CUSTOMER: Outdoorsy

Payments the easy way

According to Outdoorsy, many of the 10 million RVs in America collect dust 50 weeks a year on average. For their owners, the notion of renting them out when not in use can make perfect sense.

Outdoorsy is the fastest growing peer-to-peer marketplace for RV rentals. Founded in 2015, the Texas-based company strives to distinguish themselves by providing an excellent customer experience that includes fast and easy payouts for owners.

But for Outdoorsy—and millions of businesses worldwide—money movement isn’t their main business. That’s why these businesses often partner with a payment provider to handle it for them.

Outdoorsy’s previous payment process, however, had a long wait time that forced RV owners to wait 3-5 days for payment. This frustrated customers who were eager to get paid. The solution’s complexity also took a toll on Outdoorsy’s technical and customer support teams.

That’s because not all payment processes are ideal for a peer-to-peer marketplace. In Outdoorsy’s case, an orchestrated solution was required. They found it in Modern Treasury + Plaid.

Faster payouts

For RV owners to list their vehicle on Outdoorsy, they need to link a financial account to the service using Plaid. To do so, they simply select their financial institution from a list and enter the login and password associated with their account. Plaid now connects to more than 10,000 US financial institutions— often in a matter of seconds.

Once their financial account is connected, RV owners are ready to receive ACH payments. And with Plaid handling the account authentication and Modern Treasury the money movement, payouts can happen much faster. In fact, RV owners typically receive payment within 24 hours of the vehicle’s return, a welcome improvement over 3-5 days.

“There are business advantages to that,” explains Tyler Stillwater, Lead Backend Developer at Outdoorsy. “The faster transit times have allowed us to store and move all funds through our master account, which has improved our relationship with our bank.”

Plaid helps Outdoorsy improve the customer experience in other ways, as well. Previously, customers were required to manually enter their account and routing numbers to link their financial accounts. This process was fraught with user error, culminating in failed payments and customer support calls.

By enabling customers to instantly authenticate their accounts with Plaid Auth, user error has dropped by 99%. And for the tens of thousands of RV owners who use Outdoorsy, this streamlines the payment experience while, according to Outdoorsy, saving the company hundreds of hours per month in payment troubleshooting.

“Plaid makes it easier for users to enter their account information, helping reduce the possibility of user error,” says Stillwater.

More secure, less expensive

With Modern Treasury + Plaid, Outdoorsy got the functionality they needed— practically overnight.

“I could have built the solution myself but going with Modern Treasury + Plaid made everything much easier,” says Stillwater.

This included security as well. Modern Treasury + Plaid provides Outdoorsy with a tokenized solution that enables the company to provide services to its customers without having to store user credentials.

Cost savings is another major benefit. When the pandemic hit, according to Outdoorsy, 90% of their RV reservations were cancelled—marking the start of a brief downturn. During that initial time frame, the company searched for ways to save money and found that Modern Treasury + Plaid gave them the flexibility and functionality they needed at a much lower cost.

“There are other payment providers out there, but Modern Treasury + Plaid gives us the easiest technical path at the lowest fees for us. Plus they’re really nice to work with,” adds Stillwater.


Next up: savings for RV renters

Outdoorsy serves customers in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, among other countries. With a 4,000% growth rate since April of 2020, demand for their service is surging.

Given the success of the Modern Treasury + Plaid solution, Outdoorsy plans to begin using it for their other class of customers: RV renters. By offering them the ability to pay with ACH, Outdoorsy hopes they’ll be able to save renters on credit card fees.

“Overall the experience with Plaid and Modern Treasury has been excellent,” concludes Stillwater. “They’re both just amazing across the board.”