Stuck in a Hotel: An RV Insurance Claim Story

“Vehicle insurance isn’t like health insurance…” says the agent on the other end of the line. “…you can’t stack multiple claims under one deductible.”

Shit…that was exactly the plan.

Since we travel full time in our RV, there were a few issues that had been stacking up that we were waiting to take care of all at once.

We had two giant holes (covered in tape) in the front of our 5^thwheel travel trailer from…well, dropping it a year ago- but that damage was only cosmetic, and it wasn’t even the main reason we were in the shop.

What brought us to need repairs was our slide-out; it had snagged the linoleum flooring on its way out, which had torn up a hefty chunk.

This meant that the floor had to be replaced but, more immediately, the slide issue needed to be resolved before we traveled any further.

We also had 3 other issues: 

1. Water dripping out of the underbelly when we filled the tank
2. The rear stabilizer jack motor needed to be repaired/replaced
3. And, we had a soft spot in the floor

Yikes!

The last time either of us had dealt with an auto insurance claim was over a decade prior, and it certainly wasn’t RV insurance, so it’s possible we made some mistakes. (We did.)

Our 1^st Mistake (ranking order debatable)

We thought we could lump everything under one deductible. Nope.

Since these problems were all unrelated, each incident was its own claim…and had its own deductible. Ouch.

Our 2^ndMistake

Instead of contacting the insurance company when the incident(s) happened, we decided to get a quote from the shop first, thinking it would put us ahead of the game. Wrong. (Kind of.)

Apparently, we were supposed to contact our insurance first to see if they would even cover the damages. Since we didn’t, the already-lengthy approval process was made even longer. 

As full-time RV nomads, we were relying on our insurance to cover the hotel stay (a feature of our insurance plan), so the delay put us in a bit of a bind.

The RV repair shop was kind enough to let us dry-camp in their parking lot (lot-dock) over the weekend, but come Monday, it was time to get a hotel room.

Since our hotel coverage depends upon a claim being approved, this could have been a costly mistake for us.

We spent several stressful days playing phone tag with the insurance agent and the claims adjuster.

At first, the adjuster told us it would be over a week until he could come out to check the damages. This meant we would be paying for our hotel out-of-pocket that whole week.

After pleading our case that we were stuck paying for a hotel room, the adjuster shuffled a bit and said he could make room in his schedule by Wednesday. (Whew!)

Our 3^rdMistake

When we chose our insurance plan, we went with ‘full-timer coverage,’ so we thought we could claim any and all damages to be repaired by insurance. Nuh-uh.

We learned that the stabilizer jacks, the soft spot on the floor, and the water dripping out from the bottom of the RV would all definitely not be covered.

The linoleum and slide would probably not be covered because it was most likely due to slow damage over time, which is not included in any policy.

And, the holes in the front the RV- “Why did you wait a year to claim this?” [Insurance Agent]

Truth be told, we were really embarrassed (and traumatized) that we dropped the trailer, and we were just starting our journey at the time, so we decided that since the damage was only cosmetic, we could put a band-aid on it and deal with it later.

Since the holes in the front cap were the only damages caused by a collision, the insurance company told us that it was likely to be the only claim covered. And of course, that was even, ‘still under determination.’ 

We were then informed that our hotel stay would only be reimbursed for the duration of any covered repairs, meaning if the shop worked on any non-covered repairs before or after the covered repairs, those hotel days would not be reimbursed. Bummer.

A String of Good Luck

At this point, we just wanted some solid news after pacing around hotel rooms for days, contemplating all the possible outcomes of our situation. 

After seveal days of limbo, the call finally came from our insurance agent.

They decided to cover the year-old front-end damages – Hooray!!

They also decided to cover the floor and slide repair!! Wait, what?

Yep- all the major repairs, covered.

AND, the amount of money allocated for these two repairs would be more than the repair shop estimate, so some of the other work could be financed with that left over money.

AND, the hotel reimbursement would cover our entire two-week stay, starting retroactively from day one.

The Happy (and not so happy) Ending

With great relief, we waited out the finish of our RV’s repairs.

When we received the call that we could pick up the trailer, we were overjoyed to be getting our home back- in better shape than we left it!

If you’ll recall from ‘Our 2^ndMistake’, instead of calling the insurance company first, we decided to get a quote from the RV repair shop. 

This turned out not to be such a mistake after all.

Since the insurance company sent the claim check directly to the repair shop, the shop decided to charge us the full amount of the claim check + our deductible, disregarding the original estimate.

We were expecting to pay $0 but were instead hit with a $1,700 bill. Not cool guys.

So, we explained the situation from our perspective [paraphrased]: 

• Estimate = $4,500

• Insurance check = $8,000

• Repair bill = $9,700 (Insurance check + $1,700 deductible)

When we requested an itemized rundown of the work, with labor hours, etc. the repair shop owner told us, ‘My guys don’t work like that’. 

Really!?

We wish you could’ve seen our faces because he then snapped, “Well, what do you want to pay then? Just tell me how much you’re willing to pay.”

We both looked at each other in disbelief like, “Did he really just go from $1,700 to, ‘whatever you’re willing to pay me?’”

It was a clear indicator to us that he was trying squeeze everything he could out of our situation, but we weren’t having it.

After several rounds of, “This is what you quoted; why are we being charged so much?”, he finally broke down and let slip that he shouldn’t have given us a quote before the insurance claim was approved– you know, so he could over-charge without anyone being the wiser. 

What a dick.

So, our ‘mistake’ actually turned into a big advantage for us- we walked out without paying a dime and without being scammed.

The final straw for the repair shop owner was our insistence of filing a fraud claim with our insurance company. He didn’t like that, and promptly gave us permission to leave with our RV.

Final Thoughts

Our insurance company really came through for us. I highly recommend that you do your research and find the right one for you to make sure you’re covered. To help you out, here is a super informational guide that was just released from Consumer Advocates. They spent over 200+ hours of research vetting 10 of the top insurance companies to narrow it down to the best four.

An RV repair shop in Spokane Valley, WA- we’ll call them Falseline (real name redacted)– is not on the up-and-up. Don’t get me wrong, the repair work was solid, but they were quick to try to get us to pay way more than what the job was actually worth based on their initial quote vs. the insurance quote.

This experience was stressful, no doubt, but we learned a lot about how our RV insurance policy works, which has given us much more calibrated expectations for any future dealings with our insurance company.

If you have any questions for us, or want to share your own insurance story, please share in the comments below!