Park, sleep and fly at Birmingham Airport: how it works

Park, sleep and fly, sold under names like park and fly or stay, park and fly, is one purchase covering the night before your flight and the parking for the trip. It exists for the 06:00 departure and the long drive in: instead of leaving home in the small hours, you arrive the evening before, sleep next to the airport and start the holiday already there. It suits families most of all, because loading children into a car at 03:30 is nobody's plan A.

The bundle comes in three shapes: the car parked at the hotel for the whole trip, the car moved to an airport car park or compound on the morning of the flight, or a meet and greet handover at the terminal. The shape changes each step below, so know which one your deal is; the buying guide compares who sells what and how to price it.

Arrive like any hotel stay, with one difference: where the car goes matters. Some deals park you at the hotel overnight even when the trip's parking is elsewhere; others check the car into the airport car park from the start. Your confirmation says which, and it is worth following exactly, because the airport's car parks read number plates at every entrance and the plate you registered is effectively the ticket.

Two evening moves improve the morning. If you fly Jet2, easyJet, Ryanair or TUI on an early departure, day-before bag drop can take the suitcases off your hands the night before; the check-in guide covers the airline windows. And if breakfast matters, order it now: with the room-only shapes a takeaway breakfast bag arranged the evening before, as the Arden offers, beats discovering at 04:30 that the restaurant opens at 06:30.

From the on-airport hotels the morning barely exists: the walk from the Novotel, Hilton Garden Inn, ibis or ibis budget to the terminal is a minute or two with a trolley bag, so you move when the airline's check-in time says so. The hotels guide covers which rooms sit that close.

With a compound or car park pairing, you drive the last stretch yourself: to the Airparks sites the shuttle then takes about 3 minutes from the Express compound and up to about 14 from Self Park, and pairings with Car Park 5 land you a 5 to 10 minute walk from the terminal with a free shuttle every 15 minutes as the alternative. With a meet and greet pairing you drive to the operator's handover point, pass the keys over and walk in; the meet and greet guide covers the airport's own valet reception and the checks for everyone else. Add the leg to whatever check-in window your airline sets and keep a margin for loading the car; the mornings that go wrong are the ones planned to the minute.

With an airport car park or compound pairing, the way back is built in: the transfer bus returns you to the compound, or you walk to Car Park 5, and you drive home. With meet and greet, the car is brought back to the collection point once you call or as arranged. With whole-trip hotel parking, you still have to reach the hotel: few deals state that leg (the Genting, for instance, includes only the taxi out), so assume the return taxi is yours unless the confirmation says otherwise, because the difference is a cold 20 minutes with tired children if you assumed wrong. Check both legs when you book, and keep the operator's return instructions with your travel documents.

Read the inclusions line, not the headline. The parking half comes in set tiers, 4, 8, 12 or 15 days at the Genting and up to 15 nights at the Arden, with longer arrangeable, and the brokers quote 8 days as their standard. The room half is usually room-only: the Arden charges separately for breakfast and dinner, and the Genting sells its bundle without board. Transfers are the most variable line of all, from a taxi included on the day you fly to nothing at all, so confirm each leg in writing.

The small print is consistent across sellers and worth knowing: one car per booking, with extra cars chargeable; vehicles left at owner's risk, as the Arden's rate puts it; and cancellation terms that reward checking, from free cancellation on most broker deals to a 17:00 day-before cut-off on the Arden's own rate. None of it is onerous, but all of it is the kind of line people meet for the first time at the entrance barrier.

Park, sleep and fly wins when three things line up: an early departure, a real drive to reach the airport, and a trip long enough that the parking would cost serious money anyway. In that case the room often adds little to what pre-booked parking alone would cost, and the sleep is worth more than the difference. It loses its case when you live within an easy hour, where a lift and the free 10-minute drop-off beat any package, and on NEC event nights, when the hotel half of the bundle inflates with every bed for miles.

Price it both ways for your own dates before deciding; the hotel and parking guide covers the three places to buy and the checks that keep the deal as good as it looks.