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What does part-exchange really get you on a holiday home?

Part exchange gets you trade value for the old caravan and a discount on the new one that you cannot see separately. Here is what Haven, Park Holidays, Hoburne, Shorefield, Away Resorts and Holgates actually publish, and the law that applies when you sign in the park sales office.

Published 2026-08-05 · updated 2026-08-05 · 11 min read · all figures sourced below

Part exchange gets you trade value for your old holiday home, which is lower than the price the park will then resell it for. No UK park operator publishes a part exchange valuation method, a formula or a single worked example, so the allowance you are offered on the day is a number set at the park and checkable against nothing.

What do the operators actually publish about part exchange?

Six operators were checked on 5 August 2026. Every one describes a process. None publishes a figure for what your caravan is worth.

Haven's part exchange page sets out four steps: choose the new holiday home, agree the cost, pay, and leave the paperwork to Haven. On the valuation it says only that Haven will appraise your old caravan and compare the values of the two. Haven says it settles your existing finance and organises the sale of your old caravan, which "will either be sold on park or to another park at home or abroad", and that the whole process should take no more than a few weeks.

Away Resorts publishes a seven step process and a wider list of what it accepts: motorhomes, touring caravans, tents, static caravans and holiday homes from other parks. Step five is the one worth noting. Away Resorts says it will advise you on the cost to change. That is the number the sales office works to, the price of the new unit minus your allowance, and it lets both figures move while the difference stays put. Away Resorts adds that its offer excludes brick built properties.

Shorefield says part exchange is available on tourers, motorhomes and holiday homes, and that it uses trusted underwriters to value a tourer or motorhome. It advertises "great part exchange allowances" without publishing one.

Holgates accepts all touring caravans and motorhomes regardless of age and gives an initial valuation from an online form without seeing the vehicle. The final physical inspection, it says, is only required once you have chosen your new holiday home and are ready to proceed. That order matters: the inspection that can cut your allowance happens after you have committed to a specific new unit.

Hoburne describes an eight step part exchange and is the most specific about restrictions: "The purchase must be from Hoburne's own stock. The offer excludes Private Sale purchases, transfers, pre-owned and factory ordered stock."

Parkdean Resorts publishes part exchange offers too, but its pages returned HTTP 403 on 5 August 2026, so no Parkdean figure appears here.

How is a part exchange valuation worked out?

It is a trade valuation. The National Association of Caravan Owners says that when a park buys a unit it is "only buying the caravan, not the package", and that parks work to trade value because they "buy low so that they can re-sell at a higher profit".

You can see the resale side of that trade on the same operators' websites. On 5 August 2026 Haven advertised pre-owned holiday homes from £14,995, a figure its page dates as at 24 June 2026 and applies across 25 parks, with a 2018 ABI Summerhouse at silver grade from £19,995 and a 2022 Victory Riverwood Lodge at gold grade from £46,995.

Nobody publishes what Haven paid the previous owner for either unit. The retail price is public and the trade price is not, which is the reverse of the used car market, where a seller can look up both.

So when you are quoted an allowance, ask in writing what the park expects to advertise your caravan for once it has been serviced and re-sited. If the park will not answer, you are being asked to accept a discount of unknown size. Our true cost of owning a holiday lodge covers what sits underneath these numbers, and the ownership cost calculator will run the arithmetic on your own figures.

Is part exchange worth more than selling privately?

Usually no, and NACO's guidance ranks the routes. It calls selling to the park owner "by far the easiest way to sell your caravan or lodge", and names a private sale to a buyer who keeps the caravan on its pitch as the best option for maximising what you get. Easiest and best are two different words, and NACO does not use them interchangeably.

The private route has costs of its own. NACO says park commission on a sale is commonly around 15%, and that the exact figure must be clearly stated in your agreement. If you take the caravan off the park instead, NACO puts disconnection and removal charges at anywhere between £300 and £3,500 depending on where you are in the UK. Our article on the real cost of selling a static caravan goes through those.

Run the comparison in cash, not percentages. If a private on-pitch sale would realise £16,000 with 15% commission, you receive £13,600. A part exchange allowance below £13,600 is worse, and the gap is what you are paying for speed. That can be a fair trade, but only if you know the size of it.

What are the free pitch fees and cashback offers really worth?

They are a discount on the new holiday home, not payment for the old one. Park Holidays makes this clearest. Its part exchange page advertises free pitch fees for the 2026 season only, "unless otherwise stated", fixed rate pitch fees from 2027 to 2030, a £500 credit towards gas and electricity, and a free broadband transfer against a stated standard price of £149. It adds that offers are valid on selected new and ex-display models, cannot be used with any other offer, and can be withdrawn at any time without notice.

Hoburne advertises free 2026 season pitch fees on selected models and 12 months free insurance from Leisuredays, subject to the restriction quoted above that the purchase must come from Hoburne's own stock.

These incentives all tell you the same thing: there is margin in the new unit. A park that can hand back a season of pitch fees and £500 of utilities had room in the price. The allowance on your old caravan is one of several levers, and the park controls all of them.

The finance rate is another lever, and it is published. Haven advertises a part exchange finance option at "5.33% fixed / 9.6% APR (representative)", subject to status. Hoburne advertises "competitive finance rates from 10.9% APR with Santander Consumer Finance", also subject to status. On £25,000 of borrowing that gap can wipe out a difference in allowance that took an afternoon to negotiate. There is more in holiday lodge finance explained.

Should you move your caravan instead of part exchanging it?

If you are changing park rather than changing caravan, moving keeps the value in your hands, and Park Holidays publishes the terms. It advertises transportation costs covered up to the value of £1,000 excluding VAT for bringing an existing holiday home onto one of its parks. The conditions are specific: you must have owned the holiday home for at least six months, valid insurance must be in place before relocation, any outstanding finance secured against it must be settled in full, and it must have been manufactured on or after 1 January 2011.

That last condition rules out anything built before 2011, and it explains why part exchange is offered so readily on older units. A caravan a receiving park will not take as a move is a caravan you can only realise through a sale or a trade in. Operators differ on incoming units and some do not take them at all, so ask the specific park in writing rather than the group.

Do you get a cooling-off period when you part exchange at the park?

No, not if you sign in the park's sales office. Regulation 29 of the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 gives the consumer the right to cancel "a distance or off-premises contract" in the cancellation period without giving a reason. Regulation 5 defines an off-premises contract as one concluded in the simultaneous physical presence of trader and consumer "in a place which is not the business premises of the trader", and an on-premises contract as anything that is neither that nor a distance contract.

A sale agreed in the sales office of a park you drove to is an on-premises contract, so the statutory cancellation right does not apply. Any cooling-off period you are offered is a concession from that operator, so get it in writing with the number of days on it before you sign.

What is a park not allowed to do when it offers you a part exchange?

The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 replaced the old unfair trading rules from 6 April 2025. Its Schedule 20 lists commercial practices which are unfair in all circumstances. Paragraph 7 bans "falsely stating that a product will only be available for a limited time, or that it will only be available on particular terms for a limited time, in order to elicit an immediate decision and deprive consumers of sufficient opportunity or time to make an informed choice". The word doing the work is falsely. A genuine end date is lawful. An allowance that evaporates if you leave the park to think, then reappears next weekend, is the practice the paragraph describes.

Section 226 makes a practice a misleading action if it involves false or misleading information about a product or trader, or an overall presentation likely to deceive the average consumer, and the Act says a presentation may deceive even if the information in it is true. Trading Standards guidance on Business Companion applies this to holiday parks. It gives "using a false previous selling price in a sales promotion" as a misleading action, and treats pushing a buyer "to decide to buy immediately in order to benefit from a claimed price advantage" as pressure selling.

There is a private remedy too. Legislation.gov.uk records the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 as revoked on 6 April 2025 "with transitional provisions and savings in relation to Pt. 4A, which is continued until regulations are made under s. 233 of the revoking Act". Part 4A is the consumers' rights to redress, and its regulation 27B now defines a prohibited practice by reference to sections 226 and 228 of the 2024 Act.

Regulation 27E gives a right to unwind the contract if the consumer rejects the product within 90 days of the later of the contract date and the delivery date, while the product is still capable of being rejected. Regulation 27I gives a right to a discount of 25%, 50%, 75% or 100% by the seriousness of the practice, but paragraph (6) switches that scale off where the amount payable exceeds £5,000, the market price at the time was lower than the contract price, and there is clear evidence of the difference. The discount is then the percentage difference between the market price and what you agreed to pay.

Almost every holiday home sale is over £5,000, so the test that applies here turns on evidence of market price. That is exactly the evidence a part exchange obscures. Keep the advertisement, the written offer and any comparable listings you found at the time. Whether a sale meets the test is for Trading Standards or a court to decide.

What to ask before you agree a part exchange

Ask for the new holiday home price and the part exchange allowance as two separate figures, not as a cost to change. Ask what the park expects to advertise your old caravan for. Ask whether the incentives would still be offered if you paid cash without a trade in, because the answer tells you whether they are a discount on the new unit or payment for the old one. Ask for the APR in writing next to the total amount payable. Then take the offer home, and see whether it is still available on Monday.

Sources