Haven holiday (be aware!)

tedsky2302

We have booked to stay at a Haven resort in 2011 and booked it this year. As we booked in advance we were given a nice discount and the ability to spread the payments out over the year with a £50.00 deposit payable on booking, £50.00 a month later, £150.00 by the 1st November and the balance payable by the end of February. Now with the VAT increase due on 4th of January 2011 you would expect that any payments made before then would be subject to the current 17.5% and anything paid AFTER the 4th of January would be subject to the extra 2.5% increase - this seems the case according to the HMRC website and a 50 page report that i printed off and read!!! However Haven Holidays are now writing to all their customer who are paying for their holidays in this way informing them that the FULL balance needs to be paid by the 1st November after which any outsanding payments would be subject to the 2.5% increase - really........so Haven are charging their customers the 2.5% VAT increase a whole 2 MONTHS before it shoudl be increased!!!!!!! Apparently thats what "the government" have told them?!?! After an hour of arguing with a couple of monkeys over the phone I have requested that they send me the copy of the specific correspondance that HMRC have sent them telling them that they need to do this! So anyone that has booked a haven holiday and is experiancing the same problem DONT PAY THE EXTRA just yet - argue it with them - until i receive this magical HMRC correspondance which states that Haven HAVE to charge the extra 2.5% early i will be giving them no extra money!

tedsky2302

Right it appears that organisations such as Haven operate under the Tour Operator Margin Scheme (TOMS) which means that the tax point is calculated in relation to the ARRIVAL date and not on the date actually booked! So although we booked our holiday this year the tax point - and the point at which VAT is charged is actually for the date we arrive in 2011 - therefore Haven are asking that if their customers pay any outstanding deposit by the 1st November then no additional VAT will be charged so in effect Haven themselves will be paying the additional VAT. Although its still not clear that if i leave payment of any outstanding balance until after 1st November whether the VAT increase would apply to the WHOLE amount or just the balance outstanding - still waiting for Haven to clarify!

adviceforall

Book with private owners at Haven sites and avoid the VAT increase totally..
http://www.directholidayhomes.co.uk

tedsky2302

hey what a cracking website - well worth a search!! Have contacted a Caravan owner with one on the site we are visiting - and looks like we may get a FAR better deal booking direct with him!!!!!!

adviceforall

Plus, you'll know exactly where on site your caravan will be, what the caravan is like, spend less money on renting, most owners have lots of extras in their caravans that Haven dont supply.

tedsky2302

Yep thats right - spoke to the owner - really approachable and helpful and is going to call me back in a couple of days to confirm availability - Haven can stick their VAT increase!! Oh and by the way the website you gave me is BRILLIANT!! :j Will certainly be using it for any future holidays - cheers "adviseforall"!

mumofthreemonkies83

I think im right in saying you dont get the Funworks passes included with hiring privately though - please make sure you factor in the cost of these before you book.
I think theyre around £20 for an adult and slightly less for a child.

Thats one of the things that put me off hiring direct from owners as we are a 6 person family, once we buy the passes were almost an extra £100 worse off so would need to make a substantial saving on the caravan

Mumof4 xx

adviceforall

I think that even adding in the cost of the passes most owners prices are low enough to still make a very good saving, eg, our platinum caravan booked through Haven in the school summer holidays in the brochure comes out at over £1200 per week, we charged £760 for 2010, so add on your passes you are still making several hundreds pounds of savings. For 2011 we set the prices at £799 and have only 2 weeks left.

But we also offer longs weekends out of season for only £100 so that people who maybe cant afford a holiday get the chance to have one in a top of the range caravan.

I think just being able to hand pick the caravan of your choice before you go is great. Also you know all the extras you are getting for free, eg Haven charge for travel cots, bed guards, door guards, high chair, microwave and hair dryers etc, all are free to use in ours. Along with a box of children's toys, adults and childrens books, games, puzzles, video's and dvd's and a games console and games. A lady has just rebooked for next year as her children thought it was great having them to use.

adviceforall

tedsky2302 wrote: »

Yep thats right - spoke to the owner - really approachable and helpful and is going to call me back in a couple of days to confirm availability - Haven can stick their VAT increase!! Oh and by the way the website you gave me is BRILLIANT!! :j Will certainly be using it for any future holidays - cheers "adviseforall"!

I'm glad it was of some use to you....:beer:

tedsky2302

Hi - Mumof3 (or 4!? ) i think that adviseforall is actually spot on - at the moment we are booked in from 27th may until 3rd June 2011 and because we booked so far in advance we received a "discount" from Haven but without this it woudl have cost us £995.00!! For 7 nights!! - with the discount £723.00! However by booking direct with an owner we have already contacted we would pay NO MORE then £600.00 PEAK SEASON! and for an extra £80.00 (max) for all our passes still comes in cheaper! - makes you realise just how much money this places makes out of all those happy campers!!! Gonna book direct all the the way from now on!!!!! - if you get a moment check out that website - we were looking at Holiday Villas in Turkey - AMAZING!!!!!!!!

pinkmami

So let me get this straight then! You book the caravan (say at a haven site) with the owner & then contact Haven direct for the passes you require to use their facilities?

Is this the same with the other caravan parks?

That website is great - already saved into my faves!