HOST (Ciara Long): Shelter in place orders have a lot of New Yorkers wondering about their summer vacations… how do you go on vacation while maintaining social distance? One option is to hit the road with your own home in a camper or RV. Tay Glass hears from one campervan company about what it’s doing to try and win travelers over.
TAY GLASS: Twenty four year old Kevin Wiesinger lives on the Upper West Side. He wants out of the city this summer.
WIESINGER: I would give a lot to not be here, you know, like, this is the worst place to be quarantine probably in the country GLASS: He’s considering a campervan. But he doesn’t have a car. So he’s got questions - like how he would to pick up a van.
WIESINGER: All transportation right now in New York is just either difficult or dangerous to use.
GLASS: Gunjan Prakash is founder of the Facebook group Families Who Love to Travel. The group has almost thirty thousand members. And she says there’s been a lot of interest in campervans and RVs for summer vacation. But she’s also seeing concerns.
PRAKASH: What if they close the parking for RVs, or they will be stuck in a different state?
GLASS: Kerry Rufillson is with Escape Campervans. The company has over ten locations across the U.S. and Canada. About half of its business comes from international travelers, which has seen a massive drop off. But Rufillson says there’s been an uptick in interest from New Yorkers who want a safe vacation and are considering campervans.
RUFILLSON: You have your rental car, your hotel, and your kitchen all in one GLASS: To ease customer safety concerns, Escape Campervans is ramping up cleaning, limiting the number of staff who come in contact with the vans, and spacing out appointments for pickups. In New Jersey, Road Bear RV Rentals, is being extra lenient with cancellations. Ruffleson says Escape is doing that and more.
RUFILLSON: And so we lowered our daily rates for next year in an effort to help people rebook.
GLASS: Rufillson says renters could see savings up to a thousand dollars. As for Wiesinger, if he's not in a campervan by July, he's considering another way to get out of New York - a trip back home to see his family
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