Lynn University alumni Christian and Kayla Manzano met on campus while serving as Resident Assistants (RAs), bonding over their love for music and traveling.
“For me, college was about more than just the classes,” said Christian ’12, a business administration major. “I was an RA; I studied abroad; I worked in Admission; and I was president of a club. Each experience helped me gain leadership skills.”
Christian pursued a career in marketing, while Kayla ’13, became an event planner. In 2015, they married, and for several years they continued working in their respective fields.
“We were doing fine until we realized something was missing,” said Kayla. “We had the travel bug, and at that time we knew we were not going to get any younger. We didn’t have kids, and we didn’t have a mortgage, so we just decided to go.”
In 2016, the couple quit their jobs and traveled through Asia for six months. Upon returning to their apartment in South Florida, they researched places best places for active young couples to live, and Colorado ranked highly. They packed up their condo and relocated to Denver to live among Colorado’s jaw-dropping landscapes, colorful scenery and endless outdoor activities.
Three years later, the adventure-seeking couple planned a road trip across Iceland that would ignite their entrepreneurial flame.
A spark ignites in the land of fire and ice
Iceland, which at the time was experiencing a tourism boost thanks to entertainment franchises like Star Wars and Game of Thrones, has a unique landscape populated with small cities scattered across the island. To best take in the scenery, which is widely dispersed across the small country, the couple journeyed in a personal campervan, and life was—quite literally—never the same for them again.
“The freedom of driving from one location to the next, on our own time schedule and in comfort, convinced us to take a leap,” said Kayla. “We are motivated and thrilled by traveling, so we felt that if we could create a business that supports our passion for traveling, and emotionally and financially makes us happy, then why not at least try?”
The couple saw similarities between Iceland and Denver. Like Iceland, Colorado’s lure offers equally epic scenic driving and pull-offs, plenty of hiking, ample camping and campgrounds, skiing, mountain biking, etc. Colorado is considered “roadtrippable” and a “camping paradise,” and after their experience in Iceland, the Manzanos felt—and still believe—that a campervan is a perfect way to experience their beautiful state.
Colorado road in a campervan
In 2019, the Manzanos felt safe launching their business in Colorado, given the state’s extraordinary traveling opportunities and the fact that it receives over 85 million visitors on average each year. Fast-forward to 2020, the unexpected COVID-19 health crisis caused other forms of travel to plummet, if not disappear. As people began to stop traveling by plane, began avoiding major cities and increasingly wanted to socially distance, RV/campervan travel and road trip opportunities have skyrocketed.
So what’s in a campervan? According to the Manzanos, it’s the freedom to explore until you are ready to pull over and sleep. Their fully-equipped, custom campervan rentals are like a rental car, a kitchen and hotel room in which they can drive, dine and dream.
“We have healthy competition, but no other business offers the campervan model we do,” said Christian. “The conveniences we added make Discover Campervan renters feel like they’re right at home even when they’re just a few feet away from the wilderness.”
Despite having no prior experience in the fully-equipped custom van rental business, the Manzanos bought their first campervan a week after they got home from Iceland, and “Discover Campervans” was born. The couple put a lot of sweat equity into tricking-out their model. The first van took a few months to build, but to their pleasure, their design decisions made all the difference, according to some customers, demand increased, and their second project launched shortly thereafter.
Specifically, while some companies have jeeps with tents, smaller vans, or factory-built RVs or campervans, Discover Campervans vans are custom-built. The Manzanos' design is unique with power outlets, Bluetooth capabilities, ventilation fans for greater air circulation, a sink with running water, a portable propane stove.
In addition, the Discover Campervan experience comes with not only the vehicle rental, but also essentials like custom itineraries and an activities resource guide.
“We look at how long a renter plans to stay and what kinds of activities they enjoy, and then we help them build a custom route, a list of ‘Things To Do,’ and to find camping spots,” said Kayla. Christian added, “We have been fortunate to have traveled extensively throughout the U.S. and love passing on our knowledge of what to do, where to go, and how to camp to our renters.”
Living the dream
By their third van, the Manzanos’ design takeovers were ready to hit the road within a week. To date, they’ve renovated three vans, completed over 30 reservations and have another 20 reservations booked through the end of the year.
And of course—they’re already dreaming of their next personal travels. They see themselves road tripping through the U.S. pacific coast in one of their Discover Campervans.
“We are always so proud of our renters when they come back to us with awesome stories from their vacations,” said Christian. “We wish we could be on vacation, too!”
In the meantime, they have a mortgage to pay on the condo they now own, so they will continue to work hard in Colorado to help more travelers enjoy camping via Discover Campervans.
The Manzanos' positive attitude towards problem solving and learning from both their mistakes and achievements is what has helped their business succeed.
"With every situation we are thinking what can we take away from this that will help improve the company. We recently heard a podcast and a great message stuck out to us: 'Businesses that succeed are not the ones with less problems but rather the ones that are good at solving their problems. Things are always going to come up and the difference is going to lie in your attitude towards problem-solving.'"
