An Interview With Escape Camper Vans Founder Rob Mewton

In honor of our 10 year anniversary, we sat down with Escape’s founder Rob Mewton to learn more about how Escape Camper Vans USA came to be.

What led you to start Escape Camper Vans in the US?

I spent about 15 years working in construction in the US and was essentially looking for something else to do–looking for a change. I went back to New Zealand and was going to a friend’s wedding and I got picked up by another friend who had started this camper van company in New Zealand called Escape Camper Vans. And as soon as he picked me up, I was like, “Oh man, you’ve got to pull over. I got to check this thing out. This is exactly what I want to do.” I looked over the camper van and said this is absolutely brilliant. I discussed it with my wife Tara a little bit. She was super excited and so I approached those guys in New Zealand and said, “We’ve got to start this in America.” There is so much traveling to do in America, you know, Tara and I had done a fair bit of traveling. We had done the California coast in a Dodge van essentially for about three months. And we knew that there were tons of State Parks and National Parks. There is just so much to see. I thought this could well be the answer. The New Zealand guys were pretty hesitant to bring it here, but I essentially told him that if they didn’t come with me, I was going to do it anyway (which I’m glad they came). So that was in 2007 when we came back here to the US. In addition to my other job, I did about 18 months’ worth of due diligence and couldn’t figure out a reason why we couldn’t do camper vans here. In 2009, we started Escape Camper Vans USA in a little house in Lawndale, California.

What did the camper van rental scene look like then?

It was still pretty new. When we saw those vans in 2007, it was essentially Escape, Jucy, and another company called Spaceships. And that was it as far as I know. I mean, it has grown exponentially since then, but that was it.

What were the early days of Escape like getting everything up and running?

We started with 17 or 18 vans the first year. I moved down here from Bend, Oregon–I left Tara and the kids in Bend and commuted for 10 months back and forth. That was pretty tough going actually. I used to go back to Bend and Tara would say, “Why did you come back?” because I’d just be on the phone the entire time taking reservations on the 4th of July advising some Germans that yes, we had a van if they would just change one day of their pickup or whatever. The guys from New Zealand came over and joined me about 10 months later. It was pretty full-on. When we started, it was just me and I hired a guy named Thomas to help me build the vans. I built the cabinets in the backyard, did the polyurethane, installed them in the van and would sometimes rent the van the same day the cabinets were installed.

Did you rent the house in LA to build vans?

We rented a house right against the free-way, with a double lot in a residential neighborhood. By the end of it, we had a suite of about 67 vans and I think we were still running them out of that house. We parked the vans all over the place. I used to go to the neighbors and buy them Outback Steakhouse or Starbucks gift cards once a month because I knew I was washing 18 vans a week in front of their house. It’s amazing how far an Outback Steakhouse gift card or free coffee will go. I told the landlord the day before I signed the lease that this is what I was going to do. She said, “Well, it will be your problem if you get busted. I don’t care.” So, she was my perfect kind of landlord. And away we went!  It really was way too much production for the space, but we didn’t know if it was really going to work or not. We weren’t going to lease a commercial building, then have to walk away if for some reason camper vans didn’t take off in America. 

Did you finally get caught?

The day that we finally got busted by the City of Lawndale, a guy came through the gate wearing a badge around his neck like NYPD Blue. He came through the gate and we had a couple of guys spray painting. One of them went over the fence because he couldn’t be within 100 yards of a spray paint can due to his previous convictions of graffiti around LA. He thought it was the police, so he dropped his can and went straight over the fence. I went over to meet him and he asked what we were doing. Instead of being sneaky, I told him the truth. He said he knew what we were doing because he would eat his lunch across the street and watch us. Unfortunately, after 2.5 years, one of the neighbors complained. We already knew we were too big and had been looking for a property. It just became a matter of finding a property and moving. The property we found is where we currently are in Los Angeles now. We were a little company when we started renting out the new space. We rented it with 3 other companies, so we were sharing it. It’s hard to imagine now because we’re hemorrhaging out of the thing. But when we started, we had another rental company and a lawn company renting from us.

How did you buy the camper vans?

There were four partners and it was all our own money. The three New Zealand guys and I fronted the cost. I bought my first van off a retail guy, and he tried to sell me on the bells and whistles. I told him I didn’t need any of that stuff. He said he couldn’t do that because somebody else would like the van.  But he said I should look into used government vehicles have very low miles. They really helped us get started. We bought a couple retail, but the rest were from the government.

What models were they?

They were the Malibu model. The Chevy Astrovan, and we called it the Malibu. They were all named after surf breaks to start with, so that was easy. Maverick was the next one, then the Ventura after that.

How has the fit-out changed since day one?

So much! They keep evolving. The most important thing is to listen to your customers. We’ve received so much good feedback.  In the early days, I would build all the cabinets myself out of plywood and it was a constant battle of continually adding polyurethane to make them look good. We ended up switching our materials later on to what we use today, which made a big difference. For the fridge, we started with a Coleman cooler box which was useless and kept blowing fuses. It was a nightmare. We then evolved to our current fridge from Dometic with a solar panel and battery onboard. It’s a huge evolution. It’s the same basic layout because it really works, but with the difference in materials and the addition of some very helpful new components. When we first started, the water used to run right out of the bottom of the camper. We ran it like that for a year but got feedback from renters and decided to start using tanks. We were buying bedding from Walmart then found IKEA. IKEA had nice comforters and everything looked much snappier.

How did you decide to paint the camper vans?

That was a tough decision. We hemmed and hawed about whether or not it was a good idea to paint them in America. Ultimately we decided that if you take a white van and you’re looking at it, it’s just incredibly boring. If you then paint it, everything from the personality of the van to the attitude of the renter, to the marketing for Escape, everything just goes way up. People fall in love with those vans. They fall in love with the artwork. They even rename the vans. They take pictures with them and they get tattoos of them. In hindsight, it was an easy decision. On the front end, it wasn’t so easy, but we were like, “You know what? Let’s just go for it.” At worst we could always paint them back if the response was negative. But the response has been overwhelmingly positive. In fact, in our second year, we had about 40 vans and we were completely sold out for the summer. Someone got into an accident, and I didn’t have a spare van to give the next renter. I had 48 or 50 hours to get them another van. So I called up the guy who I was buying the vans from at the time, bought a new van, and I built the thing in like 24 hours. I didn’t stop from the time I bought it, drove it to Las Vegas and met the couple that was going to pick it up on the next rental. I managed to have time to build it, but unfortunately, I didn’t have time to get it all sanded, taped, painted, and clear coated. So I thought I’d done this huge favor for these people–I drove to Las Vegas, I got there on time, I was absolutely exhausted when I showed up. I pulled into the car park, and this girl was like “That’s not my van, is it?” And I said yes, it’s your van. And she’s like, “Well, it’s not painted!” And I’m like, I’m so sorry and I start telling her the whole story. And she was like, “Well, that’s not my problem!” I said I really don’t have another van for you, gave them a discount and everything, and this girl cried–I’m not joking–for 45 minutes. She was inconsolable. Her boyfriend tried as hard as he could and I’m sitting there with a guy I have managing Las Vegas. I said, “I don’t know if they’re going to take the van or not. I might have done all this for nothing.” They came back into the room and said they’d take the van. I was really happy they took the van. I thought after a couple of days in the van, she’d get over it. An Australian girl, about 2 weeks later, who had taken a van asked, “You rented a van without paint on it, didn’t you?” And I said, “Yeah. How did you know?” She said to me, “Well I met those people in Yosemite and that girl was pissed. She was so mad that she had gotten a van with no artwork.” So, I told her the story. I told her she could even take photos with my van but she didn’t want anything to do with it.  That is, to me, the power of the artwork, you know? It becomes a part of their holiday. You see some of those photos. One of my favorite photos is one of the vans with a whole bunch of fish on it. Some renters took a photo of it in the Redwoods. It looked like they put a van-shaped aquarium in the forest. It looks so cool. Such a juxtaposition of one to the other.  Every now and then you get somebody that asks if we have one that’s not painted. But for the most part, people are super happy. They realize is that it’s quality artwork. For some people, this is the closest they’ll get to incredible graffiti. It just makes it part of their vacation.

Where did you find the artists/artwork?

Drew Brophy had rented a van in New Zealand and showed up to pick it up. One of my business partners, Andrew, asked him if he wanted to paint a van. Drew said it was his first-ever holiday not painting and his wife would divorce him if he started painting while on vacation. They chatted about starting in America and Drew painted the first van for us in Lawndale. It was the first van or vehicle he had ever painted. He hadn’t done a lot of spray paint before either. He was more of a brush and airbrush guy. His artwork has really evolved since the first day he started painting Escape Camper Vans. But you don’t want the whole suite of vans being one type of artwork. We wanted to be spread out and varied and interesting. That pleases more customers. So, my next stop was the Venice Walls. Down by the state park, LA County built these walls and crazy structures for people to paint on. You will find people who just started painting and people who are really good artists. One day there was a guy painting moles, and they were incredible. It’s hard to believe because moles aren’t the cutest animals on the planet. But this guy had a really good take on them and it was by far the best art down there. So I told him my business plan to buy used vans, build campers out of them, spray paint them, and rent them. He thought I was crazy.  I told him to give me his number, and I gave him my information. I called him 3 or 4 times and left voicemails, but never heard back. About 2 weeks later, I went back and asked him why he didn’t call me. His girlfriend finally talked him into coming to paint a van. They thought I was crazy for painting perfectly good vans. That was D.J. Neff, and D.J. has now painted around 70 or 80 vans for us. From there, D.J. told me there was a store in the area that sold spray paint. I hooked up with those guys and they gave me a bunch of artists. Art is all personal, so some people are way too detailed and can’t spray a vehicle. Some people’s art doesn’t translate to a vehicle, some people are too slow, and some people want more than we could afford. To get where we are today, we have now worked with more than 20 artists. A few of them have been with us since day one and are still painting camper vans today.

How did people hear about Escape Camper Vans?

All our first rentals were through the New Zealand Agent Network. But the very first renters I got out of a Venice hostel. I asked if I could put a poster up, and these 4 guys called me wanting to rent a van. One of them even offered to wire the fridges in the van for a discount.  They showed up, picked up the van, and drove non-stop for 3 weeks from L.A. all the way down through New Mexico, Texas, the Keys, and New York. They went to Washington, Seattle, and came all the way back down the coast. They only had half a day without driving constantly. When they came back, I was devastated. I knew if I rented to people like this, my vans would have a million miles on them by the end of the summer. But turns out, they were an anomaly.

Did you have to sell the idea to people?

In the first year, you could have counted the American renters on one hand. They didn’t rent at all. I was constantly explaining what I was doing. Even the hostel staff didn’t understand what I was doing. I would ask the American kids behind the desk to put up posters and they thought I was crazy. I don’t think it was until we got into Groupon that we got wider, mass-market appeal.

What are some memorable renter stories?

I have a Burning Man story. The first year, no Burning Man. Absolutely no Burning Man. I actually called Shawn (our COO)  to ask what Burning Man was. He had been there and told me not to rent any vans for Burning Man. I said, “OK.”  I got a call from a young lady who said she needed a rental van over the Burning Man dates, a bike rack, and all the Burning Man stuff (like extra propane bottles). I asked if she was going to Burning Man, and she said of course not. I said don’t lie to me, because the fine will be $500 if you take the van to Burning Man. She still said no, and that they were going to Arizona.  I rented the van to her and the van comes back very clean… unusually clean. This was my first year experiencing Burning Man. I later learned that the only time someone has a van detailed is when they’re lying about going to Burning Man. I’m going around and thinking they went to Burning Man because it’s way too clean. Three people dropped it off and only one came in. She still said they didn’t take it. I opened the passenger door and in the little cubby was the 2009 Guide to Burning Man. I handed it to her and her face dropped. She was devastated. I didn’t charge her the full $500 because she had spent $200 getting it cleaned. She should just cover her tracks in the future. It was pretty early in our company, so the fee is now a lot more due to how much cleaning is required when the vans return. She made it off easy.

Now everyone wants their own camper van, but 10 years ago that wasn’t the case. Why do you think that is? 

It was such a good idea. I know that I’m incredibly biased, but what appealed to me in the 90s is the same thing that appeals to people today. You have everything you need, nothing you don’t. It is so stress-free to be able to pull up to a space and leave or just pull over and rest if you have to. You don’t have a ticking clock and all the pressure you have with other traditional kinds of travel, like cars and hotels. Especially in the summer – you have to have all that stuff booked or you won’t be getting a hotel room. If you’re taking a big RV, it’s the same pressure. You need to book a large RV spot. Sure – we’d all like to be on the front beach spot in Malibu, but realistically, that doesn’t happen. You can, however, legally go to the State Forest and camp for free. No big deal. To me, people are catching onto that. The millennial generation and the end of my generation figured out that we don’t need all that stuff. We’d rather have the time and enjoy the experience than pay extra for 20 feet of closet space and TVs.

Do you have your own camper van?

We had a ’77 Dodge that was pretty special, and I mean special as in very retro. We actually remodeled the thing completely from start to finish. We had it for about 6 years and it was great. We did the whole California coast. We used to go up to the Cascade Lakes back when you could do that on a Friday afternoon and grab a campground (before it was so crazy). We’d swim and hangout. It was really good. We built our first house while living in that camper van in an RV Park. We did the re-model in that guy’s trailer park and every day he would come back and say, “How close are you from being finished?” I wouldn’t open the door up but would tell him it was almost done when really it was completely stripped down to the floor and gutted. I was definitely not almost done. We had two dogs and a cat when we lived there as well. Like Tara says, it was cute. My wife is pretty relaxed.  We don’t have a van now. We exclusively lived in it for 6 months to almost a year. It was all an adventure since we first used it for travel. We’d work all week then bail out and go to the lake on the weekends. Very simple. Then, we’d come back Monday morning or late Sunday night. We’d leave at the very latest we could. But you felt so good for the next week. It’s not as easy now. We have two kids – so between school, dance, rugby, skateboarding, and camps… our whole life is scheduled now. Back then, it was super easy.

What makes Escape so successful?

We started Escape as a pretty reasonable product and a pretty inexpensive product. We aimed at a certain segment of the market and kept the vehicles very simple. It’s been good on so many levels. For example, if the stove breaks you can go to Target or Walmart and get another one. If you have a problem with a camp chair, you can pick up another chair. There’s nothing over-complicated with the vehicle. Our philosophy was and still is: Everything you need and nothing you don’t. Because we’ve kept the vans and products simple, we kept the price down and it helped us be in the wheelhouse of our customer. Let’s face it: our customers are free, independent travelers. Typically not looking for a concierge or super high-end products. But they are looking for a good, quality product at a good price.

What’s next for Escape? What is next for the camper van rental industry?

At some point soon, we will have hit most of the locations that make sense for us. But adding more depot locations won’t be too far in the future. There is still some market space out there for sure. What it’s going to come down to for camper vans is getting all the add-ons right, so that people are super happy with what they rent. I know that it’s hard, but I think we’ll just keep evolving the product and that can go in a few different directions. I do think electric camper vans will be the next thing. I just can’t see it not being there. To me, that will be the next huge seller. I don’t know how they will charge for electricity, but they will. I don’t know the time window, but I would guess 10 years or sooner. That’s a realistic time window for a good-sized camper van with a decent range. 

What are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced?

The challenges are unbelievable. It has been incredibly stressful for our family and relationships. You are trying to provide this great experience for people but you’re spread really thin. I’ve worked over 24 hours at a time, and that is just one of the many challenges of starting a small business. Like I said, commuting for 10 months before I got the family down here was a struggle. They’d visit on the weekend, and then I’d leave to go market the Rugby fans. My wife was like, “Really? I don’t even know Los Angeles.” Tara worked for Escape for six or seven years and was beyond patient. She didn’t want me to answer the roadside assistance call on the sidewalk while we were at dinner, but she knew I had to. She knew it was important. 

What are the most rewarding parts of building one of the first camper van rental companies in the U.S.?

So there are challenges, but the greatest thing about this business is that people will come back and tell you time and time again that they had the best holiday they’ve ever had. They had no stress, loved the van, loved the artwork, and they go on and on. When we started Escape, we set it up as travelers because that’s what we all are. We thought about the experience of the person across the desk from us. We would always give them recommendations on where to go and other tips. People would come back and rave about the places we told them to go. All of those little things and hearing about their best holiday made us feel really proud of what they received.