"Summer Special" Car Park At Gatwick

[UKPhil]

Just booked the Hilton for our trip at Easter and found they are now using a car park called "Summer Special" which is at the NORTH terminal. Previously it has always been Parking Express at the South. I've found some very negative comments about this outfit on this site:

http://www.airport-parking-quote.co.uk/poll/reviews/Gatwick.html

Has anyone on here used this car park? Anyone have any comments? I'd love to hear of some positive experiences!

 

[KayleeUK]

Phil

I think we used this in 2003, Once we dropped the car off it was a quick bus journey back to the terminal, didn't have any problem on the way back either.

Forgot to add that we are booked to use this again in April.

 

[UKDEB]

We used them in December and didn't have any problems.

 

[Goofyish]

We used them in August 2003 and had no real problems. It is quite a distance from the Hilton/South Terminal and the car park, which is right our past the North Terminal.

It is also not possible to return to the car to drop off overnight bages etc. You have to give your keys to the carpark people, who then move it to the parking area.

I think we did have to wait quite awhile for the shuttle bus on our return as well.

 

[Celestine]

We've used this 3 times with no problems. Was initially worried that our car could get used for "jolly's" but the last visit just clocked up under 0.5 miles. Service was easy to use. Bus service was every 15-20 minutes & took only about 10 minutes to the terminal. Bonus was DD had a good view of the planes whilst waiting for the bus to the terminal

 

[UKPhil]

Thanks everyone for your replies. I feel a bit better about this now although still can't for the life of me understand why the Hilton is using a car park at the 'wrong' terminal when there are adeqate ones much nearer. It can only be cost I guess.

 

[DisneyBB]

I asked holiday extras why the Summer special car park was used instead of parking express. She said that it was Parking Express who did not want give discounted parking to make up hotel packages. They are so busy all the time that they would rather have full paying customers. HE's also said that no hotel/parking package sold would have parking express as an option.

We now go to the somewhere where the car can be left at the hotel car park in a secure compound.

 

[sharon78]

We also used them in Oct last year,we had no problems at all,it was a hassle free start to holiday,we would use again.

 

[Slimey_snake]

we had to use this car park the last time we travelled and we had no problems at all. When we arrived back into Gatwick we went to the car park and our car was there ready for us.

 

[Camac]

We have also used this service it was OK but I would do things differently next time....

We booked one nights parking at the Hilton in order to be able to get rid of our overnight bags. This worked well, with DH taking the car to Summer Special whilst DD, DS and me walked through to the airport. Would do this part again.

On our arrival home we found it to be a real scrum getting on the bus to take us to collect the car. So next time we plan to send DH to get the car - much easier to get one person with no luggage on the bus- whilst the rest of us wander back through to the Hilton with our trolley cases, order a cup of tea and wait to be collected. Far more civilised.

Camac

 

[Goofyish]

On our arrival home we found it to be a real scrum getting on the bus to take us to collect the car. So next time we plan to send DH to get the car - much easier to get one person with no luggage on the bus- whilst the rest of us wander back through to the Hilton with our trolley cases, order a cup of tea and wait to be collected. Far more civilised.
Camac

That sounds like a good idea, we may try that in December. It is a bit of a bother getting the cases onto the carpark shuttle bus, especially after a 9 hour flight