to be incredibly annoyed with Butlins right now

[bearfrills]

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 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?

Is that the response to an email you sent to James?

Hi xxxxxxxxxxx,

Guest Services have asked me to pass on a message that if you’re OK to pop into Gold Reception tomorrow they’ll be able to sort a little something for you. I hope that's ok.

Many thanks,

James Silverstone

PR & Social Media Manager

It's good to talk:01442 203137

Something nice to send:1 Park LaneIHemel HempsteadIHertsIHP2 4YL

Did I understand this right - he still really thinks that's an adequate response??! Nowhere close.

Well...

• defensive
• dismissive

Nice. NOT the way to do business. I'm not sure what recompense the op should get, but maybe someone taking it seriously, looking into the way it was handled and explaining what went wrong. Not defensive slithery 'pretend to apologise but take no responsibility' rubbish.

No one is impressed by the carefully chosen words that refuse to acknowledge that a room in that state, for DAYS is anything other than disgusting.

To think I was going to check butlins out for an end of season holiday. Ugh.

That's disgusting!

We went to Butlins once and will never return. We spent our first day waiting in reception to be moved as they put us in a second floor room despite telling them when booking we needed ground floor as DS is disabled.

We also booked the bear to visit the room at considerable cost as it was a birthday treat and they missed one of the children out when they gave out the goody bags. Offered a different teddy for the missed child in return but kids don't really work like that so second day was spent consoling DD.

Third day we tried using our pre-booked activity passes to find most of the activities were not accessible to disabled DS so we asked them to swap the passes for activities that he could do, as the vouchers are activity specific, and they refused so that was money completely wasted.

Every complaint we made was brushed off and the promises to return phone call etc. never happened. Would not return if you paid me now!

Oh and as a further warning to anyone booking, make sure you give them fake contact details!

It's been a year since we went and despite our complaints and me specifically asking them to remove me from their mailing list, I am continuously bombarded with letters, emails and text messages asking me to book again.

OP... did you just accidently leave your personal address at the bottom of that last post?

That's Butlins correspondence address (had to triple check there!)

BearFrills what happened in the end?

I'm currently sat Ina silver apartment and it's terrible. We were here last year and had no problems.

This year we turned up and the beds unmade and broken. A massive bit of metal sticking out which could have, quite literally, killed one of the children.

The carpets are disgusting, there's dry sick outside, there's dust and hair everywhere and the toilets broken

I took the grill out to do toast and the grill was covered in the previous persons bacon/whatever far.

*fat, not far.

Bump

I should add that the phrase ‘a little something’ was not one I used at any time wow only just seen this....he says he did not use this phrase but look at op.

I'm still waiting for a response

I emailed my complaint and had no response, not even an acknowledgement it had been received. So I emailed the CEO and almost straight away got a reply from the feedback team saying my complaint had been received. It's apparently been passed to the correspondence team and I'll get a response in due course not holding my breath

DUCKS, that is shocking! What did guest services say? Drop James a tweet too, going public seemed to be the only way to get anything sorted. Hope you've been moved to a clean room at the very least

Hey James, you still reading? PM DUCKS please...

Wow pretty bad PR for butlins on this thread.

I can't believe they still haven't sorted out your complaint op.

I work in PR and I'm sorry James, but you suck at this game.

Think I'd prefer a holiday at Sellifield.

I went to Sellafield when I was 12. I had a Time Out bar for the very first time, they were new. Good times

what was the little something? No real response yet>! staggering.

The little something was £104 which was nice (and I said this in the email to them) but not nice enough considering that four days of my five day holiday were spent sorting this out.

Yes, flowers, champagne and some other free stuff thrown in....

dreaful!

I d

Sorry I'm posting for my phone.

I went to the Guest House and complained in the most British apologetic way that I could. And kicked my arse on the way out because he said he'd send a hous keeper round.
He/she got rid of the Bathroom Hairs but I'd fixed/cleaned the rest and there's still sick outside the front door.

I gently asked if I could get anything back and he said 'a house keeper'.

It cost over £100 a night to stay here and it's bey

Fucking phone!

Can't tweet as I'm not a twitter user. Damn!

I thought by now that you should have received a FULL refund OP.

Its put me off booking and I was seriously thinking about going.

This is diabolical.

To be honest, I would completely bypass James and the resort and link this thread to the top management.

This has absolutely put me RIGHT OFF even considering Butlins. I hope the top bods read all this thread and take note of just how many people have either-

A. Already experienced shoddy rooms/services
B. Have been put off. Not to mention the loss of recommendation to family/friends.

Do they not "get" that it's this type of thing is what really matters?? Or do they get it and not give a shit?

I'd have been mightily impresses had James sorted a room upgrade, a heartfelt apology in person and a full refund. A quick resolution is crucial especially when social media is involved.

As it stands, the damage has been done and is irreversible. Missed a trick there Butlins, missed a BIG trick.

Talk about shafting your company's bread and butter.