Worried About Social Distancing When Traveling? Join the Crowd and Rent an R.V.

Jucy camper vans, painted in signature green and purple, are ubiquitous around New Zealand, where the company is based. But its North American operations, reliant on foreign travel, is struggling this year, especially with the postponement or cancellation of major events, including the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and Burning Man.

“Since those and other festivals are not happening, our business has been seriously impacted,” wrote Hiron Menon, the general manager for North America at Jucy, in an email.

Based in Oakland, Las Vegas and Los Angeles, Jucy rents Dodge minivans, retrofitted with kitchenettes accessible from the hatchback and often with a tent that pops up on the roof; they run from $20 to $150 a night.

In late May, the category got an upgrade with Seattle-based Cabana. The start-up offers 10 Ford Transit vans retrofitted with queen-size memory foam mattresses, toilets, flat-screen TVs, mini-refrigerators and showers supplied by onboard water tanks.

“I love getting dirty hiking in the mountains and I also love taking a hot shower and sleeping in a comfortable bed,” said Scott Kubly, the chief executive and founder of Cabana, who describes the vans as “everything you would get with a hotel but crammed into a van using every cubic inch like a game of Tetris.”

Pre-pandemic, the company was envisioned as an affordable and flexible urban alternative. Costing $200 a night, rentals are handled through an app, which unlocks the vans parked on city streets in Seattle rather than at a central depot. Cabana simplifies its pricing by including mileage and not charging guests to pump out the holding tanks. But if you’re heading out of town and want a stove installed, that’s an extra $30 a day, or $300 maximum.