Where you park within the car park is free to choose and makes more difference to the return journey than most things you could pay for.
Nobody thinks about it on the way out, because you are in a hurry and any space will do. You think about it on the way back.
What should you actually look for?
Near the shuttle stop, which saves the walk at both ends
Under a light, if you are returning after dark
An end bay or next to a wall, which halves the number of doors that can open into you
Somewhere you can describe — a row letter, a pillar number, a landmark
Those four cost nothing and take ten seconds longer than taking the first space you see.
You choose a bay in daylight with a flight to catch. You find it again in the dark, tired, with luggage. Choose for the second occasion.
What should you avoid?
Trolley bays, tight corners and the ends of rows near turning circles.
Trolley bays are the clearest one. Loose trolleys move in wind and collect scrapes on the cars beside them, and it is the single most common source of minor damage in any car park.
Tight corners mean vehicles manoeuvring repeatedly beside you. Turning circles mean the same thing with less space.
Does being near the entrance help?
Not particularly, and it is often worse. Entrance bays fill first and see the most traffic passing.
What matters at a long stay car park is proximity to the shuttle stop, which is frequently not the same place. Follow the signage for the stop rather than parking at the first bay inside the barrier.
Should I reverse in?
It helps more on the return than the departure. Reversing out of a bay with a boot full of luggage, in the dark, surrounded by other cars, is the harder manoeuvre.
Driving out forwards after a long flight is easier and safer. It costs you nothing on arrival when you are alert.
Does any of this matter for security?
Marginally, and less than people assume. Lighting and visibility help, but car parks are not high-risk environments.
What matters far more is what is inside the car. Remove valuables, and remove anything showing your home address — a registration document or a piece of post tells whoever finds it that your house is empty for a known number of days.
Parking under a camera is a bonus rather than a strategy. Coverage is concentrated on entrances and access roads rather than individual bays.
What about multi-storey car parks?
Easier to remember and harder to navigate. Levels and numbered bays give you something concrete to recall, which large open-air sites do not.
The trade is height restrictions — commonly around two metres, which rules them out entirely with a roof box fitted.
If you are using one, note the level as well as the bay. "Level three, row F" is a useful memory; "row F" alone is not.
Does it matter on a short trip?
Less, because you are more likely to remember where you left it. Two nights is within most people's recall; a fortnight is not.
What still applies on a short trip is the damage side. Trolley bays and tight corners are no safer for two days than for fourteen, and a door opened into your wing costs the same either way.
What if the car park allocates a bay?
Some sites direct you to a specific space, particularly at peak times. In that case the choice is made for you and there is nothing to optimise.
The photograph still matters. An allocated bay in a full car park is exactly the situation where every row looks identical on the way back.
At off-airport sites that take your keys, none of this applies — the car is parked by staff and brought back to you.
The habit worth forming
Photograph the bay number, the row marker and the level before you walk away.
Ten seconds when you park saves twenty minutes when you return. It is the single highest-value thing in this article and almost nobody does it.
Add a photograph of all four sides of the car while you are there, and you have covered both the finding problem and the damage problem in the same two minutes.
Compare car parks for your dates at Manchester, Stansted or Luton — then let the bay choice do the rest, because it is free.
