What is going on at Pontins?

[Mojodojocasahaus]

Southport Pontins to close now. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-67874319

Just tried to see what the family breaks looked like out of curiosity and only adults only available at Pakefield or Sandbay

We've got a holiday home in camber, pontine was a shit hole for years, I would imagine the others are the same.

Classic owned by Brittania group now and they are notorious for not investing any money into their buildings they have ruined several well known hotels

Britannia happened. All their hotels are shit and they don’t give a toss. The papers are always full of Pontins horror stories.

It's falling apart

Pontine at brean sands has been closed to house people working at the hinckley point power plant

Tbf it's been a shit hole for years

Ah it’s so sad isn’t it. I wonder if it’s going to be adults only now.

Holiday camps are a unique part of British social history. Britannia must be shits, Butlins seems to be doing ok.

Pontins at Ainsdale is like a prison camp - the reviews online are the worst I've ever seen for anywhere!

Have stayed at both south port and the in Wales near Rhyl and they were both shit holes

Whilst Butlins isn't everybody's cup of tea ,they do.if invest money and kids love it compared to Pontins its like a luxury resort

We went there on a Sun holiday 30 years ago (our DS was a baby and we were skint). It was a shithole then. We stayed one night and left. We only stayed cos we’d driven about 4 hours and were too tired to drive home.

i’ve never stayed anywhere as filthy dirty! It probably still has the same dirt there now. No wonder it’s closing.

Shame for the staff though.

There’s still loads of decent sites.
Haven are doing ok, Butlins are now closer to Center Parcs than they are to Pontins

We went past it to get to the beach and I thought it was an army barracks til I saw the sign. Absolute shithole.

Butlin's is a million miles from pontins, even in the lowest level chalets. It's not a cheap holiday.

Pontins was too cheap and they didn't invest. Trip advisor for camber sands makes very interesting reading.

We did a very cheap holiday (I think we paid £60 for a week for 5 of us at peak holiday season) at Pontin's a couple of years ago.

My review would be:

1. £2 a night/person is probably about £1.99 more than it was worth.
2. It's perfect if you like to listen to other people's music from 8am to about 2am every day.
3. Being woken by the security guard when things had finally got quiet because there'd been a report of domestic violence somewhere but they didn't know where was... um... perhaps if I say not the best bit of the holiday.
4. It did increase my dc's appreciation of our parenting. Dd1 and ds (independently) wanted to call the police on a couple of incidents they'd witnessed within the first hour of arrival. Unfortunately they had no idea who the children/parents were except they were on site somewhere.
5. If you want to save money on cigarettes, you can passive smoke the entire time. I've never seen a 12yo chain smoking before, and there were several of around that age or younger. None of the doors or windows seem to fit properly so all the rooms stank.
6. I assume they don't bother with cleaners. At least you don't get that level of filth in a room without some dedicated non-cleaning.
7. Customer service was very polite, which was probably the best part. Unfortunately they did absolutely nothing. Ours was a flashing light just behind our rooms. The curtains didn't cover the windows so when it was dark the whole flat flashed like there was a police car outside. We told customer service every day at least once. Every day at least once they promised to send someone immediately to sort it. We drove past nearly a year later after dark and were amused to see the light still flashing, and yes, it was definitely the same one. We sneaked on site to verify it.

We go to Butlin's frequently and would have none of those complaints (also don't only pay £60!)

Is that the one with the upstairs swimming pool that was quite deep and so dirty that I couldn't see my child when he dived down to the bottom?

To be fair I’ve just read the latest reviews and Southport looked horrific

Our old Butlins was bought out Hafan y Mor Pwllheli.

Our Pontins Prestatyn was closed down. Not before there was a murder there.

Brittania run the Grand Hotel in Llandudno, it's grim now.