A year into the pandemic, I spoke with MyBusHotel co-founder Paul Aubert about converting old school buses into European hotel-style digital nomad homes. Throughout the rest of 2021, off-roading, overlanding, and #vanlife continued to explode in popularity, so when I visited Las Vegas for SEMA, I made sure to block out time to visit MyBusHotel's facility and, hopefully, drive one of their creations.
But I arrived in the middle of a massive rebranding effort, as MyBusHotel transformed into Bemyvan with a strong pivot to the Ram ProMaster platform in place of old Chevrolet school buses. With a new name for the business officially announced, Aubert hopes to continue growing Bemyvan and provide a unique twist on the digital lifestyle made possible (and popular) by social media and remote work opportunities.
Evolving Demand Throughout The Pandemic
When we spoke in January of 2021, Aubert and his fellow French compatriots, Benoit Lafond and Antoine Alberteau, stood on the cusp of their first few van projects. And at the time he wondered aloud whether the ProMaster vans might eventually overtake demand for full-sized buses.
"We have the school bus which is a very bright, iconic vehicle," Aubert said, " The ProMaster is more for people who want a very, very tiny vehicle and want to be hidden and don’t want to show the outside world that there’s something in the van. So now we’ll have two markets—and I guess we’ll know in a year which is the best one!"
Turns out, three van designs called B-Home, B-Adventure, and B-Digital overwhelmingly increased MyBusHotel's customer base, to the extent that a rebrand became necessary. From a business perspective, leaving behind the very buses that helped MyBusHotel build that customer base in the first place meant no need to source old chassis, no more worrying about rust or reliability, and less hassle adapting to different school bus layouts released over the years.
Advantages Of The Ram ProMaster Platform
The Ram ProMaster, meanwhile, offers much more scalability than school buses. Finding the Ram vans still requires a bit of work due to supply-chain issues but Aubert et al will happily convert vans that customers already own—as well as helping to find new ones.
I recently drove a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter converted by Airstream into the Interstate 24X, which proved surprisingly easy to drive, but while the ProMaster platform is smaller overall—much shorter in length and height—it is also wider, which allows Bemyvan to save space by installing a bed platform transversely at the rear measuring 6'6" long and 4'8" wide. And of course, the Ram costs significantly less than a Sprinter and even its other main competitor, Ford's Transit, with a high-roof 2021 model year 2500 stickering $36,700.
The ProMaster does leave Aubert wanting more, though, especially four-wheel drive and a bit more ground clearance.
Some Assembly Required
Whether Stellantis (née Fiat-Chrysler) will begin building an all-wheel or four-wheel-drive ProMaster remains a mystery. In the meantime, Bemyvan's small crew will keep cranking out their builds. Walking around the warehouse floor, I watched wood, metal, electrical components, and plumbing going in at various stages of installation. Early steps include stripping the interior behind the two front seats, cutting holes for additional windows, adding wool havelock insulation, and routing wires and hoses for the shower, sink, fridge, microwave, and more. Handmade wood trim, cabinets, and flooring all fit in later along the way.
Bemyvan's customer base shows no signs of wanting pop-tops, sunroofs, or roof tents quite yet, but Aubert believes they can figure out such details if a client decides to take their van a step further. In the meantime, any exterior accessories like bike or surf racks built for the ProMaster still work just fine.
Influencers Jumping On Board
Aubert walked me through a few vans ordered by Instagram influencers and rental companies, both of which present a specific set of requirements for their custom builds. Lighter-colored woods and tiling create a more photogenic interior—the glow-up for a Ram, if you will—while keeping the interior space more open allows for additional camera angles. Plus, Bemyvan can include indoor and outdoor showers for when that West Coast sunset just looks too good to pass up.
Electronics And Lifestyle Modifications
Hidden beneath the European hotel-inspired interior surfaces, Bemyvan offers all the amenities that allow for long-term life off the grid. The little Dometic fridge and lighting system can run off 12 volts but a microwave, water heater, and the stovetop require 110-volt wiring. A DC-to-DC charger isolates the engine's battery and alternator from the system so the 280-horsepower V6 will always fire right up. Bemyvan installs a custom water tank under the floor to maximize interior space, while making sure to keep any critical electrical components easily accessible should any of the accessories blow a fuse, stop working, or jiggle loose. Clever storage solutions in each nook and cranny stand out as highlights, too.
A Successful Recipe
The B-Van designs include as much lightweight wood as possible, like birch, to keep weight down while adding grain lines and a sense of daily utility to the interior. That sense of comfort remains a priority for Aubert and Bemyvan, since the point isn't so much to offer camper-style van living but instead, to create a sense of home that just happens to be on wheels for today's nomads paving a new path through our increasingly digital age.
Pricing for a fully built B-Van usually runs about $125,000 including the ProMaster—or around $75,000 for customers who bring their own van. Compare that to $230,000 and up for an Airstream Interstate 24X and the borderline unbelievable demand MyBusHotel and Bemyvan already attracted suddenly sounds a bit more believable.
The little crew working out of a warehouse in Las Vegas likely faces a busy 2022—with expansion plans in terms of square footage and hands on deck both already underway. This year, MyBusHotel built 30 rigs and by November, Aubert claimed to have already received 35 orders for 2022. He hopes that throughout the next calendar year, Bemyvan will complete 100 total, all based on the ProMaster as the new name suggests.
Sources: bemyvan.com, ramtrucks.com, ford.com, and dometic.com.