Cruise America Motorhome Rental & Sales

I’ll re-​review after our trip– this is a review on how the RV was prepped, and on how we were oriented to use it. The short story is were very pleasantly surprised, especially considering other reviews.
We were terrified that we’d chosen to rent with Cruise America, the only company we could find who would insure us for Burning Man. I called the office and spoke to Jay, who couldn’t have been more helpful. Jay has only been with the company for eight months, but he promised me that he would personally clean the vehicle, take all the time we needed to orient us, top off all liquids etc. He delivered on all fronts. He was polite, professional and patient. The vehicle is spotless. As newbies to RVing, we had lots of picky questions, and he did not make us feel rushed or stupid. We have not dealt with Chris, but Jay was amazing, and he says he’ll be there when we return the vehicle so I hope we have no problems upon our return. I can’t comment yet on the roadside assistance because we haven’t headed out yet.
I’ll report back when we return. Hoping for the best.
I still give Jay a five, but the overall experience get’s downgraded a bit. No problems upon return, no surprises, just continued professionalism and ease. Our RV was basically OK, but would periodically make strange and unsettling noises, and when we needed to call roadside assistance, we had to wait an hour for a return call. Certain indicators would go off and on seemingly randomly, but the vehicle continued to work and we got back safely. If Jay stays with the company, we’ll be back.

Chris the owner is not a good business man and runs a very poor business. It is a shame because I liked the vehicle and had a good experience. The problem is he is very immature and thinks like a 12 year old. I found his business practices to be less then above board as well. He over charge for the gas (Somehow gets 27 ½ gallons as ½ of 50 gallon tank?) and cleaning (we cleaned it top to bottom) and then plays it real casual about brining back the vehicle a little late (was due in at 11:00 on Saturday– and by the way they close at 11;00 and are not open on Sundays) by telling me he will be there until m2:00– I bring it back at 1:30 and find nobody around and the place closed up and gate open. He charges me 5 hours at $ 25 per hour. The bottom line is this guy is a buffoon who should not be running a business and if you deal with him you can not trust what he says. Get anything said in writing or he will stick you for money.

I wish I could put a 0 but the 1 star is just having the camper was cool. Here is my list of issues we encountered.
#1 the outlets did not work. The GFCI test button did not reset indicating there is an electrical issue according to the booklet. We were unable to plug in any of our appliances such as our computer and coffee machine.
#2 The shower had hair, dirt, stains, and dead ants inside of it. We took photos and then just kept the door shut the rest of the trip. This triggered us to look around to make sure everything else was clean and unfortunately it wasnt.
#3 The refrigerator had old food stains and crumbs inside. The food stains are so old that it’s like baked on there (we didnt use the fridge because it was so gross and I didnt want to touch anything in there. It’s not sanitary)
#4 There were crumbs inside the drawers, someones old gum ball inside the side door and old chips inside the console where the cup holders were. We ended up not using any of the drawers or cabinets because we did not feel as though we needed to spend an hour cleaning them all out so it would be sanitary for us to use.
#5 There were gross stains on all the seats including what looks like a cigarette burn. We took photos.
#6 There was left over dog food and dog treats in one of the kitchen cabinets from a previous renter. There is something else in a bag there too but again I didnt want to touch someone elses left over stuff.
#7 Although our agreement said that the valves to the propane were open, they werent and when it got down to 35 degrees we couldnt get our heater on. We then tried to turn on the oven to make some tea but the oven wouldnt come on either. We had to call the 800 help line to see if they could help us which they did. They said that it was probably that the propane line was not on. Since the owner didnt show us where anything was we didnt know where to look for the propane, but the 800 number people directed us to go outside (in the 35 degrees I might add) and turn on the valve. As soon as we did that the stove came on and the heater started to get hot.
#8 The owner didnt go over anything with us about how to turn anything on or how to use the generator or batteries. I had to come back inside to ask him about the batteries before we left.
#9 There were dead ants on all the ceilings and walls.
#10 In the middle of the night, we started seeing the carbon monoxide light flashing red and green. We didnt know what this meant so we called the 800 number again and they indicated that we needed to start up the vehicle to allow the 12 volt battery to charge. That was the worst thing because once again had we known in advance from the owner that we needed to keep that charged we wouldnt have been awakened at 3am to deal with this.

Cruise America RV Unit 300 944
This is a summary of my experience renting an RV from Cruise America in Santa Rosa, CA, from June 13 to 28, 2011. There is more horror than shown here, but Unilocal size limits won’t allow all the gory details. Bottom line — don’t rent from Cruise America or your vacation will be a nightmare.
June 13 — pick up RV. Find a full bottle of whiskey in drawer. Gives you an ideal of how well it has been prepared.
Drove home to load up and discovered stove won’t light. Called 800 help number. Was told to use a match. Two burners will light with match, third just dead. Decide I can get along with two.
June 14: Table wobbles. Attachment to wall is broken, mechanism flops away from wall and table slopes one way or the other.
June 16: Latch on screen door broken, won’t stay closed. Sound minor? Not when the mosquito horde attacks at dusk. Big problem.
Overhead light at head of bed won’t turn on. Neither will room ceiling light.
June 17: System monitor panel won’t show the charge remaining on the battery until you tap it a few times. Then it may or may not show the charge.
Now we take a turn for the worse — MUCH worse.
June 18: Control panel on refrigerator shows code «A-​F» Called 800 number again. This is a problem in itself because the person who answers is just a clerk — you tell your problem to the clerk and he says a tech will call you back. Tech calls back usually from 15 to 60 minutes and then you get to repeat the entire story. So anyway, the tech tells me to power cycle the fridge — FIVE TIMES. Yup, that’s how many it takes. Then directs me to check the pilot light, which involves removing a panel from the side of the RV. None of this worked.
Continuing, I tried to start the generator to power the fridge, since gas doesn’t work. Generator will only run for a few seconds. That’s right, seconds. Once again I call the 800 help number. Got no call back. Called again five hours (yes, five hours). Turns out they had called my home number this time, although previously they had called my cell. Did they think I had gong home? I’M CAMPING!
They finally directed me to take the RV to Dave’s Trailer Repair in Ukiah (I’m in Clear Lake, 45 miles away). I took it to Dave’s and they fixed the fridge to run on propane (but only for a day, then it conked out again) and attempted to fix the generator. Needed a part. Estimated two hours to remove the generator, two hours to fix it and two hours to reinstall it. This is *after* they receive the part, which may or may not arrive that same day. At this point I had wasted all the vacation I intended to on this *&)*!@ generator, so I gave up trying to get it fixed.
Called «Amy» at Cruise America and requested to swap this dog RV for one that actually had a few working components. She was prepared for this request and directed me to the fine print of the contract which specifically said they would not switch vehicles. Imagine that — Cruise America, knowing that the equipment they rent is pure crap, has built into the contract language stating once you take it you are stuck with it, come hell or high water they will not switch it. So now I’m left to finish my vacation, in 100 degree plus temperatures mind you, with no generator, hence no A/​C and a dicey, on and off refrigerator.
There is more to this saga, but space is limited and here is the main point: Cruise America equipment is all junk and they make no effort to maintain it. Their policy, which I experienced in spades, is to push their crappy units into a customer’s hands and then when the customer discovers stuff that doesn’t work, directs the customer to take it someplace to get it fixed. And the key here is that this is not a one time incident, this is standard operating procedure!

The last review is pretty accurate! Chris was not very friendly… when it was time for us to do the initial walk around inspection he said «Why don’t you go inside the office and get that inspection sheet off the counter and do the walk around» and then disappeared. When we were done we had to go find him and tell him we were done, it was very unprofessional and a little strange.
As for the RV, it was in pretty bad shape and not really up to my cleanliness standards.
Never again!

Chris, the owner of the Santa Rosa location is a dealer for Cruise America and it shows in his attitude. We had a 1pm appt to pick up our RV, he was over an hour late and did not try to reach us or answer his phone when we tried to reach him to find out where he was. He did not do a walk through with us and was extremely rude to us during the entire rental process.
Cruise America is very eager to take your money at the time of reservations but our RV leaked and no one returned our multiple calls to Travelers Assistance and when we got home and tried to deal with them it was more of a headache.
I would highly recommend renting through another company and/​or dealer.