Wilderness Motorhomes vs Travellers Autobarn

Both operate from Auckland and Christchurch and nowhere else, so neither can begin or end a trip in Queenstown, and neither Travellers Autobarn depot sits at an airport. Wilderness states that booking and paying for the Cook Strait ferry falls to the renter; Travellers Autobarn’s road-restriction clause does not mention the crossing at all, although its two depots sit on opposite islands. Past those two pins the fleets share almost nothing, so weigh them on the cost of the whole trip rather than on a daily rate.

Wilderness runs seven Fiat Ducato motorhomes, every one with standing headroom, a fixed cassette toilet and central heating (fleet vehicle count not published). Travellers Autobarn runs five automatic petrol vehicles on bases the company publishes as 2006 to 2016, from a Station Wagon with no bed, no kitchen and no fridge up to the Hi5 at 2.1 metres of headroom, and not one of them carries a built-in heater. The winter pack issued free for May to September pick-ups holds an electric heater the company states works only at a powered campsite. Certification divides the two the same way: Wilderness describes all seven models as certified self-contained in its FAQ, each with a cassette flush toilet, and the green warrant requires a toilet fixed to the vehicle floor. Travellers Autobarn lists the Chubby, HiTop, Kuga and Hi5 as self-contained, but its own terms, effective 19 June 2026, tie the certificate on ‘certain campervans’ to a NZ$50 portable toilet issued at pick-up, and publish no warrant number or issue date. The Department of Conservation states that a portable toilet can no longer be certified.

The liability structures do not line up either. Wilderness includes a NZ$7,500 excess, cut to NZ$500 by Extra Cover at NZ$64 a day or removed by Full Cover at NZ$84 a day, capped at NZ$4,200 past 50 days on prices effective 1 April 2026. Roadside assistance for a mechanical fault comes on all three tiers, and none of the three refunds the accommodation, meals or missed connection a breakdown actually costs you. Travellers Autobarn holds a NZ$3,500 bond that is not a ceiling: the included Standard Protection leaves the hirer liable up to NZ$50,000 on a single-vehicle rollover or write-off, Protection Plus at NZ$35 a day caps that at NZ$10,000, and the Value Pack at NZ$45 a day removes it. Both review records point at the same moment. Wilderness sits at 4.9 on Google from 1,513 reviews and 4.8 on Trustpilot from 186, and its clearest negative pattern is the aftermath of a fault rather than the vehicle itself; Travellers Autobarn sits at 4.6 on Google from 691 against 2.1 from fourteen unprompted Trustpilot entries, three of them not New Zealand rentals, and what the rest describe is a fault partway through a trip followed by an argument over who pays for it.