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2026: General Discussion

jon81uk said:
Don’t think that’s a thing?
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From the website here: https://www.altontowers.com/plan-your-visit/before-you-visit/car-parking/

Standard Parking
Standard Parking is charged at £13 for Theme Park Guests, when booked online in advance. Upon arrival, please follow the road signage or our team members directions. We have both tarmac and grass car parks. During peak periods, you may be parked on grass.
Gold, Platinum and Premium Merlin Passholders, visitors to Extraordinary Golf, or those staying in any of our Resort Accommodations enjoy free parking, no ticket required.
Standard Parking is between 15-25 minutes walk to the Theme Park Entrance.
Book in advance and save – On the day parking is £15!
 
The Lynch Effect said:
From the website here: https://www.altontowers.com/plan-your-visit/before-you-visit/car-parking/

Standard Parking
Standard Parking is charged at £13 for Theme Park Guests, when booked online in advance. Upon arrival, please follow the road signage or our team members directions. We have both tarmac and grass car parks. During peak periods, you may be parked on grass.
Gold, Platinum and Premium Merlin Passholders, visitors to Extraordinary Golf, or those staying in any of our Resort Accommodations enjoy free parking, no ticket required.
Standard Parking is between 15-25 minutes walk to the Theme Park Entrance.
Book in advance and save – On the day parking is £15!
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Not seen that before then I checked the golf page not the parking one. But yes with golf at £5 why pay for parking!
 
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AT86 said:
I suspect that loophole may not exist for much longer now it’s hit ‘the socials’.
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Or it’s a plan to boost the golf, they’ve been giving tickets away for it with hotels for years and let’s be honest, the vast majority of visitors won’t be organised enough to do it. So the impact on the parking revenue will be minimal socials or not.
 
The Lynch Effect said:
Or it’s a plan to boost the golf, they’ve been giving tickets away for it with hotels for years and let’s be honest, the vast majority of visitors won’t be organised enough to do it. So the impact on the parking revenue will be minimal socials or not.
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I've heard some optimistic takes on Merlin's business strategy in my time, but the suggestion that they are deliberately cannibalising their single highest margin revenue stream (parking at £15 a throw for a static piece of tarmac with zero overheads) to boost the participation numbers of a low value bolt on (golf at £6 with staffing, maintenance and equipment costs) is truly in a league of its own.

Merlin doesn't care if the golf course is empty, provided the car park is full. They would much rather you paid £15 to park and didn't play golf, than pay £6 to play golf and park for free.

It's an oversight, likely a legacy T&C that hasn't been updated to reflect the aggressive hike in parking charges. Enjoy the loophole while it lasts, because the moment a Finance Director spots that variance on a spreadsheet, the "Free Parking with Golf" perk will vanish faster than a gosling in a fox den.
 
GooseOnTheLoose said:
I've heard some optimistic takes on Merlin's business strategy in my time, but the suggestion that they are deliberately cannibalising their single highest margin revenue stream (parking at £15 a throw for a static piece of tarmac with zero overheads) to boost the participation numbers of a low value bolt on (golf at £6 with staffing, maintenance and equipment costs) is truly in a league of its own.

Merlin doesn't care if the golf course is empty, provided the car park is full. They would much rather you paid £15 to park and didn't play golf, than pay £6 to play golf and park for free.

It's an oversight, likely a legacy T&C that hasn't been updated to reflect the aggressive hike in parking charges. Enjoy the loophole while it lasts, because the moment a Finance Director spots that variance on a spreadsheet, the "Free Parking with Golf" perk will vanish faster than a gosling in a fox den.
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It’s Merlin, at this stage anything is possible. The wizards seem to work in mysterious ways!

I don’t think it’s an oversight however as the parking was a tenner or so previously, and it didn’t get stopped then.
 
GooseOnTheLoose said:
It's an oversight, likely a legacy T&C that hasn't been updated to reflect the aggressive hike in parking charges.
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You're probably right, but I sometimes wonder with these "free giveaways" whether somebody's bonus (or reputation) is tied to the success of a particular attraction? (golf, in this case)

I remember reading that Commodore discontinued the Amiga A500+ (their most popular home computer at the time) in order to pressure / force people to buy the less popular Amiga 600, simply because an executive's bonus was tied to the sales of the A600 :(
 
GaryH said:
I hate to say it but with the constant rises in hotel, food, drink prices and the poor quality of offerings across the resort along with reductions in annual pass perks, this really does feel like a park/company that is now getting very desperate to stay in business.
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These are not things solely limited to Towers/Merlin in the current economic environment.

Though Merlin no longer have the shareholders must see increasing bonuses excuse.
 
Benzin said:
Though Merlin no longer have the shareholders must see increasing bonuses excuse.
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Just because a company is "private" (not on the stock exchange) it doesn't mean it lacks shareholders. It simply means the shares are not traded publicly by you or I.

Merlin is owned by a consortium comprising KIRKBI, Blackstone and CPPIB. These are the shareholders.

If you think a Private Equity firm like Blackstone is less demanding about "increasing bonuses" (or rather, Return on Investment and EBITDA growth) than the public market, you are very much mistaken. They're usually more aggressive because they're looking for a profitable exit strategy (a sale or re-listing) within a specific timeframe.

They also have a massive pile of debt to service. The pressure is still there, it's just just moved from the daily ticker of the London Stock Exchange to a private boardroom.
 
The Lynch Effect said:
From the website here: https://www.altontowers.com/plan-your-visit/before-you-visit/car-parking/

Standard Parking
Standard Parking is charged at £13 for Theme Park Guests, when booked online in advance. Upon arrival, please follow the road signage or our team members directions. We have both tarmac and grass car parks. During peak periods, you may be parked on grass.
Gold, Platinum and Premium Merlin Passholders, visitors to Extraordinary Golf, or those staying in any of our Resort Accommodations enjoy free parking, no ticket required.
Standard Parking is between 15-25 minutes walk to the Theme Park Entrance.
Book in advance and save – On the day parking is £15!
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Parking has been included in gold MAP for the past couple years at the least.
 
The wording around free parking for Golf ticket holders has been firmed up.

To qualify for the free parking you need to show the completed scorecard to the staff at golf and they issue a parking ticket.

Reduces the chances of folks with no intention of playing golf just booking a £5 ticket to use the free parking I guess.

So for two guests or less, who have the time/inclination to play 9 holes of golf it is cheaper to do that (£10) than just pay for the parking (£13).

 
AT86 said:
So for two guests or less, who have the time/inclination to play 9 holes of golf it is cheaper to do that (£10) than just pay for the parking (£13).
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Assuming the golf is kept open long enough hours after the theme park closes to actually play it. I've left the park at 5.30pm to find the golf closed in the past.
 
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