On site

You give your booking number, in the OPK-XXXXXX format, on arrival — that number is the entry code. The confirmation email prints it as digits, and the scannable QR code is on the confirmation page, behind the management link and on the printable sheet, so keep one of them to hand on your phone. The registration plate is not needed to get in; if you never gave one, the staff will fill it in on site. The code works from the moment the booking is confirmed until the stay ends. Entry is handled by a person, not an automatic barrier.

Tell the car park in advance if you will arrive at a different hour — the operator's contact details are in your confirmation. Remember that a day is counted from the arrival time in the booking, so an earlier entry or a later collection can mean one more day charged. A later return you move yourself behind the management link: you see what it costs before confirming, and nothing at all if you stay inside the day already paid for. If the extra day only falls due once you are back, the car park settles it as it hands the car over, either by adding a surcharge with a link to pay or by taking the money on site.

No. You are booking a stay on given dates, not a numbered bay — the staff point you to a space on arrival or, at car parks offering valet service, move the car themselves. The operator sets how many spaces are open on each day, so an offer you see in the results has room for your entire stay, not merely for the first day of it. Where a lot is already full on one of your days, it does not appear in the results at all.

That depends on the car park, which is why we do not state one rule for all of them. Every offer lists what that particular site has: cameras, fencing, lighting, a roof, the surface type — and you can compare those same items across car parks before choosing. Insurance, where the operator has taken a policy out, is that operator's policy rather than ours; the details sit in their terms.

Some car parks accept cars at any hour, others work to set opening times — you see which is which next to the offer, together with the hours of the ride to the terminal where the operator has given them. On a night flight, check this before booking: it is the single most common cause of confusion on arrival. If in doubt, call the car park; the number is in your confirmation.

Take documents, the spare key and anything valuable into your hand luggage. At car parks with a valet service you leave the key with the staff — all the more reason to remove whatever you would rather nobody had access to. Check as well that nothing perishable is left inside: over a fortnight the temperature on an open site can be quite unlike a garage.

Yes, and it is the only route to a review here: we email the form once the stay is over, and only to the driver who actually parked. One booking means one review, with no editing afterwards — which is why the rating next to an offer comes from people who used that same car park. A car park without reviews is described as new to the service, never as rated zero.