Shit, car parking - what to do??

[thetinsoldier]

Just dropped off dd at an airport. To save money I popped into an airport hotel for 2 mins to drop off. Happy to pay a fee, so downloaded the app to find that they charged £55 for 30 mins!!! wtf? I drove off.

What are the odds that they will send me a penalty charge - £100? There were signs all over the car park with the app on, but NOTHING about minimum fees. What a bloody cheek.

Help, what to do? ignore it and hope for the best, contact the hotel, contact the car parking??

I’m guessing they charge so much to stop people doing what you did. Drop offs at airports usually cost so this will be to stop people using the hotel car park as a free or cheap drop off. Does the car park have cameras to record car park use? If so then you’ll probably get a fine.

Do you have photos of the signs? It sounds like they don't comply with private parking operators' signage requirements so you should be fine.

I wouldn’t mind paying a fiver or so to nip in, drop off and leave. But £55 is an outrage.

i have a photo of one of the signs. I don’t have a photo proving that none of the signs had a price on!

Say you drove in to park, saw how much it would cost and left to go elsewhere.

Is the carpark on google maps? You could try the street view and see what all the signs say.

If you have a google you should be able to find information about the rules around private parking signs and penalties, and see if they are complying with the law. There was a very useful forum on the Martin Lewis money website - sorry can't think of the name of it off the top of my head!

I challenged and won for a fine in a private car park a few years ago but it took quite a while to get all the information together, so you might be better off just paying the exorbitant £55 and not parking there again!