2021 Forest River Sunseeker - American

Sean was responsive upon inquiry. We had a few issues/questions and he responded quickly when contacted. The unit we rented was the 2021 Forest River Sunseeker and while it looked good in the photos on the site, it was beat up and needed a lot of TLC. When we inquired about this unit, we asked whether there were any issues with the unit. Sean's response was "Nope no issues!". I would think that the broken running board on the passenger side, the missing running board on the driver's side, the wobbly dinette table (held together with tape), the missing panel on the slide out, the refrigerator door swinging open when driving, and the rotting laminate flooring in the bathroom - just to name a few, would be identified as issues. All explained below. Sean did disclose that "the awning got hit yesterday by another renter I can, however provide you with an EZ Up". That was fine with us - we ended up leaving his EZ Up home since it was beat up and really small - we took our own. When we picked up the unit, it was clear that the awning had been damaged more than days before as he said in his message. Upon entering the unit, there was an overwhelming smell of cigarette smoke (even though the description said no smoking) and several air fresheners were visible in the unit. The dinette benches were held together with black tape that was wearing off and barely sticking. The bench cushions would not stay on the benches as the velcro was torn and separated from the fabric. The paneling on the base of the benches was held together with worn tape and when you sat on the bench - it would catch and scrape the back side of your leg (we put a staple in it before we left). The table was wobbly and moved up/down about 2 inches if you put any weight on it - making it difficult to eat or play cards on - several drinks were spilled - no matter what we did, it was not sturdy. Before we left on our trip we wiped the entire unit down to try and get rid of the smell of cigarette smoke. There was a piece of paneling missing to cover the underside of the slide out bed. The metal strip on the entrance of the unit was loose and a tripping hazard - it was being held down with 1 screw - 3 were missing, we ended up putting the 3 missing screws in. The baseboard in the kitchen area was also loose and needs repair. The closet was also missing several pieces of wood/molding on the shelfs to cover the rough wood that would catch the material of our clothing. We picked up the unit the day before our trip so we'd have adequate time to pack and leave early the next morning. When we re-reviewed the photos, it was obvious that they were taken when the unit was new. When packing the refrigerator there was obvious mold under the glass shelves which required elbow grease to remove and the vegetable slide drawer was cracked - the water was filthy when I finished cleaning the refrigerator (see video).. Since we were dry camping, we charged the batteries overnight (the ones used for the interior lights, etc.) to make sure they were fully charged. When we checked the batteries in the morning they were not holding a charge - we had to go buy 2 new batteries before we even left on our trip - $200+ had to wait for the store to open which delayed our departure. Contacted Sean, he said "interesting looks like the batteries are not holding up. Please send me the receipt. I will be happy to reimburse you". No apology for the inconvenience - jeez. Installed the batteries and got on our way - 2 hours later than we wanted to leave because of the battery mishap - all he had to do was check the batteries before renting the unit out. When getting in the cab on the passenger side, the running board was also damaged - probably from the "accident" that ripped off the awning - when you put any weight on it, it feels like it is going to break. Finally on the road and so many things were so janky/noisy - the table was so bad that we had to pull over and remove it. The sliding window/screen by the dinette is either broken or is not sealed properly so it's unnecessarily noisy - the seal on the outside of the window is also worn and ripped so it flops and hits the window when driving (there was obvious old tape residue so someone knew there was a problem). The piece of paneling under the bench for the dinette that was no longer being held down by tape because it was so worn was also flapping and making noise - we ended up stapling it closed. We stopped several times trying to solve the unusual janky sounds. We had driven about 200 miles when the refrigerator popped open and discarded our food onto the floor - there were several casualties - again requiring another stop to clean up the mess and throw away some of the food we took on our trip. There is no strap on the refrigerator - the freezer has a good seal, the refrigerator does not. We ended up tying the door closed with a shoestring to the stove. The laminate in the bathroom behind the toilet is rotting and needs to be repaired. Also need new windshield wiper on the passenger side - there is a piece worn and flapping in the wind. On our way home, we stopped at a rest stop to eat. We tried to run the air conditioner with the generator and it would not stay on for more than a minute. We tried it again when we were cleaning the unit when we got home and the same thing happened. This leads us to believe that there is a problem with the A/C unit. Sean had mentioned that it might overheat if we ran it too long but it would not stay on for longer than a minute and it kept kicking off. It’s a good thing we didn’t need it at our destination. We rated this rental as a 3 only because it served its purpose, it gave us a place to lay our heads at night. It's obvious that this rental has been overused and not respected by previous renters. Definitely needs a lot of TLC and many, many repairs. Checking the batteries, a good sweeping and vacuuming - there was a lot of sand that came out of crevices just from the pick up spot to home, repairing the dinette set with nails/staples definitely better than worn out tape, and adding a strap to the refrigerator. Cleaning the unit with more than a wipe down and generally checking everything to make sure that the unit is as it should be before renting it again. If this was a hotel room I would have asked for another room. We were required to pay a cleaning fee but it obviously was in desperate need of cleaning when we received it. We feel like we were misled by the pictures and the unit is not even close to the photos posted. We were required to commit to a time to return the unit and Sean told us if he wasn't there to meet us to hide the key and he would pick it up later - but if we had returned it at a later time, he would have charged us - we returned it at 10 am like agreed but his notes say that we returned it at 4:15 pm. We asked him about the reimbursement for the batteries and he said he had to make sure we didn't go over miles or generator usage (we have been reimbursed by Sean for the batteries). We were ready to share all these issues with Sean when we returned the RV but he was a no-show. We were over mileage by 13 miles and he deducted $4.55 from our security deposit - pretty petty since we had to drive 14 miles R/T to go buy new batteries/return the old batteries since they credited us the core charge with our word that we'd bring them back. We have learned a lot from this rental and when we book again in the future we will be more careful, ask for current photos and ask for a wear/tear rating. In the future will also make sure to rent from someone renting their personal RV that they use personally, love and take care of. We are sharing our experience with this RV so that no one else is misled about what they are actually getting. Our hope when we rented an RV from Outdoorsy was that the owner would be proud of their property and rent it to us in the best possible condition and that certainly was not the case.

Sean was easy to work with and provided us with a clean, and fully functional RV. Great way to go if you’re trying to avoid the big RV rental companies. Will use again!