Veteran RVRA Chairman Alanko Stepping Down

Bert Alanko

After two decades of service, RV Rental Association (RVRA) Chairman Bert Alanko of MBA Insurance has announced he will step down from that position following the Recreation Vehicle Dealers Association’s (RVDA) board meeting in March.

According to a press release, Alanko is a long-time contributor to RVDA and has served as chairman of the rental association for 19 years. His years of service have been marked by multiple RVDA/RVRA awards for membership recruitment, the RVDA Chairman’s Service Award in 2004, and in 2011, RVDA’s highest honor, the James B. Summers Award.

“It has been my honor and a lot of fun to have been allowed to serve as the RVRA chairman, sit on the RVDA board and work with the dealer board members for all these years,” said Alanko in announcing his departure. “The dedication that board members exhibit toward the progress and success of the RVDA and our industry is truly inspiring. This opportunity has allowed me to see our RV industry from a whole different viewpoint than one would normally experience. The friendships that I have made have enriched my RV career. I only hope that I have been able to make a positive contribution.”

MBA Insurance, Alanko’s company, is a consistent sponsor of the RV Dealers Convention/Expo along with contributing to the development of the rental educational track at the event and providing financial support to the RV Learning Center.

“Bert Alanko has provided excellent leadership and outstanding guidance to the RVDA board over the years,” said RVDA Chairman Jeff Hirsch. “He is a passionate advocate for RV rentals and the important role they play within the RV industry. We will miss his enthusiasm, candor, Midwestern values, and his humor on the board.”

Nominations are now being accepted for RVRA leadership positions. A new chairman and board members will be elected by RVRA members in early spring. RVRA, a subsidiary of RVDA, is the national association of companies that rent RVs including dealers and rental-only companies.

MBA Hosts 11th Annual Rental School Jan. 27-29

MBA Insurance will host its 11th Annual Rental School, which has been recognized as the RV rental industry’s most comprehensive training program, Jan. 27-29 in Las Vegas.

During this three-day event, instructors with almost 50 years of combined rental experience will impart knowledge of industry best practices and tips. Sessions will revolve around such topics as sales, marketing, accounting and fleet management. Attendees will receive new products and information from the event’s many sponsors, a CD of forms and documents to help aid in their rental business, and a comprehensive operations manual – the definitive how-to in the RV rental business, according to a news release.

Attendees can expect to learn numerous tips and tools of the trade, including how to wisely invest in and grow your fleet, how to create a pricing strategy, how to successfully advertise, and how to identify a quality renter.

“Our main objective with Rental School is to provide our client’s with a competitive advantage,” said Joshephine Johnson, MBA Insurance vice president. “Because our classes are led by experienced RV rental dealers, attendees will learn first-hand how to successfully grow their business.”

To reserve a spot at the school, go to  www.RentalSchool.com.

Established in 1978, MBA Insurance has grown into the premier rental insurance agency in the country writing insurance coverage for motorhomes, motorcycles, ATV’s, scooters, snowmobiles, travel trailers and folding camping trailers. Today, MBA insures over 2,100 RV rental companies nationwide.

Active in the RV industry on a national level, MBA is a founding member of the Recreation Vehicle Rental Association (RVRA), a member of the Recreation Vehicle Dealers Association (RVDA), an associate member of the Recreation Vehicle Industry Association (RVIA) and a contributor to the Go RVing campaign.

Currently, MBA President Bert Alanko is chairman of RVRA and sits on the board of RVDA, a position that he has held since 1994. Under Alanko’s helm, the RVRA has grown from 25 to 440 dealer members.

To learn more, visit www.MBAInsurance.net.

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MBA Insurance Launches RV Rental Website

 Bert Alanko, left, president of MBA Insurance Inc., has announced a new program for his agency’s  clients  that rent RVs.

 In an interview he had these comments about the new program:

 ”We have begun an association with Point Data Solutions who owns Ultimate RV Rentals.com.  What  we are going to do is enable our dealer customers to list all of their rental units on this website.  The  rental customer can go search by ZIP code, by city, by state, and locate rental vehicles.  So, anybody  that  we insure – right now that is about 2,500 dealer policies- can place their units on the site.

“If a rental customer sees a unit they like, they can click on it and if the dealer has say 10 units on the  site, the other 9 units will also be displayed.  Our goal is to drive business to our dealer’s place of business.  We are going to do this for $1.99 per unit per month.  We feel that this is a good value for our customers.

“All we want our dealers to do is to help us help them; populate the site.

“They can’t go out and get that degree of web presence on their own.  It would be too costly and the ranking on the sites is done by linkage.  With the cooperation of our dealers, we believe that we can get UltimateRVrentals.com up there on the web where it can compete with any of the rental listing sites that are out there now.

“So, we are going to be able to do something for our dealers that they can’t do for themselves – good positioning on the search engines, Google, Yahoo, places like that; we are going to drive business to them.  Someone who goes to the site, makes a vehicle request, the dealer receives a SMS right to their cell phone plus an email.  Speed it’s speed.  We know that the first person to get to the rental customer gets the booking.

“He can be anywhere, at the kid’s ballgame, wherever, and call the rentaer right back saying, ‘Hey I understand you just made an inquiry on my site for unit x, yes that is available.

“And, if they are using the eWebRenter, our booking program to produce contracts, he can get a contract back to the renter in just seconds.  All of a sudden we’ve taken this rental shopper a made him a customer, in a couple of minutes.”

How do people find this site?

“They go to one of the search engines, say Google, and search RV Rental.  Eventually our search engine optimization will have our site right up there near the top.  We are going to be doing webenars seminars with our dealers; dealer participation is going to be the key to make this service work for the rental community.  It is going to take some time to get the UltimateRVrentals.com site highly ranked.  But, it works, we know that, we just want to do it better more cost effectively.”

What kind of rental year are you anticipating?

“We at MBA think it’s going to be a great year for the rental business. Dealers are having a tough time selling vehicles.  It’s tough for the consumer  to make that commitment to buy the RV right now.  But, its not tough to commit for a week or two to rent.  That’s easy.  Based on what we are hearing from our customers their advance bookings are fair to very strong.  So I think that once again the rental business is going to be good.  Rentals are good in the good times and good in the bad times, and right now we are definitely in the latter.”