Rent this van to live at Google and 'eat Google food' for $30 a day

Robert Allen of Daly City is renting fully customized Dodge Caravans equipped with a bed and kitchenette through his website Go-Tel.net. Allen thinks these houses on wheels are an affordable housing option for tech workers at companies permitting sleeping in the parking lot. less Robert Allen of Daly City is renting fully customized Dodge Caravans equipped with a bed and kitchenette through his website Go-Tel.net. Allen thinks these houses on wheels are an affordable housing option for ... more Photo: Courtesy Rober Allen Photo: Courtesy Rober Allen Image 1 of / 23 Caption Close Rent this van to live at Google and 'eat Google food' for $30 a day 1 / 23 Back to Gallery

Even if you're making $100,000 at Google, you might not want to pay the California Bay Area's notoriously high rent prices.

How are you ever supposed to save when you're spending nearly half your take-home on a one-bedroom in a crummy apartment complex in the suburbs of Mountain View?

Robert Allen of Daly City is offering a solution. Through his site Go-Tel.net, the 68-year-old retiree, who likes to keep himself busy with entrepreneurial projects, is renting fully customized vans to anyone who can find a place to park one.

The vehicles, equipped with a bed and kitchenette, rent for $30 a day, and Allen will drive it to your parking spot. The price goes up to $90 to $120 a day if you plan to drive the van yourself due to the cost of insurance.

The primary customers are road-trippers, say a couple looking for something to bunk in while visiting Yosemite, but in an ad posted on CraigsList last week, Allen targeted Silicon Valley tech workers and specifically makes a call-out to Googlers.

"Eat Google food, use their gym, and sleep in the van (CHEAP)," the ad reads.

Allen said that the idea is a Google, Facebook or Apple employee could sleep in the van parked in their company's lot and use the office amenities such as showers, laundry service, and the cafeteria.

Allen purchased five new and gently used vans, gutted the interiors and hired a metal worker to install platform beds. He then created a comfortable sleeping space for up to two people with foam and memory foam.

While one van dweller complained of a sore back in a review on Go-Tel.net, Allen said, "The bed is more comfortable than the Mark Hopkins. It's like sleeping on heaven."

Open the back hatch and you'll find a kitchenette with a two-burner camper stove, shelving for dishes, a cooler for storing food and a pull-down table. Allen also provides two chairs.

Allen's uncertain of the square footage but says he buys Dodge Caravans because the interior is roomier.

Does Google even allow its employees to live in vans? Google didn't return messages requesting comment on their company policy, but the online world is full of stories of Googlers living on campus. A 23-year-old who called himself Brandon S. famously lived in a truck at Google for many months.

Programmer Ben Discoe revealed in a Quora thread that he paid $1,800 for a 1990 GMC Vandura custom conversion van and lived in it on campus for 13 months between October 2011 and November 2012.

"Google Security came by very early on, but once they determined that the guy in the mysteriously parked white van was just an eccentric Googler and not the Unabomber, they never came by again," Driscoe wrote.

The programmer also revealed that the internal Google Wiki used to have a page with tips on living at Google. "Unfortunately [it] can't be shared, but it's really funny," he said.

More proof that Google turns a blind eye to parking-lot dwellers? Allen told SFGate that he heard of an underground contest at Google to see who can sleep in their car for the most days.