Almost every transfer company publishes how many people a vehicle seats. Very few publish how many suitcases it takes. Those are different numbers, and the second one is what goes wrong at the kerb.
Booking a transfer usually goes like this: count the people, pick the vehicle with at least that many seats, done.
That works until the boot is open at arrivals and there is one suitcase too many.
Seat count and luggage count are two separate limits, and a vehicle can pass the first and fail the second. Most companies only publish the first. Here are both of ours, and what the numbers mean once you are standing next to the car.
The Actual Figures
| Vehicle | Passengers | Suitcases |
|---|---|---|
| Mercedes-Benz V-Class | 4 | 4 |
| Mercedes-Benz Vito | 6 | 8 |
| Mercedes-Benz Sprinter | 13 | 15 |
Two things stand out.
The Vito takes more bags than people. It is the only one where luggage capacity exceeds seat capacity, because the rear row can be left folded when you are five or fewer. That flexibility is why it handles most bookings.
The V-Class carries fewer than the Vito. It has fewer seats and less boot space, but individual captain seats and considerably more room per person. It is the comfortable choice, not the capacious one. If you are four adults with four large cases on a long journey, it is right. If you are four adults with six cases, it is not, and the Vito is.
What Counts as a Suitcase
Our figures assume a standard large checked case, roughly 75 cm tall. What passengers actually arrive with varies more than that.
A cabin bag is not free. Two people with two checked cases and two cabin bags are carrying four pieces, not two. Cabin bags go in the boot with everything else once the seats are occupied.
Oversized items count as more than one. A golf bag, skis, a surfboard, a large musical instrument, a cot: each of these occupies the space of two or three normal cases and often cannot be laid flat. Tell us at booking. It is not an upsell, it is so the right vehicle turns up.
Duty free is real luggage. The shopping at Istanbul Airport is extensive and passengers use it. Two large carrier bags of it are two more pieces to fit.
Pushchairs and car seats need declaring. A folded pushchair is roughly a suitcase. A car seat is roughly a suitcase and also needs a seat to strap into, which reduces your passenger count by one.
Where It Goes Wrong
The failure is almost never at the maximum. Nobody tries to put nine cases in a Vito. It goes wrong in the middle, and always the same way.
Four adults book a vehicle for four, having each packed for two weeks. That is four large cases, four cabin bags and whatever was bought at the airport. On paper it fits four people. In practice the boot is full before the fourth case goes in.
At that point the options are all bad. Bags on laps for an hour. A second vehicle at short notice, which costs more than booking correctly would have. Or a passenger travelling separately.
None of it is dramatic. All of it is avoidable at the booking screen, which is why we ask for luggage count as well as passenger count, and why the number you enter changes which vehicles you are shown.
Winter and Summer Are Different Trips
The same four people book differently in January than in July.
Winter luggage is bigger and heavier: coats, boots, layers. A family that fitted comfortably in August will be tight in February with the same headcount. If you are booking a winter arrival and you were borderline last time, size up.
The same applies to long stays. Anyone travelling for three weeks or relocating is carrying a different volume than a weekend visitor, regardless of how many of them there are.
Group Bookings
Above six passengers you are into the Sprinter, which takes 13 people and 15 cases. That is a genuine step up in capacity, not a marginal one, and for a group of eight or nine it is usually cheaper than two smaller vehicles.
The threshold worth knowing: at seven passengers a Vito is no longer an option regardless of luggage, because of the seats. At six passengers with a lot of luggage it may also not be an option, because of the bags. Both limits are real and either one can be the binding one.
What We Would Ask You to Do
Count the pieces, not the people. Include cabin bags. Include the pushchair. Include what you expect to buy at the airport.
Then enter that number honestly at booking. An accurate luggage count costs nothing and takes a second. An inaccurate one is discovered at the kerb, at night, with a queue of cars behind the driver, and by then the only fixes are expensive.
Vehicles are assigned from what you tell us. Tell us the real number and the right car arrives.
