Indiecampers Reviews 18

We hired an EU Active Standard 2 Auto Base for a trip from March 25–April 2. On March 20, we were emailed that our booked model was unavailable and replaced with an "EU Active Poptop 4 Manual Base at no extra cost." We accepted despite the inconvenience (we were travelling with a dog).

On March 24th, the day before departure, we received a second substitution email: an Active Long 2 Auto Select, again "at no extra cost." At check-in, in person, we objected: we had booked parking for a more compact model, and this van lacked the entry step listed in their own vehicle guide, essential to my comfort and our dog's. We were told there was no choice and that we were outside the cancellation window. With campsites booked and also outside their cancellation window, we had felt we had no choice but to accept.

On March 27, the heating stopped working. After a lengthy bot exchange, a human agent explained that the sensor was "sometimes loose" and we should wedge "a card or piece of carbord (sic)" behind it — and sent us a Google Drive photo (/file/d/1i9Gzp1vbhnPaWud0T3a5ig7bTfTiML3y/view) showing the fix using a nail file and a menstruation pad, confirming this is a known, recurring issue. We spent nights waking up freezing to reposition a credit card and pamphletwhen the sensor stopped working again.

On March 30, we woke to a flooded van: fresh water had leaked, seemingly from under the sink, into drawers, cupboards, and the floor (the taps were completely closed and the pump was definitely not active). Support (we don't know if a bot or a human) instructed us to check hoses, wrap connections with waterproof tape, or use "a plastic bag + strong tape." We had none of these materials. The only thing we engaged with under the sink was to visually check the connection, as instructed by them; although they kept telling us to check multiple items/connections and turn them in certain ways, we did not feel confident doing that, especially since the instructions were unclear at best (I'm quite certain it was a bot). We used our own, prior knowledge to turn off the water pump (first thing we did), activated the anti-freezing drain valve to empty all the van in the water, wiped and dried it, and immediately turned back to Florence.

We notified the company so they could alert the depot, but on arrival, the local representative confirmed he had received no communication and there were no notes on our reservation. He inspected the van, confirmed it was in perfect condition internally and externally, and said there was nothing to sign. We admit we should have known better.

We contacted the company about a refund, considering our trip had to be shortened against our will due to several, serious technical deffects in the van. Customer supply responses were disconnected amongst themselves and incomplete, and we were still receiving automatic emails from the company such as "Ready to check out in 24h?" when we had already checked out a full 48h before our checkout date.

Our final surprise came today: a damage report of the van where they are charging us for:
1) Damage inside the drawer (caused by the leak);
2) Damage to the water system under the sink (which we never touched, despite them instructing us to do so in multiple ways);
3) And, the kicker, a "dent" in the outside of the van that is not covered by our Premium insurance, which definitely wasn't there when we turned the van in 48h, according to both us and the company's own local representative, costing EUR 1076 alone, which have already been charged to my card despite the fact we had no time to contest it (other than the numerous emails sent to customer service about our experience, our security deposit, and a possible refund, most of which went unanswered and one which contained false information about the company's own policy as stated in their website + our reservation). At the date their "audit" was made, the van has been in their possession for a full 4 days, at any which point the van could have been damaged (did we mention the local representatives were loudly complaining/arguing amongst themselves over the lack of space to park all the vehicles in the depot?).

All in all, this 6-day, horrendous trip has cost us EUR 2300. We are planning on pursuing legal action, but we are devastated that not only was our holiday ruined and much money lost (our campsite reservations for the days after we were forced to turn back were outside the refund window), but we are now spending time and energy to resolve a matter where the company is clearly at fault, morally and legally.

I do not recommend this company to anyone, under any circumstances, no matter how experienced a traveler/vanlifer/camperhome user you are or how attractive their prices may be. Trust me: they will catch you later.

Our rental of a motorhome from Indie Campers ended with a cost of €19,000 and a hellish vacation. This despite having purchased their highest "Premium Insurance”. If that’s not enough to deter you from doing business with these people, here’s a detailed breakdown.

We rented a Motorhome from Indie Campers with their full Premium Insurance, between 19/7-2/8/25.

Be advised, THIS COMPANY’S INSURANCE IS AN ABSOLUTE SCAM!
You will be led to believe you have purchased a comprehensive insurance. De facto you’ll be driving without insurance, and YOU COULD BE LIABLE FOR THE COST OF THE ENTIRE RENTED VEHICLE.

Their Premium Insurance (their highest-level insurance, which we took at a substantial extra cost) states “your excess will be limited to €199” – this is a blatant and misleading lie!

Only on pickup of the vehicle we were given full access to the rental documentation:
(At this point if you decide not to go ahead with the rental you will lose your booking fee)
1. The Rental Agreement – a 29,000-word document (in Italian I might add)
2. The Insurance document and T&C’s - 5,000-words.
3. Indie Campers Specific T&C’s –14,000-words.
Buried within these documents are exclusions upon exclusions to the Insurance policy.
These exclusions render your insurance and excess as none existent.

Which is to say, you will be driving without insurance, and will be liable for the full damage costs from anything to practically everything!

During pickup they demanded we block 500€ on the credit card for insurance purposes, given the excess was stated at 199€ we found that a bit odd but proceeded nonetheless.

During a trip our campervan was involved in an accident and sustained some damage to the upper sleeper cabin.

The Premium Insurance stated we were due to receive "road side assistance and a replacement vehicle"….
We never received any roadside assistance nor a replacement vehicle!

This despite lengthy WhatsApp correspondence with their Indie Campers HQ, who claimed they had no available replacement vehicles.
Searches on their website revealed plenty of availability.
We basically had to park the van for the remainder of the trip and our trip was over.
This wasn’t half our saga with this company.
When returning the vehicle, they stated there is no insurance for this damage, the excess is irrelevant.
We were handed a bill of 19,000€.

Despite having blocked only 500€ on the AMEX CC at the time of the pickup, they somehow managed to access the card and take a sum of 17,000€ from our credit card. We have now started a dispute process over it.
It is apparent this company’s business strategy is to lure in customers with lower rental prices, mislead them to believe they are driving with a comprehensive insurance, and then pursuing the ones unfortunate enough to have had an accident with insane damage bills.

DO YOURSELVES A FAVOR, AVOID INDIE CAMPERS AND THEIR INSURANCE SCAM!
Rent anywhere else.

Indie Campers stole my deposit. And they'll do the same to you

We hired a van from Milan for 1 month to drive around Europe.

Everything was fine until we drove into Germany and I received a police fine the first day. It said the van was unregistered and illegal to drive in German and Austria due to an expired TUV registration. I was fined money and points taken off my licence.

When I informed Indie Campers it took them 48 hours to even let me know if the van could be legally driven again (during which time we had to stay still and fight with them to reimburse even a night's accomodation).

They finally said it was OK to drive, but couldn't provide me with proof it was actually legal in Germany and Austria. We therefore had to try to cancel all our 2 weeks accomodation and tickets and leave both countries immediately.

Almost 2 months later they still haven't replied to my complaint, or given me proof of registration I've asked for. I've had my emails regularly bounce back, and been ignored repeatedly on WhatsApp.

This has lead me to believe that perhaps they regularly rent out unregistered vehicles illegally to customers and are trying to cover it up.

If you are going to use them, please check the registration on the back license plate before you leave the depot to ensure your vehicle is legal. I wish I had done that so we wouldn't had to change weeks of our trip at the last-minute.

It's been 2 months since I informed them and I still haven't been reimbursed for the fine, the accomodation, or anything. Every message to them is just ignored.

Their customer service is atrocious, I feel like I'm shouting into a void which I actually think is an intentional part of their business strategy.

On May 21, 2025, we rented a Nomad Pop Top with a shower and kitchen included from Indie Campers in Venice (Via dell Industrie, 138, 30020 Marcon Zona Industriale VE, Italy) for 5 nights, returning it on May 26, 2025.
During check-in, we were given a briefing on how the van worked. At this point, we were shown that none of the rear folding windows were self-supporting. We were also shown that there was no closure on the van's fresh water inlet, as the previous tenants had supposedly torn it off and not fixed it (photo attached). The guy told us he would provide a sponge to keep the dirt out and that was it. Finally, there was also an infestation of red ants on the passenger door and the rear door leading to the bed (photo attached). Other things we noticed during check-in: on the exterior, there were numerous dents all over the body (photo attached). There was also a large tree branch on the roof (photo attached).

We were not offered the option of exchanging the van.

At that point, we decided to go with this, since we had five days paid for with the van, and we were wasting our vacation time at a construction site.

Shortly after leaving, the inside of the van started to smell really strong. It was the smell of feces that was getting worse and worse, coming from the bathroom. We had to stop to try to ventilate the area, but we couldn't, since the windows couldn't stay open. Also, when we stopped to see where the bad smell was coming from, we started to notice the pile of dirt everywhere—simply disgusting: doors stained with food, the floor filthy with hair, bread, and other bits of dust, and lint. We resigned ourselves to the bad smell, and at a gas station, we bought air fresheners and sprays to kill the ants.

We continued on our way, and on the road, we started to notice that when we passed some trucks, they would flash their lights and honk their horns. I, who was in the passenger seat, looked in the rearview mirror and saw that we were spitting water out of the clean water nozzle. We stopped again and found there was no sponge, no plug, no nothing! In the end, we had to go to a campsite every night, since we couldn't use the bathroom (the smell was intolerable), and obviously we couldn't shower or cook (the hygienic conditions were clearly questionable). At least we could change and sleep in there. But here came another problem: the blinds wouldn't come down either because they were broken! We couldn't even have any privacy. And we slept with ants, waking up every day with bites on our legs and face.

They actually rented us this contraption that only served as transportation for €774.07. We felt totally ripped off and robbed. For this price, we could have gotten an Airbnb or an apartment that would at least have a decent kitchen, bathroom, and privacy.

Upon checking out, we told the lady about what had happened, and she said there was nothing she could do, that next time would be better. We also told her that, since we couldn't even cook, we should at least get a refund for the gas bottles (€45.90 + €59.90 = €95.80). She told us this was possible if we filed a complaint.

Really bad experience in the Venice pick up: staff did not disclose serious items of the van that were broken and unusable at pick up, we had to find out ourselves right there but some of course went unnoticed for us. After that, they were really difficult in approving a compensation and only for 13% of the total (very high) price, plus they charged us EUR 148 for a small item that was already broken and reported in due time, and again, big and long discussion with a month of emails back and forth to get reimbursed. Really disappointing, avoid using them if you can.

Such a poor service, keys left in the diesel cap, called the number as i had booked late collection. Nobody to be seen. Had to call a number and sign the contract on my phone while he charged my card for a deposit. Arrived at the van wing mirror duct taped on. Smashed passenger mirror casing. Smashed rear passenger light. Damage to the drivers side panel. And various dents and scratches.

The interior wasnt cleaned fully stains and damaged window blinds. Fresh bedding kit had a blood stained duvet and ripped bottom sheet.

When we collected the vehicle the ad blu light was on which we had to top up before we could start the rental.

During our trip day 4 we noticed water loss so we topped it up, the van continued to leak. Contacted customer service with zero help stating its a frost proof protection yet i hired for Milan (IT). The temperature is 22 in the evening so how does the frost proof system activate. We were told to get estimated repair costs which we were to foot the bill for and then reclaim the cost!

How does this company operate its business to ensure customers have a good vehicle rental.

ATROCIOUS. Stay completely clear of this total circus of a company.

Where do I even begin with this lot.

Arrive 11am as flight was very early, no problem, I am happy to wait until my schedule pick up time of 1pm.

Then the horror show began.

Ignored when I walked in, no aircon, place full of people and a steady 30c heat & humidity building up already. Mosquitos the size of small birds with the appetite of starved dogs attacking from every angle.

The only sofa in the “check in” area was so worn and had so many stains it looked like someone had been dismembered on it. I can only akin the room to a 1990s student hall living space.

Frankly, when you are paying nearly €2,000 for a service - this alone was embarrassingly poor.

1pm arrives…nothing & totally ignored - Other people drift in and out with their vans.

I check the booking and - to my absolute amazement they had CHANGED my van without saying anything to me in person even though I was literally sat in front of them!

“Oh, sorry, your van won’t be available until tomorrow, can you come back?”

Literally WTH

Asked to speak to the manager, Pedro - same response, plus the added bonus of “I have this California you can take today if that’s ok?” - now 2:30pm, I just want to start my holiday so I agree.

“Can I get something to eat somewhere whilst we wait?”

“Sure, there’s a supermarket 10mins walk down that way”

My partner and I head down there, grab snacks, and being the compassionate types, bought the team some pastries as they seemed quite busy already.

Brought them back, gave them to Pedro, which he obviously enjoyed as I walked past to the bathroom he was tucking into an apricot danish.

What he NEGLECTED to tell me, was the van he showed me was not going to be MY van, oh no folks, that would be too simple and service recovery far too comprehensive.

3pm….4pm…..

“Pedro, how long is this going to take? Why can’t I have that van?” Pointing to the fleet of vans being returned.

“They weren’t assigned to you, they’re assigned centrally I can’t do that here, I have to call them up and see if they can change the booking……..” by now all I can hear is a fizzing sound in my head.

“So, where is our van?!”

“Oh, it’s at the garage, it’s immaculate as it’s coming from the mechanic but will be about an hour ok?”

So…like a fool, I relented. By now my other half being Latina blood is frothing bile and sharpening her tongue. She is the most loving patient person on the planet unless she detects any hint of being taken advantage of. Pedro didn’t have the foresight at the time to realise what I was trying to save him from…

5pm…nothing.

“Pedro, where is my van please?!!!”

“It’s coming, maybe an hour”

In the meantime, at least 3 other customers are having very loud and meaningful feedback sessions with them various team members about broken equipment, changed bookings and surprise fees - abjectly failing to deliver anything close to the marketing fluff of false adventures and edited smiles.

5:30pm…”BEEP BEEP” - FINALLY our immaculate van arrives.

“It’s here!” Pedro wistfully skips past us to receive it.

Dear reader, you would not believe what rolled in even if I painted it neon pink and parked it in your bathtub.

Our ‘immaculate’ California had such a massive dent across literally HALF the side of the van it looked like a T-Rex was attempting to eat its occupants.

Well, my already upset partner literally shot Pedro a look that would befit a Star Wars movie in a final battle scene, I have never seen someone hiss and speak at the same time, but here it was…

“What is this???”

“Your van”, said a nervously smiley Pedro

“…and this is, immaculate?”

“It doesn’t affect the van at all, it’s perfectly fine”, Pedro now resembling a used car salesman in some dusty back town dealership, kicking a tyre, trying with all his might to avoid eye contact.

“You have made us wait here for 8 HOURS for this???”

“Well, you don’t have to have it, you can always wait for your original van”, cue shruggy shoulders and open palm de-escalation attempt.

“Pedro, how long before we can leave?”

“Maybe half an hour”

We didn’t get to leave until 6:30pm.

Just say no, Kids. Stay away from drugs…and Indie Campers for that matter. Both will cause you to lose track of time and waste your life.

I have spent five days in the Dolomites with two friends on a Nomad van booked at Indiecampers Venice and several issues occured.
Firstly, we had to wait for 4 hours at the pick-up office with no explanation until the staff gave us a van. It was 35 degrees that day and they made us wait at a poorly prepared office without aircon. It was a mess!!
Also, when the van was finally ready, a worker called Enrique did the check in and provided some explanations about the working of the vehicle. He showed low interest in answering our doubts, made it really fast, and left important things unexplained. We would notice later those days that he had given the wrong instructions! His worst mistake could have caused serious problems, as he said repeatedly that the gas was open in the position it was actually closed, so we basically drove 3 hours with the gas open. That's how much he cared about us understanding the use of the van.
As he didn't say how to use the hot water or the heating, not even if it worked by gas or diesel, we couldn't enjoy neither of those services. We followed the manual, but still, it didn't work. We consider this a lack of professionalism and previous preparation of the van.
Moreover, lots of pieces of furniture were broken or even inexistent. Windows couldn't block open, blinds and mosquito nets were badly installed and wouldn't stay closed, toilet handle, curtains of the shower, isolating cloths from the front windows were torn.
Finally, the cleaning was disgusting. We found cigarette bumps, bread crumbs in the drawers, and the fridge smelled terribly.
Don't use their services!!!

Thanks to the company IndieCampers who rented us a brand new model (just less than 100,000km) with all the comforts one could apsect.
- “Key-Less.” Although it is advertised that the “Nomad” model (the one we rented) had several keys for filling the water supply and emptying the toilet cassette, our model was instead much more convenient, in that there was only the main vehicle key while the toilet cassette door was always open and accessible to anyone, as was the water filler cap that had been replaced with a temporary one (probably years ago...).
- “Fast Track.” Honestly, we were a bit worried by the driving style of the people of Catania who tend to overtake slower vehicles (such as precisely a camper) in the most creative ways. All fears unfounded! The model we rented had so many scratches and dents that it frightened motorists, who kept well clear of us, providing us with a kind of fast lane, so free road, wherever we went. Great!
- “Cooking Under the Stars. The gas stove in the camper was already not working upon departure (the problem was already known). Fortunately, the Catania staff provided us with a camping stove with which we could cook under the stars, no matter the weather conditions, and a comfortable table to eat at. An extreme design model that had only 3 out of 4 working legs.
- “Bodyguard”. Thanks to an expired inspection in 2021 (as seen by the official sticker on the vehicle's German license plate) and the (very bad) state of the low beam headlights, we were stopped several times by law enforcement for checks. So much police escort would even dream of a magistrate! Thanks to the local law enforcement who showed understanding and still let us end our holiday.
- “Endless party.” The camper completely lacked mosquito nets on the main door and window. Every night we had so many mosquitoes as guest that we were never bored.
- “Anti-skidding. At first we thought that the shelves, drawers and the refrigerator itself were simply dirty. Too late we realized that it was an ingenious system that, thanks to the “sticky” patina of dirt from previous years, prevented items from slipping while driving. And we who spent a day unnecessarily cleaning the interior, removing this ingenious system!
- “Class A++ refrigerator. The state-of-the-art refrigerator consumed too much power for the (undersized) battery of the camper itself, which required us-every night-to look for a campsite or rest area with access to electricity.
- “Digital detox. Thanks to non-functioning USB outlets in the sleeping quarters, we had to limit our cell phone use due to the possibility of charging it only during the day while driving.
- “Fresh water”. On the advice of the Catania staff, because of the temporary cap for the water firing, we filled the water through the large main cap of the container (accessible only by “disassembling” the bed and lifting the mattress).This allowed us a look inside the tank and we noticed the presence of particles of material at the bottom.What looked like pieces of plastic to us were instead probably “mineral salts” to make the water taste better.
- “24-Hour Support”. We had a question about the camper and tried to contact assistance. The preferred route would be to use the internet and the website chat. Unfortunately, the internet is not always available and on my very old "iPhone 14" the chat always gave an error. Since the staff in Catania is not there for telephone support, we tried a phone number found by chance on the lease. A number with a German area code where a very polite staff with very limited knowledge of German and basic English skills answered.
- “Contract”. From what we read on the internet about the reputation of IndieCampers we were a little worried about making a contract with them. Luckily for us, as we looked more closely at the rental contract, we realized that apart from the Indiecampers logo, no company is mentioned in the contract: it is basically a rental contract between two private people (me and one of the staff men from Catania). This was very reassuring to me.
- “Deposit”. When the contract is signed, a deposit of 2000€ is required. Upon return of the camper, after inspections, the deposit should be released in a short time, instead the company IndieCampers leaves itself 5 to 10 days to release it. Surely at the end of the days they will give me the deposit back with interest! Make holiday and earn money? Amazing!!!
A huge thank you to the Indiecampers company. We will definitely rent your vehicles again. Probably at the earliest in the next life.

Very good service. Because it is far from public transportation Bruno, the manger in Amsterdam took us to the airport in his private car.

Under no circumstances use IndieCampers. You will regret it. Everyone does. They have no interest whatsoever in you as a customer; they want your money and don’t care how they get it. We hired a Mercedes Marco Polo in Marseille. On our first night the bed failed, one side wouldn’t go down. Rather than help us (all contact is over Whatsapp because IndieCampers doesn’t want to help via phone - they cut costs and customer service), they told us to drive to the nearest Mercedes repair company. That company was not contacted prior to our arrival. So, after a day there - they actually used my Whatsapp to communicate with the engineers (no phones, remember!) the engineers couldn’t repair the bed. What did IndieCampers do? Nothing. They didn’t deliver us a new van. We had already lost a day of our holiday travelling to the engineers. But, IndieCampers said we had to drive 100 miles back to their base to get a replacement. Customer care: 0. We decided to persist: me sleeping on the one seat that went down, my wife and baby daughter sleeping in the pop-up roof bed. They did say that there was a compensation scheme.
Here’s the best bit. IndieCampers tried to blame us for the broken bed. We asked for a refund (we took out their pathetic insurance), but were told they would waive the excess miles (a few quid) - excess miles that had been run up by us acting as their delivery driver taking the van to the engineer centre.
It gets better. When we asked them to honour their promise of compensation for the faulty van, they accused us of breaking the bed. If that was not enough, they then said we had been involved in a collision which had damaged the near side mirror. This was a blatant lie. They knew it. There was no prang. But, they were desperate to be as unpleasant as they could in the hope we would go away.
This company is appalling. Don’t go near them. They have no interest in you as a customer. They ‘upsell’ pointless insurance and then make up ways to get even more money out of you.
There are scores of reviews about how bad this company is. Don’t touch them. I would like to think they are not corrupt, but instead incompetent. If you read a good review, I would ask yourself whether a company that lies about a customer being involved in a scrape could also write its own reviews.
If you do use them and end up ripped off, you can find the execs on LinkedIn. They don’t like being personally targeted. But, it’s a dot com business that has expanded too far and is, I suspect, hiding behind tech and WhatsApp. But, its reputation will catch up with it.

Pickup experience was terrible. Very much disorganised customer service and unpolite. We waited two hours until being served (very quickly). The van was quite clean but showed lots of flaws and it hadn’t one of the window curtains. The petrol tank was almost empty.