Why the holiday park industry bad guys deserve a kicking

The increasingly poor reputation of the UK’s holiday park industry must be addressed, according to a leading Yorkshire holiday park owner.

Mark Goodson, who runs the award-winning Wayside Holiday Park at Wrelton, near Pickering, says he is very concerned by the cynical behaviour of some holiday park operators.

Lodges at the Water Gardens, Wayside

Mark commented: “The holiday park industry has taken a kicking of late. It troubles me to say it, but this bad reputation gained by the industry has been, in some cases, well deserved. This is because some park owners, both large and small, have acted in a way that doesn’t represent the vast majority, who have been caught in the crossfire.”

Recent media coverage has highlighted the very dubious behaviour of certain park owners towards the public over issues like pitch fee rises, occupation of holiday homes all year round and the re-purchasing of holiday homes from their customers at ridiculously low prices.

Mark continued: “We have seen the introductory offer of an attractive pitch fee to initially entice the customer, only to see it cranked up well above inflation in the following years. This is sometimes justified as the parks have been upgraded and modernised, which is fair enough, but sometimes they have not.

“Wayside has invested £1.5million over the last 10 years upgrading our park, installing lakes and many other water features to enhance the surroundings. Once the pitch fee has been set for a particular area of the park, the annual increase has been by inflation only. In fact, this year, pitch fees were kept at the same level as 2024 as we were very sensitive about the cost-of-living crisis.”

Buying back holiday homes from owners at ridiculously low prices has been one of the main complaints by owners of holiday homes. When deciding to sell up (usually due to life circumstances) and especially after a couple of years or less of ownership, they are forced to resell to the park owner. The park owner gives them an embarrassingly low price and then resells it at a price close to the one originally paid by the customer, making a second handsome profit in the process.

Mark explained: “At Wayside we do things differently. When a customer decides to sell, we act as a facilitator of the sale only, which means we agree a mutual price with the owner, put it up on our website with a brief description along with photos of the holiday home for sale. “We then show any prospective customers around the holiday home and, if sold, we deal with all the payments between the purchaser and vendor and organise paperwork which concludes the transaction. For this service we charge a commission of 10% +VAT on the sale price.

“At no time during the sale do we own the holiday home. Doing it this way means that the price that the customer gets for his holiday home is dictated by the market. If it is too high, it does not sell, if it is priced sensibly, it will sell relatively quickly.”

Mark Goodson - Wayside

Mark Goodson, Wayside Holiday Park Owner.

Another disgraceful practice by rogue holiday park operators is to suggest to an owner that they can live on the park permanently. This can be used as another enticement to buy, as it provides an opportunity for a new owner to sell up and move permanently to a holiday park when the park is not licenced to provide permanent accommodation. A holiday licence means just that, a licence for holiday breaks and not a permanent residence.

Mark concluded: “As a three-generation family business, we never forget that we need you as a customer more than you need us. Buying a holiday home is meant to be a joyous experience, not an assault course of the Spanish Practices highlighted above. We never forget that circumstances often change and if you need to leave, we make it as easy as possible.

“This great industry is full of hard-working and honest people who provide tremendous holiday experiences and good value for their customers. I hope – and believe – that history will recognise and applaud Wayside for upholding the finest traditions of holiday home ownership.”