How it works

The idea in one paragraph

Festival gear sits still eleven months a year. An RV, a trailer, a generator, a battery station, a PA, a set of e-bikes: each one is worth thousands and earns nothing between events. The pool lets members list what they own, book from each other, and get paid, with a desk in the middle running the contract, the deposit, the handover record and the payout. Nobody buys a fleet. Nobody builds a warehouse. The members' own gear is the inventory, and the record of every handover is what makes lending safe.

The pool

  • Members join by invitation and a founder's approval, with a ZIP code that is checked on the spot (California, Oregon and Nevada for now) and a note of what they own. The gear list itself is members-only: sign in to see the units, their rates and their free dates. Applying signs you in on that phone; approval brings a text with a personal sign-in link for any other phone. A member code is the fallback.
  • Members list gear they own. It stays where it is until booked. Rigs start from the VIN: type or scan it and the year, make and model fill themselves. Small gear starts from the model: type the make, pick the model from the list, and wattage, weight, value and a suggested day rate fill themselves. Photograph the label plate and the desk reads it at review: make, model, serial and wattage go on the record without typing. Hexayurts pick from the published plans (H13, Classic H12, H17 plus, 10 ft, 5.5, Pentayurt, OctoYurt, De La Wolfie, H8, Octayurt, H4, H2, Pup, or a custom build): panel count, wall height, floor area and sleeping capacity fill themselves, six questions cover the kit itself, and the listing says what it takes to haul it. Every hexayurt listing carries one warning the owner cannot remove: tape is never reusable, so the renter buys new tape themselves before the event — it is not in the day rate, not rented and not sold by the pool. The renter has to tick that they will, and it shows again on the booking page.
  • Every member has one identity check before their first pickup: a founder looks at a government photo ID and confirms it is you, in person or on a short video call. Only the date and the verdict are kept, never the ID itself.
  • Members book from members. Nobody rents to strangers.
  • The desk quotes, holds the deposit, writes the contract, and pays the owner within three days of return.
  • Every unit carries an NFC tag. Tap it at pickup and at return: photos, time, names.
  • Every rental is covered in layers: deposit, a renter-paid damage waiver (Standard or Plus), a renter-bought policy on high-value units, and the desk's own liability cover. Vehicles ride on a peer-to-peer platform's insurance. Details on the protection page.
  • Owners keep the larger share of every rental; the desk keeps a small share for running it.
  • Every page reads in any language. The picker sits at the top of the page: pick one of the thirty-odd languages listed, or type your own, and the whole page changes. Your choice is remembered on that phone.

Three tiers of membership

Everyone who joins can rent. What the tier changes is how expensive the gear is allowed to get, and what the desk has seen you do with it.

  • Camp is free. Gear worth up to $2,500: shade, cooking, lighting, small batteries, tools. A 5% renter service fee, three dollars minimum.
  • Crew is $19 a month, or $190 a year. Gear up to $10,000: e-bikes, big battery stations, PA rigs, trailers. The service fee drops to 3%. It asks for an identity check and one clean return behind you.
  • Pro is $59 a month, or $590 a year. No ceiling at all: RVs, tow-behind generators, full production rigs. No renter service fee. It asks for an identity check, three clean returns, a rating of 4.6 or better, and one short-term rental policy you have already bought and had verified.

Dues never buy their way past the record. A founder can refuse the upgrade until the returns are there, whatever has been paid, because the gear at the top of the pool belongs to people who work off it. Owners keep 80% of the rental at every tier: the tier changes the renter's side, never the owner's. The three doors are on the membership page.

Why the tag matters

The single biggest reason people will not lend gear is the fear of getting it back broken with no proof. The tag fixes that. A tap opens the unit's page; two sets of time-stamped photos, one at pickup and one at return, decide any dispute. The same record follows the unit for its whole life in the pool, so when it is eventually sold, its history sells with it.