ukcaravans4hire.com

Extortionate fees for caravan owners

I have advertised my caravan with ukcaravans4hire for over 12 years. In recent years it moved away from charging a listing fee to a commission based model where 10% is charged per booking on top of a booking fee (which goes to ukcaravans4hire not the owner). This represented a huge increase in advertising costs and the advice I received at the time was to pass these increased costs onto prospective customers or to let my caravan out more to cover the increase. It was stated that our contact details were visible so that customers could contact us directly and bookings could be taken that way to avoid commission and booking fees for the owner and customers to offer lower prices - which we and many others did. This move from a listing fee to a commission based model was done without any consultation or notification to owners as indeed was this latest move to Sykes cottages. This sees commission increase to 16% if you wish for a 'platinum' service with priority listings. A listing fee - now called a membership fee - will also be reintroduced from October 26 and so quite how some of the replies to similar posts on Trustpilot from ukcaravans4hire say costs aren't going up for owners and their customers is beyond me. Gone is the possibility of prospective customers contacting owners directly until a booking is confirmed and so bookings outside of the system, to lower prices for owners/customers, are gone. On top of this a £75 fine is issued if the owner declines a booking for even a valid reason. For example, Sykes accepts bookings with up to 48 hours notice but that wouldn't be sufficient time for an owner, like myself, to have my caravan clean and ready for a new arrival - this is after all a private caravan with personal items in and I live hundreds of miles away so would need more than 48 hours to prepare my caravan. Being a responsible owner I'd have to decline the booking but I'd be fined for that and for some reason, which ukcaravans4hire say is due to marketing costs, the £75 goes to them and not an inconvenienced customer, for example. A double benefit for ukcaravans4hire when an alternate booking is made on their website with commission plus a booking fee and even insurance etc. That is why it's my belief that fees for owners are now extortionate and when I explained this to ukcaravans4hire, despite being a loyal customer for 12 years, they weren't interested. They've lost their way I'm afraid and seem very greedy now which is costing us owners and holidaymakers more. I'll be advertising my caravan elsewhere moving forward and so for lower prices would encourage customers to look elsewhere.

Date of experience: Sep 29, 2025