Hire rate tripled but 'we're not like hotels'

Tim Alpe of Jucy Rentals. Photo / Richard Robinson

Fans keen to cut Rugby World Cup accommodation costs by hiring campervans face a shock as some companies triple their usual rates for the time of the year.

September and October, the months of the Rugby World Cup, normally fall under the winter rental period.

But some Auckland rental firms will instead charge peak December to March rates, based on the expected influx of 85,000 international visitors.

Wicked Campers offers a 2-person van for $89 a day - nearly three times its off-season price, and more expensive than the December cost of $76.67.

Both JUCY Rentals and Spaceships are offering daily shoulder-season rates on 2-person vans - $89 and $109.

Wicked Campers director John Webb raised prices because of demand: "It'd be nice to make some money."

He said prices were not set in stone - the company might offer two-for-one deals closer to the time.

High market prices across the board forced Spaceships rentals to follow suit, said general manager James Rollston.

"We're charging a November rate for that period ... Everyone else put their prices up before we did. We had our standard rates until about a month or two ago before adjusting them."

Tim Alpe, JUCY's chief executive, said his vans were priced below the height of summer rates. "The rates are higher because the demand is higher ... our industry isn't doing what the hotel industry is doing."

Spaceships bookings for the September-October period are up 325 per cent on last year's figures.

Meanwhile, Britz campervans has sold out of its larger campers for the September pool game period, after charging prices below their normal peak rates.

Marketing manager Kate Meldrum: "We set our prices over two years ago. We viewed it as a peak period ... This is not a gouging opportunity so we just priced a bit below our [peak price]."