Groups are where airport transfers usually go wrong. Someone books a minibus for twelve people, forgets that twelve people bring twelve large cases plus hand luggage, and the driver arrives to a physics problem on the pavement at 4am.
We size on passengers and luggage, not just seats
Every vehicle class in our system has both a passenger capacity and a realistic luggage capacity. Our quote screen only offers vehicles that fit both numbers. If you tell it eight passengers with eight large cases, it will not offer you a vehicle that seats eight but swallows four cases.
It also only shows vehicle classes the operator currently has available. There is no point quoting an executive MPV that is off the road.
When one vehicle cannot do it
Say you have twelve passengers and a mountain of luggage. Rather than refusing the booking or making you place two separate ones, the booker works out the cheapest sensible combination — often a minibus plus an estate, sometimes two MPVs — and quotes it as one price.
You get:
- One booking, one total, one payment.
- Each vehicle allocated its own driver with the same pick-up time and address.
- One confirmation listing the whole convoy.
If a cheaper combination exists that still fits everyone and everything, that is the one you are shown.
Too many passengers for the vehicle you picked?
If you select a vehicle and then increase the passenger count past its capacity, you get a pop-up explaining the problem and showing the alternatives — the next vehicle up, or the cheapest multi-vehicle combination — rather than a silent failure at the payment screen.
Multiple pick-up addresses
Groups rarely all live in the same house. Add up to eight vias to a booking and the price recalculates on screen as you add each one. On a return booking, we reverse the order automatically for the way home, so the last person collected is the first person dropped.
That is the usual pattern for hen weekends, golf trips and family holidays across Nottingham, West Bridgford and Beeston.
Getting a big group through the airport
Two practical tips from doing this a lot. First, allow three hours at check-in for any group of eight or more with hold bags — group check-in is slower than the sum of its parts. Second, nominate one person to hold all the booking references; drivers ring one number, not twelve.
Book it
Enter your real passenger and luggage numbers in the booker and let it do the arithmetic. Fixed price, whatever the combination.