing sheds are “grandfathered” in.