Sarasota luxury RV company offers 'land yachts' for rent

An opportunistic entrepreneur captures a niche market in shuttling luxury RV passengers across the country, with an uptick in one-way trips and demand for shorter ventures.


Sarasota resident Mike Bloomquist is the co-owner of LiTRV, which rents vehicles like this 2025 Prevost Marathon luxury motorcoach.
Sarasota resident Mike Bloomquist is the co-owner of LiTRV, which rents vehicles like this 2025 Prevost Marathon luxury motorcoach.
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When Michael Bloomquist’s in-laws asked him to sell their RV about 15 years ago, he had no idea the experience would lead him to start a company. 

"I kept getting calls," Bloomquist says, but it was not from people who wanted to buy the RV. They wanted to lease it. "I couldn't understand why people wanted to rent this thing when I was trying to sell it."

Finally, he says, he asked one of the callers why they wanted the motorcoach. Once he found out, he ended up taking the RV from Chicago to Indianapolis for a group of investment bankers so they could get to the Super Bowl. Previously, Bloomquist had worked for a cruise operator in Hawaii conducting whale watching and other tours, so he was familiar with hospitality. With the RV, he was able to provide a luxurious space for his clients to gather.

“At the end of this, I had netted $5,800 for one day’s work,” Bloomquist says. “I thought, there’s something to this.”

After that, he worked as a consultant for Goss RV, a Georgia company that says it has the largest fleet of luxury motorcoaches to rent in the U.S. About 10 years ago, he was driving a motorcoach for a client named Robert Novak, who encouraged him to start his own company.

Today Bloomquist and Novak are among three partners behind Sarasota-based LiTRV, which stands for Luxury in Travel RV and is pronounced “Lit RV.” It provides high-end motorcoaches (also known as "land yachts") and curated travel experiences.

“We started small in 2016,” Bloomquist says. “It was a slow go until Covid, and then Covid started boosting our business. People weren’t taking cruises, people wanted out of metro areas and wanted to travel by RV. We were in the right spot at the right time, had built a solid foundation, and that helped launch us to where we are today.”

In the past few years, LiTRV has posted revenue around $1 million annually, Bloomquist says.

The company has its home office in Sarasota, where Bloomquist is, as well as in Arizona, where Novak and the third partner, James Colletti, reside. The partners are the company’s three employees, supplemented by contractors like the drivers.


Managing luxury

LiTRV has eight to 10 luxury motorcoaches in its fleet, which consists mainly of vehicles registered as LLCs that it manages and rents out on behalf of owners.

“If you have too many, then you’re not producing the kind of revenue owners want,” Bloomquist says. ”We represent the owner and are managing their coach or their RV. We do a 50/50 net profit share.”

While the motorcoaches in the fleet are typically around $500,000 to buy, Bloomquist says, one the company is managing in Sarasota costs about $3 million. 

LiTRV rents a variety of luxury motorcoaches for vacations and one-way travel.
Courtesy image

The vehicles are not typical RVs; they feature high-end amenities like fireplaces, dishwashers, Viking appliances, heated tiles and washing machines. Each motorcoach through LiTRV also comes with a CDL driver, who stays at a hotel or nearby Airbnb during the journey.

The luxury motorcoaches typically start at $15,000 for a three-day trip, Bloomquist says.

“We’ve had trips over $100,000,” Bloomquist says, that include a “full planned-out agenda” along the way. “We provide everything they might need — we even provide a tow-vehicle behind the motorcoach.”


Affluent clientele

Describing his customers overall as “affluent,” Bloomquist says: “The majority of our business is not going to a campground or RV resort.”

About 40% of the business is leisure travel, while another 40% comes from one-way trips.

In 2024, LiTRV saw a “big uptick” in one-way moves, handling eight of them, Bloomquist says.

“Six were single women looking for a nice way to get from point A to point B after the stress of selling their home,” Bloomquist says.

Some had pets or elderly parents they were taking care of and helping to move, he adds. A recent client moved with a dog and six cats. Most moves are halfway across the country or coast to coast. For example, he says, one woman moved from San Diego, California, to Providence, Rhode Island, a six-day trip. In another case, the company helped a rock musician move with 18 guitars.

The motorcoaches are “really nice to travel in — they’re super smooth, they’re quiet, you can sleep [and] we have WiFi, so people who want to be able to continue to work and have their devices active [can] continue their normal life but get down the road,” Bloomquist says. “And we have some people not wanting to fly as much,” including many with pets.

Multiple bedrooms and bathrooms are offered in the high-end RVs that Sarasota company LiTRV rents.
Courtesy image

“We do see snowbirds,” Bloomquist adds. The company provides a way for people to travel between the Northeast and Florida or Montana and Arizona in the winter and vice versa in the summer.

About 20% of the business comes from the International Motor Sports Association, which draws race teams from Europe to Daytona.

“We'll take motor coaches and set them up at the track,” Bloomquist says. “They'll use them for a few days, for sleeping, meeting space or hospitality.”


Growing business

The majority of customers find out about LiTRV through online searches, Bloomquist says.

“We have more requests than we can handle at this point,” Bloomquist says, noting the company seeks motorcoach owners looking for a management company.

Part of the holdup in scaling the operation is insurance, he adds. For example, finding a $5 million liability policy for the $3 million motorcoach is “slowing our process,” Bloomquist says.

Going forward, LiTRV will be “looking for different ways to diversify and find new revenue streams,” Bloomquist says. That may include offering RV parking and storage, of which he notes there is a shortage.

LiTRV will also look at offering packages for shorter trips.

"Five to 10 days is kind of the sweet spot" in terms of trip length, Bloomquist says. Less than five days feels rushed, and more than 10 days can get "laborious being inside," he adds.

While traditionally booked trips have been 5 to 10 days, he says, “there is a demand” for one to three-day journeys.

“We’ve been getting more requests for shorter trips and shorter uses,” Bloomquist says, “and that could be us taking one or two of our motorcoaches” to an event.

The benefits of having a private motorcoach include private restroom facilities, kitchens, air conditioning and places to gather in private, Bloomquist says. He adds that the company plans to expand on that local event concept in 2026, particularly around the Sunshine State. 

“It could be a hospitality tailgate package to the Bucs game or a trip over to Daytona,” Bloomquist says. “We are going to have more offerings in Florida.”

 

author

Elizabeth King

Elizabeth is a business news reporter with the Business Observer, covering primarily Sarasota-Bradenton, in addition to other parts of the region. A graduate of Johns Hopkins University, she previously covered hyperlocal news in Maryland for Patch for 12 years. Now she lives in Sarasota County.

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