How campervan hire took off in Europe: Roadsurfer, Indie Campers and Yescapa
Indie Campers started with three VW vans, Roadsurfer with 25 campers, and Yescapa grew by letting families rent to families. Three European campervan hire success stories and what they teach.
Teknovan Editorial Team ·
Ten years ago, renting a campervan in Europe was a pricey, fiddly option on the fringes of holiday planning. Today you can rent one in Munich, Lisbon or Bordeaux in a few clicks and be on the road the same day. Behind that shift are three companies that grew with very different models: Roadsurfer, Indie Campers and Yescapa. Their stories say a lot about where campervan hire can go in markets that are still catching up, Türkiye among them.
Indie Campers: a Lisbon story that began with three vans
When Hugo Oliveira came back to Portugal after a few months in Australia, he had a simple idea: rent out vans for surf trips. In 2013 he founded Indie Campers in Lisbon with three vans he had converted himself.
The company positioned campervan hire as something young travellers could actually do: easy booking, pick-up points close to city centres, clear prices. Today it says it operates from more than 70 locations on three continents with more than 7,000 vehicles, and runs a marketplace where private owners can list their vans too.
Lesson: Pick your audience clearly. From day one, Indie Campers sold "freedom and adventure", not "family holidays".
Roadsurfer: from 25 campers to all over Europe
Roadsurfer was founded in Munich in 2016 with 25 Volkswagen campers. The model was built on its own fleet: standard, well-maintained, fully equipped vehicles collected from stations in major cities. In 2022 it opened its first North American station in Los Angeles. According to the company's 2026 press kit, it now has around 100 rental stations in 16 countries in Europe.
It wasn't only the number of vans that made Roadsurfer grow. To answer the camper's question "where do I sleep?", the company built its own network of places to stay. Running from rental to overnight stays, this covered the customer's whole trip under one brand.
Lesson: The real question for anyone renting a campervan is "where will I stay?". Whoever offers hire and pitches together wins.
Yescapa: families renting to families
In 2011, while planning a campervan holiday with his family, Benoît Panel from Bordeaux found professional rental prices too high. At the same time, thousands of private campervans sat parked for most of the year. Yescapa, which he founded with Adrien Pinson in 2012, became a peer-to-peer marketplace bringing those two sides together.
Yescapa's model needed no investment in a fleet. The real work was building trust: insurance, verified profiles, reviews and secure payment. In 2021 it bought the German business of its rival SHAREaCAMPER and announced it had more than 10,000 vehicles for hire across Europe.
Lesson: Owners whose campervans sit idle most of the year are happy to rent them out, given the right guarantees. Trust is the marketplace's real product.
Three models, one thing in common
| Company | Founded | Model | Key to growth |
|---|---|---|---|
| Indie Campers | 2013, Lisbon | Own fleet + marketplace | Clear audience, easy pick-up |
| Roadsurfer | 2016, Munich | Own fleet | Hire + network of places to stay |
| Yescapa | 2012, Bordeaux | Peer-to-peer marketplace | Insurance and trust |
What all three share: they didn't make customers deal with phone calls, emails and vague prices. Search, price, calendar and payment came together on one screen.
What it means for younger markets like Türkiye
Interest in campervan holidays in Türkiye has grown in recent years. Since 1 January 2025, towed caravans under 750 kg also have to be registered, inspected and insured. That opens the door to renting out private caravans safely, because a registered, insured vehicle can be verified. Yet most caravans still sit unused for much of the year, and most campsites still take bookings by phone. If you run a campsite or a rental business in a market at a similar stage, the three European examples show how a secure platform that connects both sides can grow the whole market.
That's why teknovan.com.tr does two things at once: it connects caravan owners with renters safely, and it makes finding a pitch at a campsite easier. For campsite businesses, teknovan.io brings bookings, the calendar and guest messages together in one dashboard.
To rent out your caravan or hire one, visit teknovan.com.tr (in Turkish).
Sources
- Indie Campers, Wikipedia
- Wie Hugo Oliveira mit Campingbussen ein 100-Millionen-Business macht, Business Punk (German)
- Roadsurfer Press Kit 2026
- German RV rental company to open new U.S. hubs, RV PRO
- Yescapa acquires German rival, Travolution
- Yescapa: private campervan hire, Renewable Matter
- New ruling on towed caravans, Capital (Turkish)
Image credits
Photos illustrate the region; they are not photos of the campsites themselves.
- Kalkan: Cooty16, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
