CHL announced half yearly results. See here. Last half was severely covid affected with travel restrictions in Australia. Company headlines figures of 109% revenue growth to $6.782m for the half compared to PCP. However, it is only approx. 30% increase half on half with 2nd half of FY21, which posted $5.21m. I still think this is impressive to grow 30% in a impacted half.

Im very interested to see how this half compares considering Australia now has international borders open, whether that is a positive for the company, or whether domestic hirers will go down as people look to holiday overseas. Coming into European Spring and Summer should be a positive for their UK and Spanish operations which seem to be growing rapidly - admittedly off a tiny base.

On the negative side, expenses blew out dramatically for the half to $10m. I do understand this is a land grab in the early stages of company growth, but still not great. Also i still have concerns about their product review ratings particularly on Google and productreview.com.au sitting at 2.5 to 2.7 stars respectively. I know the CEO stated they use trust pilot, but the first thing you see when you google "Camplify" is the google rating and when you google "Camplify review" is the product review rating. I feel like this is a big issue, and would detract many people using the platform. They didnt even mention reviews in their presentation. Its all well and good to grow, but it would be much easier to grow if people are loving the product and giving great reviews.

Shoutout to @TEPCapital straw of Appen vs Domain, which i thought was great.

I thought Id look at two gig economy companies both recently listed Airtasker (ART) vs Camplify (CHL). 

Below are the financial profiles of the two listed gig economy / platform companies. As of writing ART is valued at $409m AUD and Camplify is valued at $37m. These companies are similar models both operating in the gig economy space, albeit for different services. Neither of the companies have a monopoly in their space with plenty of competitors. Both are at early stages of their growth stories and listed entity life. Below are the financial profiles of both companies, and the multiples for both are so different, it makes no sense.  

• Revenues by 300% (CHL rev $8.4m) vs 38% (ART rev $26.6m) in the last FY.
• Price to sales for CHL is approx. 4.5x vs 15x for ART
• CHL has $21m in cash and $29m in total assets vs ART has $33m in cash and $47m in total assets.
• Price to book $1.3x for CHL vs 8.7x for ART.
• Expenses for the year for CHL was $11.39m (loss of $2m) vs ART which was $37m (loss of $9.5m)

Does Airtasker deserve to be trading at $409m vs Camplify at $37m. Maybe Airtasker is way over priced? Or Camplify is way under priced? Its probably somewhere in the middle. If CHL was to be awarded the same P/S multiple it would be trading at $126m MC and current shareholders would more than triple their money. Ignoring the metrics both businesses have high potential, but both are in my view as risky as each other. 

I agree with TEPCapital, sometimes the market is crazy.

Following on from my #bearcase straw yesterday regarding reviews. I decided to send them to the investor relations email. I recieved a response from the CEO/Founder this morning. His responses are in Bold. See below:-

Thanks for your email. Happy to answer your questions. Just for my background are you a current investor or prospective investor?

Below are the answers to your questions; 

• Currently Camplify have a 3.1 star review on ProductReview & a 3.5 star review on Google. These are based off small sample sizes of 11 reviews and 123 reviews respectively. - We integrated with Trustpilot about 12 months ago, and the bulk of our reviews go there. You will find 2,194 reviews  with a score they describe as 'Excellent' and an average of 4.5 stars
• The App is currently 2.5 stars on Google Play and 4.1 stars on Apple App store. Based off 19 and 12 votes respectively. The app is relatively new and has been evolving quickly. It is also only for owners on the platform ATM. We are dramatically improving this ATM. 
• Reading through a bunch of reviews, it appears the main points of concern from Van owners are:-
  • Poor process when van is damaged by a user.
  • Insurance is meant to be included as comprehensive but some people saying hard to get damages covered and fixed.
  • Lack of customer support in general.
  • Customer service is poor.
  • in regards to customer service, if you look at the reviews on Trustpilot in general you will find the opposite feedback. The reviews you have looked at are a small sample size and were most likely made when the business was in the midst of coping with the pandemic outbreak in early 2020. 
  • In regards to insurance. Camplify provides 2 levels of insurance, either a casual insurance policy, or a fleet policy. Generally speaking our insurance offering and assistance with insurance is excellent. There are always improvements to be made. At the start of this year Camplify installed a dedicated team of incident management professionals to improve our processes, and work more actively with the insurance company. Its important to note that may of the complaints are mostly due to the owners not following the process and expecting a claim to go smoothly. Eg no evidence of pre hirer condition, waiting 2 weeks to put in a claim after undiscovered damage, etc. 

• Main points of concern from users:-
  • Poor process when an issue such as breakdown or accident. Once again I would suggest a small sample size. We do over 40,000 rentals a year and if we had a poor process we would be out of business. 
  • Pricing isn't that much better than standard van hire companies. Camplify provides the widest variety, the largest distribution, and the ability to book a specific vehicle. We dont set pricing, the owners of the RVs do. However, I know from research this comment is generally not true. There may be an odd occurrence, but on the whole not consistent. 
  • Refund policy on cancellations. Which is a big issue with Covid - I feel like the company should have a better plan for this. Camplify has a very clear policy. We provide it to our customers before they book. Every customer wants the ultimate freedom of a full refund if they cant or decide not to go on holiday. Under the current COVID environment this simply is not possible. However our policies are fair and reasonable, we ultimately want customers to be able to take their holiday perhaps at a delay if government restrictions come in. We have benchmarked our policies against other tourism businesses and feel they are fair and reasonable. 
  • Lack of customer support in general. See above. 

My take - He was a little bit dismissive for some of the issues, but seems like they are aware of most and trying to improve. Id still like to see the reviews improve overall even if it is a small number. For a business like this people genuinely take the reviews & ratings seriously when considering whether to use a service - i know that i do anyway. 

I think Camplify is an awesome concept and the business idea has merit. Think of AirBNB for campervans. 

I bought an initial small starter position. But doing my due dilligence, i found some concerns regarding Ratings and Reviews on sites like Google & Product Review. 

Currently Camplify have a 3.1 star review on ProductReview & a 3.5 star review on Google. These are based off small sample sizes of 11 reviews and 123 reviews respectively. 

The App is currently 2.5 stars on Google Play and 4.1 stars on Apple App store. Based off 19 and 12 votes respectively. 

Reading through a bunch of reviews, it appears the main points of concern from Van owners are:-

• Poor process when van is damaged by a user. 
• Insurance is meant to be included as comprehensive but some people saying hard to get damages covered and fixed. 
• Lack of customer support in general. 
• Customer service is poor. 

Main points of concern from users:-

• Poor process when an issue such as breakdown or accident.
• Pricing isnt that much better than standard van hire companies. 
• Refund policy on cancellations. Which is a big issue with Covid - i feel like the company should have a better plan for this. 
• Lack of customer support in general. 

My perspective from the above, seems like they are either understaffed or have poor systems in place to deal with complaints and damages. 

Id like to see the ratings improve and percentage of similar complaints diminish before investing anymore. Hopefully management have a plan to tackle these issues.