A couple who used a meet and greet parking service at Birmingham Airport were shocked to receive a £100 penalty charge a week after returning home, after their car was parked in a hotel car park instead of the promised multi-storey facility.
What Happened?
Becky and David Whitworth, from Redditch, headed to Ireland over Easter and used what they thought was an official parking service. They dropped their Kia Sportage off at the valet area at BHX at around 1pm on Thursday, April 2, having booked through ‘Birmingham Airport Parking’ at the website birminghamcarparking.co.uk. At the time, they did not realise this was not an official BHX provider.
The booking reference stated the car parking was with 'Birmingham Airport Valet Service' and was ‘serviced by AK Meet and Greet Limited’. The 'Birmingham Airport Parking' website also lists the company name as Saro Parking Limited. AK Meet & Greet Limited has an address of 68 Houldsworth Crescent, Coventry, CV6 4HJ, as does Saro Parking and AK Meet & Greet Bham Airport Ltd. AK Meet & Greet Limited has Amjid Khan as the sole director, Saro Parking has Nargis Hussaini as the sole director, while AK Meet & Greet Bham Airport Ltd lists both as directors.
The booking said the car would be parked in a ’24/7, multi story [sic] car park’. The couple went away from Thursday (April 2) to Easter Sunday (April 5) and had booked the parking until 7pm Sunday evening, although they picked up their car earlier. They returned home to Redditch, unaware of any issue.
The Penalty Charge
About a week later, they received a parking penalty charge notice from ParkMaven, stating they had parked for almost three days in the Holiday Inn Express car park on Bickenhill Parkway, around one-and-a-half miles from the terminal buildings. The hotel car park is at ground level, not a multi-storey.
The charge notice said: “Parking charge amount due: £100. Location: Bickenhill Parkway (Holiday Inn Express Birmingham NEC). Reason for issue: Overstayed authorised parking session – time in car park: 2 days 23 hours 27 minutes. Arrival time 02/04/2026 13:50:17 Departure time: 05/04/2026 13:17:32.”
The evidence with the charge showed a man in a high-vis jacket driving in and out of the car park, Mrs Whitworth said.
Couple's Frustration
Mrs Whitworth said: “We booked online with the airport for a meet and greet service during the Easter holidays, only to come home to a £100 hotel car parking fine. The fine covers the three-day period of my booking with the airport. The dates in/out on the parking charge mirror the dates of my car park booking.
“I contacted Birmingham Airport a few times and on different platforms, including social media, but got no help at all, only that they couldn't find my booking. I obviously now know it was another company. However, in my desperation to find someone to actually talk to I found my credit card payment was made to Saro Parking. I went online and it was just sending me round in circles.”
She continued: “I eventually got help by calling the guy who returned our car to us – I called the number given for him. He told me they were aware of the issue and that 400 fines had been issued. I have now had my appeal upheld by Parkmaven and the charge cancelled. But I have now started to get scam text messages sending me links to pay my parking fine. Birmingham Airport really washed their hands of me rather quickly. It's all been very stressful and rather worrying.”
ParkMaven's Response
ParkMaven told Mrs Whitworth: “Thank you for your appeal against the above Parking Charge. We have carefully considered your appeal and on this occasion, the appeal has been accepted and the charge has been cancelled. Unfortunately, it appears on this occasion your VRM was not added to the whitelist by the on-site staff after your registration was given. Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience caused.”
BirminghamLive attempted to contact the parking firm by email at support@birminghamairportcarpark and by phone. The email bounced back. The call was answered, and the call handler said: “There were not hundreds of people receiving fines. Usually, the car parks sorted it straight away.” He then said details would be passed to the ‘car park manager’.
A man called Mohammad, from ‘Birmingham Airport Parking’, who would not give his second name, then called and said: “Basically, we have got a contract with YPS. They have parking spaces. What happened when we started was the Holiday Inn, we had to pass registration numbers on. I don’t know what happened with them. It wasn’t hundreds, it was a few. We have discussed it with them. If customers contact us and send us the fine it will be voided. No customer will be spending a penny on them. It’s not good for us when people book a holiday and get a fine. It’s not nice.”
When asked why the Whitworths’ car was not parked in a multi-storey – and the website says it would be parked at a multi-storey in ‘Shaftmoor Lane, Birmingham, B27 7RS’, some seven miles from the airport – Mohammad said: “We have multiple car parks. When one car park gets full we have to park the car in another car park. Every car park we use has got CCTV. When booking the plan is to put the vehicle in the multi-storey. Ninety per cent of cars go there. The Holiday Inn Express is still a car park with CCTV. We are very transparent – the plan is to put it in the multi-storey.”
Birmingham Airport's Statement
A spokeswoman for Birmingham Airport said: “Birmingham Airport offers a wide range of parking options for customers, from short to long stays and its own valet parking. All these options are bookable on the official airport website, with reassurance that cars are parked on-site. We encourage all customers to book directly with the airport so our customer service team can assist with any questions or changes related to their booking. Unfortunately, we do not have access to booking information made with off-site providers and are therefore unable to support customers directly with those bookings. The best deals, convenience and locality is always direct on Birmingham Airport’s website.”
