RV Rental Travel Insurance

RV Rental Travel Insurance

Most of us don’t dream about Travel Insurance, but many Americans do dream of trips on the open road.

Visit majestic National Parks, camp in the woods with grandchildren, and drive coast to coast.

These are just some of the reasons people, including seniors, want the freedom to move about without concern for hotels. If you like where you are, you can stay put. If you are ready to move on, pack up and roll out.

While RVs come in many sizes and shapes, for the most part, they are either a self-contained vehicle or a trailer pulled by a truck.

When renting an RV, there are many options and important factors to consider. There’s more to worry about than just the RV itself.

Risks of RV Rental – Why Buy Travel Insurance

First, you need to make sure that you’re protected from costly financial losses resulting from unexpected Trip Cancellation or Trip Interruption.

Second, even if your medical insurance covers you in other states, getting treatment out-of-network could be surprisingly expensive.

Third, you get assurance if you have a medical emergency, you or your travelling companion can get the proper care and eventually back home.

Whether you travel by RV around the United States, Canada, Europe, or South America, travel insurance will go there with you.

RV Travel Insurance covers many of the risks associated with an RV rental. Let’s look at the common insurable associated risks:

• Trip Cancellation Insurance
• Trip Interruption
• Travel Delay
• Emergency Medical coverage
• Emergency Medical Evacuation
• Trip Cancellation for Any Reason
• Canceling for Work Reasons

What Makes A Good RV Travel Insurance Policy?

To begin, RV Trip Insurance can refund your money if you must cancel or interrupt your trip for a covered reason.

Trip Cancellation

One of the most common concerns of travelers renting an RV is losing money if they must cancel. If you must cancel due to a covered reason, the insurance policy will pay 100% of the prepaid, non-refundable costs. All travel insurance plans on AARDY include comprehensive Trip Cancellation.

Suppose you’re flying from Georgia to Salt Lake City, Utah to rent an RV for a two-month-long adventure, and the day before your trip, your spouse gets the flu. The doctor prescribes bed rest for the next 5-7 days. How disappointing! Your RV rental is prepaid, your airline tickets and the campground reservations are non-refundable.

This is where your RV Travel Insurance kicks in.

Trip Insurance is incredible value. An unforeseen injury, illness, or death of a traveler or immediate family member could put a halt to your travel plans. Travel insurance relieves the financial pain of losing all your non-refundable prepaid investments.

Trip Interruption

There are many reasons you might have to interrupt your trip and return home early from your RV rental vacation.

For example: while camping, your spouse trips on a rock and fractures her ankle.

You take your spouse to the emergency room, where she’s admitted for treatment. After treatment, she’s unable to climb up into the RV with crutches. The doctor recommends she stay off her feet for at least 2 weeks. You both decide it’s best to cancel the remainder of the trip, return home, and schedule it another time.

Or, what if an immediate family member became critically ill or dies while you’re on your trip? You would need to get home quickly.

If your flights to reach the RV rental were delayed so long that you missed the first day or two of your reservation, trip insurance can help.

Without travel insurance, you’d lose all money prepaid for that portion of the trip. With insurance, you can get reimbursed for the unused portion of the RV rental.

In these circumstances, Trip Interruption Insurance will reimburse you for the prepaid, non-refundable, and unused portion of your trip and help with the added expense of having to return earlier than expected.

Medical Evacuation – Domestic and International Travel

Emergency Medical Evacuation coverage is not only designed to get you home from a foreign country in case of serious illness or injury. It can cover medical transportation costs to a hospital while on a trip here in the US.

What if while traveling in Montana your traveling companion had a heart attack?

A local ambulance takes him to the nearest hospital, but you discover there is no cardiologist or cardiac department.

In this case, trip insurance’s Emergency Medical Evacuation benefits pay for transport to the nearest facility capable of handling the cardiac medical emergency.

This could be as simple as an ambulance ride to the hospital in the next town or as complex as a medical jet staffed with a nurse and doctor flying your companion to another state for treatment.

Travel Insurance is particularly good value for travelers should they have a medical emergency away from home.

Hopefully, this never happens to you, but we never know what the future holds.

Not Covered in RV Rental Trip Insurance

Did you know there are some risks unique to RV rentals that cannot be insured away with trip insurance? It is important to know what is not covered when you buy travel insurance so that there are no nasty surprises. Let’s look at a few:

Fraud

Fraud can occur in different ways.

First, fraud can occur by misrepresenting the condition of the RV rental or campgrounds booked. An example is when the photos and description of the RV or campgrounds don’t accurately match what is presented in person, and you don’t want to stay there.

A second way would be when someone rents you a vehicle that does not belong to them.

The third situation is double booking a rental. Although not necessarily fraud, it may be an honest mistake or miscommunication. Still, it can cause some panic and a lot of stress trying to find other accommodations on short notice.

We recommend working with a reputable RV rental company to limit some of the fraud issues discussed. Most RV -sharing websites will remove listings and ban users that misrepresent their rentals but don’t specify how they will make it right for the offended party.

If fraud occurs, Interruption for Any Reason (IFAR) benefits are helpful to reduce financial loss. (see our article on IFAR for more information)

Liability

Liability is not covered under an RV Travel Insurance plan.

You could be held financially and legally responsible if you damage the RV, someone’s property, or a person. If the RV is unusable, you could also be held responsible for loss of revenue during the time the RV is out of commission.

Since RV Travel Insurance will not cover the vehicle or personal liability, it is a good idea to investigate other coverage you may have.

For instance, your homeowner’s policy may include personal liability away from home. Not a homeowner? Some renter’s insurance plans have coverage for personal liability.

In addition, your auto insurance policy may cover an RV rental or offer a binder with higher liability limits. Furthermore, ask the RV rental company about their rental liability and collision/comprehensive coverage. Rental companies typically offer liability plans for $15-30/day.

In contrast, RV rental companies rarely offer travel insurance plans that cover Cancellation and Interruption coverage for any costs other than the RV.

RV Rental Travel Insurance and a liability plan are complimentary coverages.

How can RV Trip Insurance Help?

Although there are not a lot of options for protection against fraud and/or liability, consider a policy that includes both Cancel for Any Reason and Trip Interruption for Any Reason Insurance when taking an RV Rental trip.

Rental Travel Insurance - Cancel For Any Reason Travel Insurance

Cancel for Any Reason protection allows you to cancel your trip more than 2 days prior to the departure date for virtually “any” reason.

Let’s say you booked the RV rental six months ago, and everything was good. Two weeks before departure, you check reviews of the RV rental company and see other guests gave them poor reviews and very low star ratings. Past renters posted photos showing mold in the bathroom, a leak under the kitchen sink, and complaints about the cigarette smell. You have serious doubts about this and want to cancel immediately.

However, you’re two weeks from leaving on the trip, so the rental company won’t refund what you already paid. In this situation, a Cancel For Any Reason coverage option lets you cancel for a refund. But there are a few conditions:

• You must purchase your travel insurance within 10-21 days of making the initial trip payment or deposit.
• In most policies you must insure 100% of all prepaid and non-refundable trip costs.
• You must cancel more than 48 hours prior to the departure date.
• You can receive 50% - 75% (depending on policy) of your prepaid and non-refundable trip costs

In the scenario above, if you learned all the negative information on the day before your trip, you could not Cancel For Any Reason because it’s less than 48 hours prior to the departure date.

RV Rental Travel Insurance - Interruption For Any Reason Travel Insurance

Interruption For Any Reason allows you to interrupt your trip 48-72 hours after departure for virtually “any” reason.

Think about arriving at your reserved RV only to find a shabby, outdated vehicle that does not resemble the photos, and you cannot imagine living inside it for the next few weeks. The disappointment is overwhelming, and you just want to go home. The Interruption For Any Reason benefit could work here if:

• You purchased your travel insurance within 10-21 days of your initial trip payment or deposit
• You interrupt more than 48-72 hours into your trip
• You insured all the prepaid, non-refundable trip costs
• You will be refunded 50% - 75% (depending on policy) of the prepaid, unused, non-refundable trip costs

Similarly, many RVers delight in the company of their pets on a great RV road trip. However, if your pet is sick or injured a few days into the trip and you want to return home and care for the pet, you will benefit from Interruption For Any Reason.

Rental Travel Insurance - Pre-Existing Medical Conditions Travel Insurance

Pre-Existing Medical Conditions are specifically excluded from all travel insurance policies unless you purchase the travel insurance within 10-21 days (depending on the policy) of the first payment or deposit made on the trip. Many policies also require you to insure all your prepaid, non-refundable trip costs as well.

A pre-existing medical condition is any medical condition that caused you to seek medical treatment, that you had medical testing for, or had medication changes for (or had recommendations by a physician to have any of these).

Older, stable conditions can be covered.

If you have a pre-existing medical condition, don’t worry. Simply buy travel insurance that includes a Medical Waiver. To qualify, you must insure all non-refundable trip costs in most cases.

For most policies, you must buy travel insurance promptly after your first trip payment or deposit and be fit to travel on the date of purchase.

RV Rental Travel Insurance - Cancel for Work Reason Travel Insurance

Cancel For Work Reasons allows you to cancel or interrupt your trip if you are required to work during the covered trip. This is helpful if your supervisor previously approved time off prior to purchasing the travel insurance, then rescinded it.

Some policies include this helpful benefit automatically while others require you to purchase the trip insurance within 10-21 days of initial trip payment to qualify for this benefit.

Sample RV Travel Insurance Quote

A couple, ages 55 and 60, reserve an RV for 7 days and purchase non-refundable airfare for a trip cost of $2,400. They will fly from North Carolina to Montana, where they will drive the RV to Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks.  Here is what we show on AARDY.

Happily, the AIG Travel Guard Essential and the Seven Corners Trip Protection Basic are the two least expensive policies for this couple.

Both policies pay a 100% refund for a covered cancellation. They both have Trip Interruption, Medical, and Evacuation elements. The biggest difference between them is the amount of Emergency Medical and Evacuation benefits. The AIG policy also offers a Pre-Existing Medical Condition Waiver if the policy is purchased within 15 days of the initial trip payment date while the Seven Corners policy does not.

RV Travelers Staying Within the US Borders

Since the couple plans to stay in the US for the duration of the trip, we feel comfortable recommending they protect their prepaid, non-refundable investment with the first (and least expensive) option: AIG Travel Guard Essential for $145.39. However, if they care to pay about $2 more, they can get substantially more Medical coverage and Medical Evacuation coverage with the Seven Corners policy at $147.

Since they have a health insurance plan that covers them in the US, they have good medical insurance in an emergency, so even the $15,000 of medical coverage provided by the AIG policy would be adequate.

Any additional medical costs not covered by primary health insurance could be claimed on the trip insurance up to the policy maximum of $15,000 per traveler.

RV Travelers Leaving the US Border

However, if the couple plans to drive the RV to Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada, we would not make the same travel insurance recommendation.

Instead, we would recommend the Trawick First Class policy for $161.19. It has a $150,000 Medical limit, which is nearly ten times higher than the AIG Travel Guard Essential. In addition, it will include the Pre-Existing Medical Waiver if the policy is purchased within 14 days of the initial trip payment or deposit.

Since Medicare and most American health insurance typically do not pay benefits outside the US, the travel insurance policy would cover medical costs up to the limit. In addition, the US State Department does not provide any medical or evacuation assistance to Americans traveling outside the country.

Conclusion

As you can see, travel insurance offers much more than just Cancellation and Medical coverage.

It can also reduce travel misery and provide more flexibility for Cancellation and Interruption.

Best Value RV Rental Travel Insurance

Will I get a better deal through the insurance company’s direct site?

No, travel insurance rates are state-regulated, and no one can change those rates.

Therefore, AARDY can guarantee we have the best state-approved RV Rental Travel Insurance rates.

You will always find the best value on travel insurance right here.

Have questions? We would love to hear from you. Send us a chat, Send us a Mail or alternatively Call Us at (650) 492-6298.