A Company That Cares – Why The Butlers Keep Coming Back To Venture

The Butler Family

Back in May, after they purchased their 5th vehicle from ourselves at Venture Caravans & Motorhomes, we featured the “caravans and camping mad” Butler family on this very blog. Since then, James Butler has been in touch with his own account of how he and his wife, Katy, came to be customers and their experiences with us to date.

James’ words about why he and his family keep coming back to Venture Caravans & Motorhomes are so great, we just had to publish them. However, before we do, we will just bring you up to speed about who the Butler family are…

As we said, James and Katy are “caravans and camping mad” (their words). The Butler family’s love for caravans and camping is hard to beat. They met through the Caravan Club (now Caravan & Motorhome Club) magazine letters page, they bought their first caravan together just a few months into their relationship, they had a caravan-themed wedding, and they’ve been invited by Bailey to exclusively preview new caravan models.

If the above hasn’t confirmed their love for caravans and camping, the destinations they travel to and the companions they take probably will.

Along with their young daughter, their pet cats and their pet duck, the family have ventured all the way to the Arctic Circle with their caravan. They spent their honeymoon in their caravan. They’ve used their caravan for multiple ski trips in the Alps. They’ve done crazy things like taking their caravan on a tour of Central London, and they’re definitely no strangers to frequent short breaks and weekends away.


The Butlers are familiar faces at our Daventry branch and we love hearing about their latest caravan and camping adventures. Hopefully, you will too. Here’s what James had to say about his experiences with us to date…

“Our journey being Venture Caravan customers started back in 2010. My partner, who had moved in with me after meeting her three months previously via the Caravan Club magazine’s letters page, was being introduced to my caravanning friends on a weekend away. We were at a campsite in Cold Ashby, so only a few miles away from Venture Caravans. However, at this point I didn’t really know about Venture Caravans, so was unaware that they were so close by. Instead, we all headed off to another dealer for a morning out.

Whilst at this other dealer, we saw a Bailey Unicorn Valencia. We both fell in love with the colour scheme and layout. Once home, we soon found out that this was a new model that Bailey had just brought out.
Looking around for prices online, we spotted an advert on eBay that read “limited stock at this price”. We soon confirmed that this was the cheapest in the country that we had seen. Upon clicking on the link, we saw that it was at Venture Caravans. Now I knew how nearby Venture Caravans was, I called up and made an appointment to view the caravan.

Armed with a print out of the eBay advert in my hand, in case anyone tried to quibble about the price, I went along to Venture Caravans’ Daventry branch. This was a new experience for myself and my now wife, as prior to this, we had both only ever bought second hand caravans. Not long after we walked in, Dave Webb, now known affectionately to us as Webby, quickly lightened my wallet and a deposit was left for our first brand new caravan. Many couples buy a new home together as their first significant joint purchase, not for Katy and I! As a caravan-mad couple, we bought the item that brought us together in the first place. I think we must have been amongst the youngest couples to have bought a new caravan from Venture, as we were both in our twenties.


By 2014, we were married and wanted to start a family. Our Bailey Unicorn Valencia was an amazing caravan but Bailey had just launched the GT65 Pegasus range and we really liked the Turin layout. Particularly because the fixed double bed with side dinette was great for us as a couple and then the extra bed was great when a “plus 1” came along.

We headed to the NEC show to see the layout and colour scheme in person. Again we sat down with Webby and crunched the numbers. The deal was coming to a close and Katy said “I would like one more thing thrown in”. There was a look of horror on Webby’s face as it was a pretty good deal anyway. The look on his face soon changed when Katy followed this up with “I would like a cup of tea and a piece of cake!” Webby couldn’t say no to that!

With our honeymoon in May 2014 nearing, the delivery of our caravan from the factory was getting closer and closer to the date we were due to depart for our trip around Europe. Bar our mini moon to Normandy, this was going to be the first time we would be exploring Europe with a caravan and we wanted it to be in our new one. Whilst it was looking like it would be cutting it fine, Webby worked his magic and arranged for the caravan to arrive on time. However, then we got a call…

“Morning James” said Webby, “you may have seen that the caravan workshop had a fire last night.” We had indeed seen that there was a fire. It was in the local news. The workshop had caught fire. “I just wanted to call you to say that your caravan was in the workshop yesterday but was awaiting a part to finish it off so it was moved out to work on another caravan. Your caravan is safe.” What a relief! We were able to enjoy our honeymoon in our new caravan.


A couple of years passed and along came our “plus 1”. We put photos up on social media and Webby had somehow seen. A day after we got home from the hospital we received a congratulations card signed by all the staff. Touched by this, we went up to say thank you and show them all the next generation of customer! Webby was the first person outside of our family to hold our daughter! We knew that Venture Caravans weren’t just our local dealer, they are a dealer that cares and goes beyond expectations.


Our Turin saw many memorable trips. From our honeymoon, to our daughter’s first caravanning holiday, it was even where my wife gave birth to our twins who had miscarried. However, it was time to move on. And we knew what we wanted, the 8 foot wide Pegasus Grande had just been launched.
Venture Caravans didn’t have any in stock but a dealer near Nottingham did and it just so happened we were on holiday towards that direction. So, we went and looked at the Palermo layout.

Bunk beds away from where we sat was very appealing as a cheeky laughing face would always peer around the curtain in the Turin when it was bedtime!

We had a chat with Webby on our return but whilst Venture would be getting stock, they sadly couldn’t match the price from the other dealer. Do we stay with Venture Caravans or try another dealer? A tough choice, but Webby said if we went to the other dealer, Venture Caravans would be happy to take on the warranty for us.


Webby and the others at Venture Caravans knew that sometimes you need to learn from your mistakes. And they were correct. We bought our caravan from the other dealer and it wasn’t a process where the dealer cared. We were just a number. We were on a conveyor belt to get as many customers collecting caravans as possible. They had three lanes where customers came in, they gave you a very quick look around and away you go.

With this other dealer, promises made for items in the deal were a hassle to get, there was no customer care and it left a sour taste in our caravan buying experience. They were polar opposites to the care Venture Caravans give where you are the only one to collect a caravan that morning or afternoon. No rush to get gone. Everything explained and even a walk round video before you collect so you can look back if you missed something on handover day. If Venture Caravans were a supermarket, they would be Marks and Spencer. They aren’t just any caravan dealers…


In between Covid lock downs we were invited by Bailey Of Bristol to see a new Pegasus Grande range. The SE models! Our daughter was photographed for the brochure and our car used for towing shots. A wonderful experience. But we had an insight to the new range and we loved it. The lighter wood interior was the compromise with the Grande and the SE removed that compromise.


When Venture Caravans put up a post on social media saying “just in” with a photo of a Palermo SE, one of the first to be built, Katy was up there like a shot whilst I was at work. I’m not sure the caravan wheels had even got cold! When I got home, Katy showed me a print out of a quote she had done with Webby. “All you have to do is email him and say yes or no”, Katy said to me! We weren’t going to shoot ourselves in the foot by going to a different dealer and we knew this was one of the first ever built in the world. Piggy bank tipped upside down, back of the sofa checked, moths released from the wallet and the deal was done. Click and collect seemed a bit overkill for covid rules, so Webby did click and deliver as Covid had risen up again and tighter laws brought into place.


Another passion that Katy, our daughter and I have is snow! We love it. We took our Turin to the Alps for a ski holiday and took our first Palermo to the Arctic Circle in Sweden and Finland on a mission for some spring time skiing. So our mad idea was to take our second Palermo out in winter to see Father Christmas. Mission achieved!


Experiencing -26℃ and then revisiting in the summer to see 24 hours of daylight, we realised that our Volvo 4×4 was an amazing tow car but wasn’t quite big enough in the boot department. A van would be far better and if we had a pop top roof put in, we could use it for weekends away or Katy to use whilst I do a week’s work.

Again, we stopped in our tracks when we saw a picture that Venture Caravans had posted to its social media channels. This was a van from its own Redline Campers brand. Called the Trekker, it has a pop top roof, a sliding bed but unlike the rest of their vans, it doesn’t have a kitchen. As it’s more like a day van, it’s just what we had in mind.

Just like we had many times before, we went along to Venture Caravans’ Daventry branch to go and have a look. Unfortunately though, the Trekker that Venture had in stock was front wheel drive when we were looking for a four wheel drive vehicle. As we go to a lot of field campsites and snowy locations, this is something we needed. Despite this, the blue colour was perfect.

We knew Venture would have a vehicle for us and in typical Webby style, he said, “We do have a blue 4Motion van unconverted at the top of the yard.” Well that was it, we were sold. Negotiations were made and we were on our way to becoming the owners of a Redline campervan. If someone had said that our tow vehicle and caravan would have come from one dealer, I would have never believed it.


We wanted to tell our story as we’ve had five vehicles from Venture and they are a company that cares. They listen to what the customer wants, they don’t put on the hard sales push and if they say they will do something, they will do it. Every sale is made out to be personal. They don’t operate a conveyor belt and brag about how many caravans and campervans they can shift in a day.

In particular, we’ve had excellent experiences with Webby. He’s been with Venture Caravans for over half his life! 26 years! So he knows his stuff and there is a reason why he has been there that long. He cares!”

Looking to learn more about what we have to offer at Venture Caravans & Motorhomes?

Do you have a question about any of the vehicles we have to offer?

Don’t hesitate to get in touch! You can contact our Daventry branch on 01327 703371 or our Hitchin branch on 01462 452856