Just a word of warning to anyone who is considering flying from Bristol Airport and parking at The Bristol Airport Tavern.

I booked with this place as they are next door to the airport with very reasonable rates (£30 for the week) but having just returned from a week in Holland, I was met with a bit of a mess in the front passenger area ...

I noticed the front as soon as I opened the car, so had a word with Luke, who appeared to be the manager. He apologised for the mess and gave me 50% off the next time I park there.

I wasn't overly bothered about the mud as it will dry out and can easily be sorted, I was more annoyed as it appeared my car had been taken for a jolly. Why else would someone have been sat in the front?! My missus was insistent that there was more fuel in my car when she dropped it off, which f****d me off even more.

I left it there until I got home and emptied my car to find more mud, but this time in the rear footwells!

So I called them to discuss further, but was told that Luke wasn't in and wasn't back until Monday.

I'm livid at this point and I will admit to outwardly swearing, but I didn't deserve the barrage of abuse and threats I got in return!

So yeah, we exchanged some pleasantries which culminated in me telling him to F off and hanging up on him as we were getting nowhere, fast.

I did get a call back from Luke 10 minutes later and I put it to him for the first time that I believed someone had taken my car for a jolly. Again, why else would there have been multiple people in my car?! He of course denided this, as did everyone he asked if they trampled mud into my car whilst I was there, so no surprise there really.

Of course, I have no way of proving my allegations, so I simply won't use them again and thought I would share my experience here as they have no Facebook of Trip Advisor pages to leave comments on.

Edited 21 May, 201610 yr by jars

Reviews are not to great either, 1.6 stars out of 5 on reviewcentre.

http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews127078.html

 

Muddy footprints seem to be a common theme.

Edited 21 May, 201610 yr by mannyo

You got off lightly!

"  AVOID AT ALL COSTS -- THIS COMPANY STOLE MY CAR,TOOK IT FOR A JOYRIDE AND BROKE IT CAUSING ME £1000 WORTH OF DAMAGE. CURRENTLY SEEKING LEGAL ADVICE - DO NOT USE. IT ALSO STATES ON WEBSITE IT IS COVERED BY CCTV. THIS IS A LIE. I ASKED TO VIEW THE CCTV FOOTAGE AND LOW AND BEHOLD IT WAS BEING UPGRADED. THE CCTV ARE FAKE AND AS DODGY AS THIS COMPANY - AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE "

Not me by the way - found it by goggling ' Bristol Airport Parking'

Have a look at ' Bodywork . . ' thread

Edited 21 May, 201610 yr by punyXpress

I didn't bother searching out reviews as I've known other people to use them without issue, so a stark realisation reading all those reviews Mannyo linked above.

Cowboys.

Might it be worth asking any neighbouring businesses if they have cctv that may point in a general direction which may pick up your vehicle while it was being moved?

Also... would it count as TWOC? You parked it there while you went on a trip.. didnt sign it over like in A.N.Other thread...

for all you know there could be a couple of NIPs on the way too

Using a vehicle to ferry their drivers back and fore to the parking is just how they operate.

A driver of a customers car that crashed into me did not know his name and neither did the supervisor that was called to the scene.

They had to wait to get a name by Text to know who he was.

Pity that he was a totally different nationality as i understood a little of what they were saying.

EDIT.

This was at Edinburgh Airport, not at Bristol.

Edited 22 May, 201610 yr by GoneOffSKi

More disgusting behavior from the Airport Tavern. They don't deserve to be in business.  When I parked there in Feb this year I caught them red-handed on my Dash Cam. 

 

Surely a bit of Bristol based social media sharing could hit these guys where it hurts?

 

I wonder if they had insurance to drive your (and everyone else's) car on the public highways?

 

Here is my Dashcam footage, feel free to link and share on social media.

 

Airport Tavern are absolute crooks. I parked my car there Tuesday 3rd May at around 7pm to return home to Ireland to pay off wedding suppliers. I am getting married in July.  It was a gorgeous sunny evening. I returned Sunday 8th May at 4pm to be told that my Vauxhall Astra SRI wouldn't start. Confused as this car was recently serviced and I had no issues with it at all, I tried to start it and nothing.  I had a gut feeling that something wasn't quite right. Spoke to Luke who said the car wouldn't start on Tuesday evening after we left for the airport. This didn't quite explain why my car was covered in mud and leaves inside and out, if it had remained in the spot I left it (on gravel). Also with that my odometer had been pushed back to 0.  I deliberately don't push this back for work purposes as I have to record my start and end mileage to claim expenses.  It also doesn't explain why there is about 200+ miles extra on my clock and a half a tank of petrol gone either !

 

I witnessed some old man , open my bonnet and put a red box power pack on my car - without my consent I might add.  He also admitted they had attempted to "jump" the car - again without my consent.  Not sure why they were jumping the car, when the lights , radio, and air conditioning were all working !!

 

A lovely AA man had to come and rescue me, he was convinced the car had been moved from the point where I left it , as the wheels were submerged in mud/clay and when he opened the bonnet there were handful of leaves under there - strange as I live and work no where near trees!!

 

It turns out that 3 independent garages and well as a dealer are unable to fix this fault which has been caused by too much voltage being put through the car, most likely from "spiking" the engine by putting jump leads/power pack on the wrong way causing £2000+ worth of damage. The ECU unit and Steering wheel column sim all have to replaced.  It is most likely the car will be written off because parts plus labor will equate to the guts of £2800.  Which is what the car is worth. I only purchased this car last year, its immaculate and only 58,000 MILES on the clock.  What a waste of a car 

 

I called the owner Andrew Lane and Luke with the findings and of course they denied everything.  They state on their website that the car park is secure with 24 hr CCTV and a night watch, this is total lies.  When I ask to see the CCTV to see if the car had been moved from the spot I left it, low and behold it was out of order that day.  I asked for the company name who are fixing it, he couldn't give me it.  I asked to see his insurance documents , and again he hung up on me.

 

The police are now involved and are treating this a TWOC, and Criminal damage. They only have permission to move my car within the compound in which I parked it and they certainly are now covered for jumping my car without consent. What I couldn't understand was if it was broken on Tuesday why didn't he call me on Tuesday evening - they have all my contact details.   I am firmly off the opinion and after reading 50+ reviews of customer similar experience, they have taken my car for a joyride, got it stuck in a field, and stalled it, then tried to jump it and have blew up the electrical units in the car.

 

I have contacted local papers, BBC Watch dog and would like to get a petition going to submit to the council and trading standards to **** these criminals down.  We all work hard to insure and maintain our cars without these gutter rats taking it , damaging it and then trying to wash their hands by putting an awful disclosure at the end of the booking slip that totally contradicts their statement on their website that its safe and secure to park your car here while you leave the country. I was horrified to find a slip this morning that states if our cars are stolen, our insurance should cover this.  

 

Please if you have had similar case, please report to Avon and Somerset police so that we can build a case against them. Also my email is [email protected] if you would like to get in touch and on 07400744788

More disgusting behavior from the Airport Tavern. They don't deserve to be in business. When I parked there in Feb this year I caught them red-handed on my Dash Cam.

Surely a bit of Bristol based social media sharing could hit these guys where it hurts?

I wonder if they had insurance to drive your (and everyone else's) car on the public highways?

Here is my Dashcam footage, feel free to link and share on social media.

To be fair would seem like they moved the car a bit (as you'd expect most of these airport parking places to do) rather than taking the car for a joyride. However, with that said that looks like a right shonky looking outfit and you'd never find me trusting my car with that bunch of clowns...

To be fair would seem like they moved the car a bit (as you'd expect most of these airport parking places to do) rather than taking the car for a joyride. However, with that said that looks like a right shonky looking outfit and you'd never find me trusting my car with that bunch of clowns...

 

I'd have to disagree with being 'fair to them'.  They did not tell me they would take my car off site. They have a large parking facility and they took my car to some little trailer park, probably someone going home for lunch or something.  He floored my car on the main road, slammed the brakes on and drove a lot faster than I would have down a very bumpy lane.  They don't deserve fair, they deserve to be closed down. Not because of the video, but for there blatant misuse of customers vehicles time and time again.  If you want to give them the benefit of the doubt that's your call.

I'd have to disagree with being 'fair to them'. They did not tell me they would take my car off site. They have a large parking facility and they took my car to some little trailer park, probably someone going home for lunch or something. He floored my car on the main road, slammed the brakes on and drove a lot faster than I would have down a very bumpy lane. They don't deserve fair, they deserve to be closed down. Not because of the video, but for there blatant misuse of customers vehicles time and time again. If you want to give them the benefit of the doubt that's your call.

This -> +10

I'd have to disagree with being 'fair to them'. They did not tell me they would take my car off site. They have a large parking facility and they took my car to some little trailer park, probably someone going home for lunch or something. He floored my car on the main road, slammed the brakes on and drove a lot faster than I would have down a very bumpy lane. They don't deserve fair, they deserve to be closed down. Not because of the video, but for there blatant misuse of customers vehicles time and time again. If you want to give them the benefit of the doubt that's your call.

Not giving any benefit of doubt mate. Already said they look like a proper shonky outfit and theres more than enough on here and the rest of the internet to suggest they are worth proper investigation.

All im saying is purely going off your video, I see a car leave what looks like a small pub car park, followed by a lot of image stabilisation making any sense of speed hard to judge, then a fairly normal left turn into what looks like the main parking bit which is a shonky little caravan site but clearly where all the cars are actually parked? Yes, it's a crappy setup but this is similar to how most 'proper' airport carparks I've ever used work. Drop car and keys at small reception area, return and find car in large carpark about 10 mins walk from where you dropped it. Only difference here is that reception area is a run down pub, and car park itself is a horrible little caravan dirt hole? Or am I missing something?

Yes, you missed a bit. Behind the pub is a large field where they can park lots and lots of cars, maybe 100 or more. Also, on their website they have a photo of the CCTV camera which is on the car park / field, and it says there is CCTV and 24hr security, so this suggests the cars will be left on site.

 

Also, the place they took it, didn't have much parking space at all.  To me it looked more like somewhere one of the staff lived. 

 

ps.  My dashcam footage made the Bristol Post today. http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/Bristol-Airport-flier-parked-popular-tavern/story-29301741-detail/story.html

The comments aren't too sympathetic! However, you need to be a complete banger to spend your time leaving comments on a newspaper's webpage.

The comments aren't too sympathetic! However, you need to be a complete banger to spend your time leaving comments on the internet anyway

Ftfy

I'm always very weary of airport parking! We recently went to Ireland via Leeds and it was all arranged by my other half as a surprise so I had no say in it. I was reluctant when they asked for the keys. But actually they were a really good sight with the whole place flood light, CCTV working (could see on the screens behind reception and the DVR equipment recording) and big fencing with electric barriers etc.

 

When I got back I did check on the dashcam to make sure but sure enough they moved it from where I parked it 20m round the side of the car park and it didn't move an inch.

 

The only thing that annoyed me was they just left it in Park with the handbrake off but that's pretty minor compared to the above horror stories!

 

I guess the only way to protect yourself is to have a dashcam or tracker or try and pick somewhere that has good reviews!

 

I also took a picture of the dash board when I dropped it off as proof of the mileage.