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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to be incredibly annoyed with Butlins right now

206 replies

bearfrills · 14/07/2014 21:44

I've come to Butlins with DH and the DC2 staying in gold accommodation with a premium meal plan.

We arrived today and got into our room at 3pm. By 3.15pm I had to contact maintenance and guest services about the state of the room.

  • floors not hoovered and covered in various bits of stuff, including discarded loom bands which my 2yo immediately picked up and put in her mouth
  • dead insects on the floor next to the windows in the living room
  • I had to clean poo off the toilet seat and back of the toilet before DD could go for a wee
  • old, used hair rollers in the cupboard
  • rollie cigarette butts shoved in the lock of another cupboard
  • security chain on the front door broken
  • shower pipe/hose leaking, a stream not drops
  • lino on the kitchen floor curling right up (4 yo has tripped on it at least four times)

We complained to reception who said they would get it sorted ASAP, today, before we got back this evening. Well we've gotten back this evening and it's not sorted. You'd think that given we had a specific list of complaints they'd have made sure they were all addressed? Nope. Came back to the room to dead insects still there, floor still make, lino still curling, cig butts still in situ and 2yo immediately found yet another frigging loom band. They've been in because the rollers are gone and the shower and door are mended.

I'm so angry Sad I've been looking forward to this holiday, our first since I had DS2 and it's gotten off to such a sour note.

It's Butlins. I don't expect mints on the pillows and flowers in every room but AIBU to expect it to at least be clean and serviceable rather than grotty and dirty and grim like we found it today?

OP posts:
Original poster
bearfrills · 14/07/2014 21:45

DC2 = dcs

OP posts:
GoringBit · 14/07/2014 21:50

YANBU at all, that all sounds completely unacceptable... complain again, keep complaining, escalate if you need to. Hope your holiday goes better from here.

Thenapoleonofcrime · 14/07/2014 21:53

That sounds completely unacceptable for whatever type of holiday, it should be hygienic and safe which it isn't. Can you go to reception in person and start to get arsey (or icily polite if you can manage that)?

SomeSortOfDeliciousBiscuit · 14/07/2014 21:58

Complain again at reception and refuse to move until they do something about it. Tweet about it. Post to their Facebook page. Make such a huge fuss that they deal with it just so they don't have to deal with you anymore.

MamaPain · 14/07/2014 22:03

YANBU and I would insist on a new room as well as possibly some other kind of freebie because you haven't been able to enjoy your time there so far.

Can you mention contacting head office or something similar, I don't know how it works there but talk bout going to whoever is higher up the chain.

Original poster
bearfrills · 14/07/2014 22:06

My 3G signal is rubbish, might have to wait until tomorrow when we're out and about to tweet them a link to this thread. DH says he's going to go have words in the morning and get it sorted. On a scale of one to 'going to use our toothbrushes to clean the loo', how much are they going to hate us...?

OP posts:
SueDunome · 14/07/2014 22:26

This is only a guess but it appears that the maintenance department have visited and fixed the broken things, but you now need to wait for the guest services (or domestic services) to come out and do the cleaning. Be prepared for them to wake you b early in the morning, as that is probably when they work.

Birdsgottafly · 14/07/2014 22:33

I used to do Chalet cleaning in Pontins.

The cleaners go in, in groups and if a Chalet wasn't on the list, it didn't get done, because the guests weren't leaving etc.

There has been a mix up, but it should of been sorted out in the day, we used to do 8-5pm, so were available to sort out any mix up.

Have you taken photos?

There should be an acting manager at least, around first thing.

Decide what you want as recompense.

The head of housekeeping as fucked up royally.

SistersOfPercy · 14/07/2014 23:17

This happened to us years ago in skegness, unfortunately we'd arrived late so when we found our room with it's broken lightbulbs (glass over all floors), blood stained bedding with hairs, no heating (it was about March) and drunk lads hammering on the window at 3am there was little we could do. We slept in chairs in our clothes.

Dh went to reception the following morning, there were lots of families waiting to check in. He loudly informed them of the state of the accommodation and he was ushered into a room and given the keys for a top of the range caravan and a 'vip pack' which was basically a hamper.

We moved into the caravan,I opened the tea pot to make a brew and was met with a pot full of mouldy tea bags.

Never, ever again.

Muddlewitch · 14/07/2014 23:24

Their Twitter and Facebook feed are well monitored, I have had quick and helpful responses on there. Might be worth a go as they won't want to look bad.

ICanSeeTheSun · 14/07/2014 23:25

Make sure you take photo of the mess.

notapizzaeater · 14/07/2014 23:28

That's Awful, I'd be tweeting like mad

itiswhatitiswhatitis · 14/07/2014 23:33

This happened to us at centre parcs, to be fair they sent a cleaning team straight away and posted a £50 restaurant voucher through the door.

I agree it sounds like maintenance has been but not the cleaning team. Keep complaining until it's sorted

Crazeeladee · 14/07/2014 23:37

Well that's me decided, I've kept considering going, but these stories have put me right off! It sounds horrible! First thing in the morning go down and refuse to move until you have been sorted out!

missingmumxox · 14/07/2014 23:38

Er! 3G not great so you can't tweet...so how are you on MN?

maras2 · 14/07/2014 23:43

Absolutely disgusting.How dare they take your hard earned money and not deliver a perfect package.Let's be honest, it's not too hard to clean/maintain a chalet of Butlin proportions is it?Bastards.

itiswhatitiswhatitis · 14/07/2014 23:48

Crazeeladee I confess to being a bit snobby about places like Butlins but was strong armed into going at Easter and have to say was quite impressed. Our accomadation was clean and the food in the premium dining was good. Kids loved everything about it.

I think it sounds like there has been a fuck up with OP chalet but I don't think it's reflective of the whole place

Crazeeladee · 15/07/2014 00:03

itswhat which one did you go to?

Runwayqueen · 15/07/2014 00:36

This happened to me at the minehead site. Paid extra for a better room, got there and it was filthy and dire. Was given a new room, generally cleaner but bedding hadn't been changed. I complained, we were refunded and drove home that night. Hmm

Amy106 · 15/07/2014 03:34

OP, I hope they put things right for you tomorrow and you can still enjoy your holiday.

goats · 15/07/2014 04:32

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

whatsbehindthegreendoor · 15/07/2014 05:34

That's really unusual for Butlins nowadays. We go there a lot (to the Bognor and Minehead camps) and we've never had accommodation in that state. We once complained because we went on an adult weekend and, as a couple, were put in the middle of a whole group of blokes who thought it would be fun to stay up until 7am shouting and fighting with each other. We complained the next day and were put into better accommodation away from them.
It really is worth going back and complaining again - whenever we've had a problem, no matter how small, they've always sorted it straight away. If you go onto Twitter or Facebook, you'll find that the Butlins reps on there are always extremely quick to respond.
Hope you get this sorted soon.

HappyAsASandboy · 15/07/2014 06:33

We went to Butlins a few weeks ago and were really impressed. Stayed in a Gold apartment and were really impressed with the standard - it was basic, but clean and tidy and functional. Housekeeping came daily and cleaned, made beds, washed up (!) etc and everything worked.

Complain and ask for a new room (unless replacing would be a real pain). Don't let it spoil your holiday.

Original poster
bearfrills · 15/07/2014 06:53

missingmum, you get 15mins of free wifi access a day which I used to post here (I used their free wifi to slap them off on the Internet Blush ) and once that wore off I was relying on the 3G which is patchy at best. My last post took me eight attempts to send so decided Twitter would have to wait until today as couldn't be bothered with the faff of hanging out a window at precisely 48 degrees of rotation pointing myself north by North west and waggling one arm to get a signal Wink

Normally we love Butlins, we came last year and the year before as it's ideal for the kids and we found it really good value for money. We've been silver before and gold before, this is the first year we've had any problems with our accommodation (which probably makes the disappointment worse as we were expecting it to be just as good a standard as before). We've never found Butlins to be dirty before now and generally they really do pride themselves on putting things right so I can't figure out what's happened this time.

mamapain's comment about not being able to enjoy our time here yet sums it up really well. It's been a long, tiring few months and I was really looking forward to getting away for a break, I think I was even more excited than the kids, then within ten minutes of getting into the room I had to go stick my head in the fridge so they wouldn't see me crying (to be fair though, I have a 4mo baby so I'm still a bag of hormones).

Going to tweet them a link to the thread and DH is away along to reception when they open.

OP posts:
x2boys · 15/07/2014 07:28

which one did you go to op we went to Skegness at half term in the silver apartments it was fine I could nt use there free wifi though as it would not allow me to load up we were going to pay to use the wifi but we couldn't even get on the sight to try and pay for it I have been before and I think its ok for what it is.