Arthur Frommer's Endorsement (2009)
On March 30, 2009, Arthur Frommer — the founder of the Frommer's travel guide empire and one of the most recognized names in the history of travel publishing — wrote about Owner's Rental on his personal blog.
His daughter Pauline Frommer had rented a 32-foot Winnebago through ownersrental.com, flown to Phoenix with her family of four, and toured the Grand Canyon, Sedona, and Jerome. Arthur compared the peer-to-peer RV rental model directly to VRBO for vacation homes, and named ownersrental.com specifically as the service his family used.
Pauline followed up by mentioning Owner's Rental on the Frommer's radio show and on CNN, calling it one of their most memorable family vacations.
The Frommer Family Trip
- Route: Phoenix → Grand Canyon → Sedona → Jerome
- Vehicle: 32-foot Winnebago rented through ownersrental.com
- Party: Family of four
- Total cost: $253/day (vehicle, gas, RV park fees, groceries, insurance, entertainment)
- Coverage: Arthur Frommer's blog, Frommer's radio show, CNN
Arizona Republic Feature (1994)
Before the website even existed, the Arizona Republic's Michael Clancy rented a motorhome through Owner's Rental for a family road trip. The resulting article — a full Travel section feature published on November 6, 1994 — chronicled his journey from Phoenix through Sunset Crater, the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, Pipe Spring, and Zion National Park.
This was Owner's Rental in its pre-internet era — a business built entirely on phone calls, classified ads, and word of mouth. The fact that the state's largest newspaper chose to feature it speaks to the reputation Joyce Stevens had built over two decades.
Notable Inquiries
While not traditional press coverage, the breadth of organizations that found and used Owner's Rental speaks to its reach:
- NASA — trailer for the Army Proving Grounds in Yuma
- BBC — London producer planning an Arizona RV holiday
- Danish Broadcasting — journalist from Copenhagen
- U.S. Navy — sailor writing from the USS Peleliu
- Harvard, MIT, Yale — researchers planning Arizona trips
- Google, Intel, Honeywell — employees from major employers
- Arizona government agencies — DPS, Attorney General, Lottery, cities of Peoria, Tempe, and Flagstaff
- Make-A-Wish Foundation — Grand Canyon trip for a child with a life-threatening condition (2004)