Travellers Autobarn vs Campervan Village

Both are Australian-connected budget operators hiring automatic petrol vehicles from depots that close on Sundays. Travellers Autobarn was founded in Sydney in 1993 and opened its two New Zealand depots, Auckland and Christchurch, in 2016. Campervan Village is a subsidiary of Wicked Campers and runs three — Auckland, Christchurch and Queenstown — which makes it one of only four operators in this market with all three airport gateways. The depot hours are close to identical: both open Monday to Friday 9am to 4pm, Saturday 9am to noon, and neither operates on a Sunday. On the fleet the similarity ends. Autobarn publishes five models on at least three chassis, from a Toyota Estima station wagon with no bed, no kitchen and no fridge up to the Hi5, a five-seat Hiace with 2.1 metres of standing headroom that the company describes as sleeping four adults. Campervan Village publishes three models all built on the Toyota Voxy, all seating two and sleeping two, and the only spec difference between them is cooling — the Aventus Plus carries a compressor fridge, and the other two carry a 20-litre esky that needs ice bought along the way. For three people or more, or for anyone who wants standing headroom in the van, Autobarn is the only one of the two that takes the booking.

What arrives in the van separates them further, and not in the direction the fleet sizes suggest. Autobarn includes bedding on its four campervan models — the station wagon is the exception — and fits a fridge, a gas stove, pots, pans and cutlery to the HiTop, Kuga and Hi5. Campervan Village includes no bedding on any model: its FAQ tells travellers to bring their own sleeping bags, pillows, sheets and towels or to buy budget ones from a store. Only the Aventus Plus has a fridge, and no model has a 240-volt mains hookup, so a powered campsite adds nothing that the van cannot already do. Both fleets share the same gap at the top: no model in either range carries a built-in heater of any kind. Autobarn supplies a free winter pack from May to September whose electric heater runs at a powered site; Campervan Village has no mains hookup, so even a supplied plug-in heater would not function. In cold weather Autobarn at a powered campsite has a heater and Campervan Village at the same site does not — that is the gap, and it covers both fleets completely. Campervan Village also charges unlimited kilometres as an add-on at NZ$25 a day, where Autobarn includes them on every booking, so a long trip compounds that difference across the hire.

Both companies list campervans as self-contained on evidence the current rules do not settle, and neither publishes a per-model green-warrant number. Campervan Village lists all three models as 'Certified self contained to NZA 5465', the number of the old blue-warrant standard, without saying what kind of toilet they carry. Travellers Autobarn lists four of its five — the Chubby, HiTop, Kuga and Hi5 — and its terms, effective 19 June 2026, say that for 'certain campervans' the certificate depends on a NZ$50 portable toilet issued at pick-up. The Department of Conservation states that a green warrant requires a toilet fixed to the floor of the vehicle. That uncertainty applies to both fleets; ask for the warrant card and check it is displayed before you drive away, because freedom camping without one carries a NZ$400 infringement fee. The review records then sit at opposite ends of this market. Autobarn holds a review-count-weighted 4.6 from 691 Google reviews across its two depots, with Christchurch the higher at 4.7 from 389. Campervan Village holds 1.7 from 19 — the lowest Google rating in this market by more than a full star, though on a sample small enough that a handful of entries could shift it. On Trustpilot both sit below 3.0: Autobarn at 2.1 from 14 reviews, all unprompted on a page the company has never claimed, and Campervan Village at 2.9 from 135 pooling Australian and New Zealand depots. Where Autobarn's two platforms contradict each other, Campervan Village's agree.