Castle Coast Campers folded

Apparently a lot of people have lost a lot of money over this

https://www.castlecoastcampers.co.uk/



And their Facebook post stated:

CEASE TRADING NOTIFICATION

Castle Coast Campers Limited (Trading as Castle Coast Campers)

Due to the significant amount of damage done by customers to Miss Scarlett over the last three hires, resulting in total repair bills well into four figures, a small company like ours is simply unable to absorb such large unplanned costs. As a result, it is with deep regret that I must inform you that after seven and a half years of providing wonderful vintage VW Campervan Holidays, Honeymoons, Naughty Weekends and General Times of Loveliness across Yorkshire, County Durham, Northumberland, Cumbria, The Lake District and the Scottish Borders, the above company ceased trading on 2nd August 2019 due to becoming insolvent.

The difficult decision to cease all trading activities has been forced upon me so as to comply fully with my responsibilities in law as a company director.

The secured creditor has seized all of the assets of the company and the landlord has retaken possession of the premises, accordingly our depot and office are now closed.

Please note that the contact centre is no longer operational and therefore will not be available for further queries.

Yours sincerely,

John Fraser
Director


Hope the vans are alright

 

At least they’ve put up a notice with advice.

 

To be honest some of the facebook comments were excellent, saying things like "no surprise, they used to charge for any minor damage" of course they did, it's damage!

 

I'd have thought any large repairs would be on insurance, so strange it's effected them so quickly.

 

Its sad but we are living in difficult times and loads of small firms are going out of business. No doubt the directors saw this coming and being an old cynic I don't believe their hard luck story much. I do feel sorry for the folks who paid for bookings or vouchers and for the many creditors.

Being a limited company, the Companies House records which are public, do not show a financially strong company.

 

The bottom fell out. Sounds about right.

 

I think a short run with a couple of engine rebuilds would make the cash cow look much less attractive

 

Hiring out bays sounds like a risky business plan - imagine handing the keys to people who have only ever driven new cars?

 

Totally agree, they need to be treated with care & compassion. I Wouldn’t Risk lending mine out knowing the cost of an engine rebuild.
Probably ok if it’s a Danbury with a water cooled in.

 

I have always thought it sounds like too much risk. Having been involved in a couple of non vw type hire businesses in the past, I have come to the conclusion that the general public think that once they have paid for a days hire of something, its their right, and indeed duty, to trash said item.. no way I would be letting a nice bus to a random for a few hundred quid!

 

I feel for the punters who've lost their deposit or vouchers but the rental boss knew the score .

You're putting a difficult to drive classic van into the hands of a complete stranger with unknown driving experience or mechanical sympathy , 90% of the time it'll be thrashed so dunno why he seems surprised with a 'four figure repair bill' when a new engine is a couple of grand and youd want to have at least one ready to be popped in.
The rewards look good on paper but if camper rental was easy everyone would be doing it - simple .

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As a limited company their liabilities are limited so the unfortunate punters and creditors would suffer the losses, presumably their vans are the business asset which no doubt would not be worth enough to cover the company's debts.

 

Not necessarily, they may have had to put up guarantees, limited company doesn't always mean the directors can wash their hands of it.

 

yes, limited by guarantee is an option, its not stated as such on the companies house records, but you may be right. the sad story does show how risky hiring vehicles can be for a small business.

there are van owners out there who do things like wedding hire, but they do the chauffeuring, which sounds a safer option.

 

So no sympathy at all for the actual owners that might have lost their livelihoods, staff lost their jobs and vans possibly cherished seized probably to be sold off at a strong loss?

 

No - it's a chance you take .

Dozens of rental companies have folded in similar circumstances - stupid to think this would be any different to be honest ..

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I have Sympathy for them. However in any business it’s a good idea to do your homework & factor in costs. When I first got our Bay i was fairly wet behind the ears & had no idea She would become a labour of love.
Four years later & lighter in the pocket i find i have learnt so much more about the quirks of a forty five year old air cooled campervan.

 

No admiring glances to the pioneers, the intrepid explorers that throw aside the shackles of forever punching in on someone else’s clock?

I agree it’s a ball ache for those that potentially lost their hols, but some sympathy is due for those that flew a bit to close to the sun.....else we’d all be ants working for the man, no?

 

Its a difficult business keeping an old campervan going. Despite having the readies for continued maintenance and running costs, over the last three years I have paid out £7200 in unscheduled costs on a bus that only cost £6250 in the first case.
This took a raid on a 'new car ISA' which was the remains of some redundancy money.
You cant plan a business on things like that.
The repairs would have overlapped with about 8 weeks of peak time summer bookings too..

Needless to say, if I was going to hire out camper vans I think I would buy new ones, kit them with twee tat and hampers, and then be able to pretty well estimate depreciation and minor breakages over a season. And so survive.

 

Younger people can’t drive these old relics. Their in too much of a hurry. They can learn, but chances are, most of them would rather have ‘new reliability’ than ‘ old school reliability’. I’m never in a hurry in mine, but there’s ‘driving it fast’ and there’s ‘knowing how to drive it fast’. ( fast being up to 70 with a wind behind you, down a hill, but not over a long distance).
It’s no wonder so many rented vans come back damaged and in need of extensive repairs, mechanically.