Sean and Sarah Dowey have had some awesome jobs over the years.
“I’m a broadcast designer,” Sean Dowey says. “I make motion content, like title sequences for movies, graphics packages and openings for TV shows, the graphics for commercials, motion graphics content for social media, projection-mapped visuals for Disney’s World of Color, content for large-format displays on buildings in Times Square in New York City and Hong Kong, visual effects for all of that, etcetera. Basically, if it has a screen or there is a surface that can be projected onto, I can make visually exciting content for it.”
Sarah Dowey teaches middle school biology. Previously, she worked as a biologist for Ventura’s water district, as a zookeeper for the Santa Barbara Zoo, and raised baby tigers at a zoo in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.
Considering all of these super interesting career choices, it comes as no surprise that the couple had the brilliant idea to create an additional income stream by renting out their RV.
What they use that extra income for is also pretty clever. “On a trip back from camping at Lake Tahoe last year, my wife and I were brainstorming how we could pay down our student loan debt and debt in general,” Sean Dowey recalls. “I had come across Outdoorsy from an advertisement on Facebook a few months prior. I remembered it and floated the idea to her. She told me it sounded interesting and we should look into what we need to do to rent ours, and if and how we would be covered if a renter did any damage to our trailer.”
“After getting home and researching Outdoorsy’s insurance policy and how to go about preparing the trailer for the listing, we decided to go for it,” he says. “I took all the photos of the trailer the day after we got back from our trip as I was cleaning it and putting it away. About two hours later my listing went live.”
Interest in the Dowey’s trailer was instantaneous. Sean Dowey recalls the couple’s swift entrance into the rental world: “We listed it the last week of summer in 2018 and didn’t expect to get any rentals until the following summer, because the season was just about over.”
“We were wrong — it rented almost immediately,” he says. “We got several rentals between then and now. It’s been listed for about 10 months, and if all goes well we’ll have a renter picking up our trailer in two weeks for a few days, and that will bring our total income to just over $2,000.”
After their incredible success with Outdoorsy, the Dowey’s are now considering expanding their fleet, and we can’t say we blame him. “We have a 24-foot total length 2000 Fun Runner toy hauler, and a 29-foot total length 2010 Eclipse Stellar toy hauler,” he says. “Currently we’re only renting out the Fun Runner. Our plan for the summer is to use our other trailer exclusively for us. Once summer is over, who knows? If Sara is okay with renting the Stellar, I’d be game. It’s always nice to make a little extra income.”
Although the couple is happy with their Outdoorsy rental experience so far, that’s not to say they didn’t have some hesitations going in — worries that have since been put to bed. “Like anyone, I was concerned the worst case scenario would happen,” Dowey explains. “I imagined my trailer on fire on the side of a freeway somewhere. Then I thought about the insurance policy that covered it and what other trailer I would get to replace that one, and my fears dissipated.”
“Now I’m comfortable renting my trailer, knowing that Outdoorsy offers insurance coverage and completes a drivers license verification of each renter prior to it leaving my possession.”
So what’s his favorite part of renting his travel trailer to other adventurous souls? “I love hearing from people about their camping trips and all the fun they had while using our RV,” he says. “Camping is a great way to relax and spend time making memories. I hope people who haven’t camped before find a love for the outdoors, make some great memories, and want to come back again to make more.”
“One guy rented our toy hauler to compete in a dirt bike race on or around Thanksgiving of last year,” he adds. “While on the trip, he proposed to his fiancée! I’m not saying our trailer brings about marriage proposals, but I’m not saying it doesn’t.”
All about Sean Dowey
Favorite morning beverage:
“Coffee (whisky optional).”
Favorite campsite meal:
“Bacon. It’s the perfect camp food. Eat it cold or hot, put it on a sandwich or not. (I sound like Dr. Seuss.) I only eat bacon when we go camping and we camp ALL THE TIME. I’m not sure if there is a connection.”
Music you like to play on the radio:
“Punk, rockabilly, and ’50’s.”
Best game to play on the road or at your campsite:
“Corn hole, followed by, ‘Who can get dad a beer?’”
Favorite season:
“Winter”
Last photo you took:
“Seriously looked this up and my latest photo is of my kids making faces out the window of our new toy hauler from a shakedown trip we took a couple weeks ago.”
What’s your Outdoorsy spirit animal?
“When we were backpacking with a group in Yosemite, we got there too late to start — like around midnight. We set up our bivy sacks along the trail in backpackers camp. I passed out asleep almost immediately. Apparently (and I have to take this on faith) a bear woke everyone up rummaging through an unlocked bear box. There were park rangers shooting flares at it with flare guns. They got the bear to run off, and when it did, it ran right by me. Its foot missed my head by inches. The next morning everyone was talking about the bear. I said, ‘What bear?’ They were all in disbelief. I slept through the whole thing and received the nickname Sleeping Bear.”
If you could travel anywhere in an RV, where would you go?
“My first thought was interstellar space travel, but you’re probably thinking of something more local. A three-week Yellowstone road trip, with stops at various locations along the way, is something my wife and I plan on doing with the kids hopefully in the next year or two.”
