I have never had a van (well not for window cleaning) with a tailgate, but it would definitely put me off. I have quite a few customers who's parking situation round about their property would make it extremely awkward, if not impossible to do. Yesterday alone i did 2 properties, one was on a busy street and i just managed to squeeze my transit connect into a gap, if it had a tailgate, i wouldnt have been able to open it due to the distance between my van and the 4x4 behind me. With my barn doors, i can manage with a space of about 1' behind me if necessary. At the 2nd property i was in a small village car park, reversed in against the Chinese restaurant/takeaway who's windows i was doing. With a tailgate, i would have had to go so far forward to get the tailgate open, i would have been impeding the flow of other traffic in and out of the car park. Yes, i could have parked nose in, but it would have been very awkward indeed to get my hose around the building.