McRent vs Geysir Car Rental

McRent is a motorhome-only operator. Its Iceland fleet is drawn entirely from purpose-built coachbuilt units -- Urban Plus and Compact Plus for two, Family Standard and Comfort Plus for four, and Family Plus and Family Luxury for six, alongside an older EcoLine sub-fleet -- and the vehicles are advertised as roughly 2-3 years old. The defining feature across the range is that every unit, from the two-berth up, carries a built-in shower and toilet. McRent Iceland does not stock the top premium/luxury large class it offers on mainland Europe, but even its smallest van is a full self-contained RV rather than a converted campervan. Geysir takes a two-family approach: a set of iKamper roof-tent 4x4 SUVs (Dacia Duster, Jeep Compass plug-in hybrid, Jeep Wrangler Rubicon 4xe with the larger Skycamp tent) and a range of built-in motorhomes from a two-berth X-van up to a six-berth family unit, with roughly five to eight models live at any time.

The biggest practical divide is highland capability. McRent's motorhomes are barred from Iceland's F-roads, burn more fuel, and are more sensitive to wind and narrow gravel tracks -- they are built for the paved ring road and lowland routes. Geysir's roof-tent 4x4 SUVs are genuine four-wheel-drive vehicles rated for gravel and F-roads, so a traveler who wants interior-highland access can get it here; the trade-off is that those SUVs have no built-in kitchen, water, or toilet, so you cook outside and rely on campsites. Geysir's own built-in motorhomes, like McRent's, are road-going and not F-road-rated. On bathrooms the two also differ sharply: McRent puts a shower and toilet in every motorhome, whereas on Geysir only the six-berth motorhome adds a shower and toilet -- the smaller Geysir motorhomes and all of its 4x4s do without.

On the hard equipment, the two motorhome fleets look similar and both are trip-ready: Truma heating that warms cabin and water, a compressor fridge, a freshwater tank with sink, dual/shore power, and a built-in gas stove. Where they diverge is the soft kit and the pricing model. McRent unbundles aggressively -- bedding runs about EUR 59 per person, a cookware kit about EUR 56 (pots, pans, and cutlery are not included despite the built-in stove), a table with four chairs about EUR 57, and a 4G WiFi router about EUR 77 -- and it sits at the premium end with dynamic Flex Rates that start around EUR 200 per day and climb in season. Geysir also charges for bed linen and its camping set (tables and chairs) as optional extras, but it bundles CDW, theft, and liability cover, unlimited mileage, the airport shuttle, and a fuel-discount card into every rental, with insurance excess buy-downs available (Gold around EUR 26/day, Zero around EUR 52/day) though the standard excess is lowered rather than zero.

Heritage and reputation are where the contrast is starkest. McRent is a pan-European brand operated via franchise (part of Germany's Erwin Hymer Group) with 100-plus stations worldwide; its Iceland presence is a real station at Smidjuvellir 5a in Reykjanesbaer, about 3 km from Keflavik Airport, and it carries a strong, well-corroborated Google score of 4.7 from around 310 reviews, with staff repeatedly praised for a thorough handover on Iceland conditions. Geysir is the opposite profile: one of Iceland's oldest independents, founded in 1973 and independently run since 2003, operating its campers from a motorhome depot at Bogatrod 11 in Keflavik with a staffed in-person handover from 08:00 to 18:00 (no 24/7 self-service key box). Its public reputation is more mixed and heritage-driven -- the geysir.is car-rental Trustpilot sits at a polarized 3.2 from roughly 36 reviews (split between vehicle-condition and drop-off-charge complaints and praise for fast staffed pickup), with no reliable Google count, and the campers run under the separately reviewed Motorhome.is brand. Neither vendor confirms a Reykjavik-city camper pickup, so both are effectively Keflavik-only.