Cumbriamotorhomehire Avis 

Looking for a motorhome for a local festival.
Found this company locally and went ahead booking a pick up on the Wednesday and returning Monday.
We read all the T&C’s, ticked the ‘festival’ box (which only states a larger damage security deposit would be required) and paid our deposit.
The next day we get a phone call from the owner claiming he’d been on holiday so hadn’t updated his website.
He insisted that we’d have to pay for an extra day hire claiming we wouldn’t get it returned in time on the Monday. I explained we planned to leave the festival Sunday night so would definitely have it back for Monday morning, but he was adamant we’d have to pay for an extra day.
In addition he claimed that he didn’t realise it was the festival that weekend. Now he knows he want to increase the price of the hire overall.
The extra charges totaled over £300!
There is nowhere on the website that state minimum hire days over that weekend, and nowhere states that there are extra hire charges for a festival (only damage deposit increases). There’s a ‘festival’ tick box so this is the place to detail extra costs if it were the case.
We can’t help but feel that the owner was just trying to pull a fast one and see if anyone would agree to the increased charges.
Increased charges for a particular weekend are fine but please be upfront about it at the time of booking and put it on your website.
Incidentally their website still hasn’t been updated with extra costs and if I attempted to hire it again now (almost one week in) it’s still coming up at the lower price. I therefore have no doubt that the next person booking will get put in a situation where extra charges are added after booking. Does this happen with people who then get into a situation where they can’t get anything else due to availability so just proceed?
We have now agreed to cancel our booking and had the deposit refunded and have gone out of county for the hire (and are paying much less), but such a shame that we couldn’t keep the money in county with a local business.
Had this been a good experience this would likely have been a recurring booking

please read all reviews before dealing with this company. Do not deal with them, I returned the motor home with very minor damage to the bumper about the size of a 50p. Repairs would normally cost around £250 but they pulled a figure out of thin air for a total £750. Section 75 activated but lost due to evidence. To this day I still haven't received a written quote or invoice. Customer service is the lowest I have ever experienced. Be warned about this if you decide to hire any motorhome from them

Hired last year and it was a dreadful experience. Van was clean and apart from tv which packed up everything worked. The problem was when I returned the van. The damage to a mirror I excepted and signed the damage form. A new one was approximately £350. I said just take out of my £1000 deposit. Three week later they decided to keep the full £1000 deposit. They gave no explanation for any other damage and failed to provide any evidence. I ended up claiming from bank using section 75 regulation. I have since heard a work colleague of mine has had the same experience. Please avoid this firm. They are just not honest. If you must use them please pay by credit card for financial protection.

This was our first time hiring a motorhome, and although we ended up having a fabulous holiday, unfortunately the experience with the company itself left a lot to be desired.

When we arrived to pick up the motorhome there was no one around, and we waited around 15 minutes before a man appeared. He said he was the owner. Partway through the handover he had to leave to collect his son from school, and said he would continue the handover when he returned, which meant everything felt rushed and incomplete. We also noticed quite a lot of damage to the vehicle, despite being told it had “only been out a few times.” There was damage to the table base, to the lid of the hob and the base boards were all scuffed and scraped.

While loading our things, I picked up what I thought was a cleaning rag from inside the bedside wardrobe, but it turned out to be dirty knickers left behind from a previous hire. I was genuinely sickened. The man did apologise and blamed a new cleaner, but that really isn’t an excuse — a basic clean should be guaranteed. I gave him the underwear wrapped in the stained sheet that was on the bed....we had taken our own bedding and I really didn't want to touch theirs.

Once we set off, we did enjoy ourselves. We loved having a bacon butty in the car park at Gretna Green and stopping in the middle of the hills for a cup of tea and a biscuit. However, the tyre pressure alarms went off as soon as we left the yard, and the onboard system kept giving conflicting messages about the water and waste tanks — one minute full, the next empty.

Returning the motorhome was just as chaotic. Again, no one was at the yard. After about 10 minutes the cleaner arrived, but she had no idea how to take delivery of the vehicle. She phoned one of the owners, who told her just to take the keys and they’d check it later. I asked for the phone and spoke to the other owner, this time a lady, and mentioned the dirty knickers, and she again blamed a “new cleaner.” I also mentioned that a driver had stopped us to say the brake lights weren’t working — something we were never told.

We then waited 19 days for our deposit to be returned, only receiving it after chasing twice. For a small business, customer service should be a priority, but sadly it felt severely lacking throughout. I don’t want to hear excuses about new cleaners — train your staff properly from the start and the blame game is just an excuse for arrogance.

We absolutely would hire a motorhome again because we loved the experience itself… but definitely not from this company.

Absolute shambles from pick up to drop off and chasing return of my deposit! Do yourself a favour and go elsewhere! We departed 2¹/² hours late after arriving half an hour early for our pick up and met other customers also waiting over 2 hours at their pick up. Van was totally unprepared - string of dashboard warnings about overdue service and various systems not working. Ran out of water the first night. Ran out of gas the 2nd night - clearly neither had been filled. Various broken or detached hinges... nothing but excuses from the company... and then it took 12 days beyond their 2 week window for returning my deposit. Stress of it all ruined our holiday. Avoid!