Geysir Car Rental vs Black Sheep Campers

Geysir Car Rental fields a compact camper lineup under its sister brand Motorhome.is — three iKamper roof-tent 4x4 SUVs and five built-in motorhomes — split into two clearly separate families. The roof-tent SUVs are a Dacia Duster and an automatic plug-in-hybrid Jeep Compass Trailhawk, each sleeping two, plus a Jeep Wrangler Rubicon 4xe carrying a larger iKamper Skycamp tent for three to four. All three are genuine four-wheel-drive vehicles rated for gravel and F-roads, with no built-in kitchen, toilet, or shower — you cook outside and rely on campsites. The second family has no equivalent at Black Sheep: conventional built-in motorhomes ranging from a two-berth up to a six-berth Family Motorhome, each with a gas stove, fridge, Truma heating for cabin and water, a fresh-water tank and sink, and a 220V hookup, with the larger models adding an onboard shower and toilet. Black Sheep Campers builds its entire fleet around a single format instead: budget 4x4 SUVs where you either sleep in the back of the vehicle or in a hard-shell roof-top tent. Its lineup runs the two-berth Suzuki Jimny with a roof tent, sleep-in-the-back Dacia Dusters (2017–2019 and 2023 model years) that also come in a roof-tent version, an automatic Subaru Legacy 4x4, and the four-berth Ford Explorer with a roof tent — its largest vehicle. The two even overlap on the Dacia Duster platform in roof-tent form, but for Geysir the roof-tent SUV is only half of a two-format catalog, while for Black Sheep the sleep-in-back and roof-tent 4x4 is the whole company. Every Black Sheep model is 4x4 and, except for the automatic Subaru Legacy, cleared for Iceland's F-roads; the Legacy is the only automatic and the only model not F-road legal.

The living setup is where the two diverge most sharply. Black Sheep has no built-out campervans at all — no built-in kitchen, no toilet, and no indoor standing height in any vehicle, and all cooking is done outside on a portable camp stove. What you do get is bundled into one all-in EUR price that also covers taxes and the standard insurances: a mattress, two sleeping bags, pillows, sheets and towels, a full camp-stove kit (stove, kettle, pots, pan, coffee press, cutlery, dishes, and washing-up gear), a passive cooling box rather than a powered fridge, and two chairs and a table (removed in winter). Heating is the notable gap — Black Sheep supplies only a 220V heater between November 1 and April 15 that requires a campsite electrical hookup, with no diesel or parking heater, whereas Geysir's built-in motorhomes carry Truma gas heating that warms the cabin and water independent of any hookup. Geysir includes CDW, all taxes, and unlimited mileage on every camper and provides full kitchen essentials, but — unlike Black Sheep — treats bed linen, towels, and a camping set of tables and chairs as optional paid extras. Its roof-tent 4x4s, like Black Sheep's, carry no indoor plumbing, and neither operator's SUVs have a water tank or sink.

On pickup and reputation the two part ways again. Geysir handles campers only from Keflavík, out of the Motorhome.is depot at Bogatröð 11, and handover is staffed and in person only, 08:00 to 18:00 daily, with no self-service key box for the campers. Black Sheep offers two pickup points — a self-service lockbox lot next to the BSI Bus Terminal in central Reykjavik and Keflavik Airport, reached by a free shuttle from BSI — with flexible self-service returns; renters must be at least 20, hold a license for 12-plus months, and book a three-day minimum. Both vendors offer free cancellation when you cancel more than 48 hours before pickup, though Black Sheep charges the full amount within 48 hours or for a no-show and does not refund early returns, taking no deposit at booking (only a card hold at pickup). Their public review records differ in both depth and score: Black Sheep is well-reviewed and self-service-friendly, with a 4.9 Google rating across 148 reviews, 4.5 on Trustpilot from 39 reviews, and 9.1/10 on the Northbound aggregator from 103 reviews, praised for responsive staff, included gear and value, and capable economical 4x4s, though a minority flag lockbox confusion, warning lights on some older Dusters, and cold-weather comfort when sleeping in the back or a roof tent. Geysir's picture is more mixed and harder to pin down: the geysir.is car-rental Trustpilot score is a polarized 3.2 from roughly 36 reviews, and its campers are marketed separately under the Motorhome.is brand with no reliable published Google count, so the camper-specific reputation is not cleanly verifiable.