In a Haven holiday... hell

[Mandybrighton]

Urgh. I am currently in a Haven Park about a hour away from home with my two boys and never thought I would actually crave to go home!

We stayed at this park in the summer and enjoyed it so much I decided to bring us back for the October half term. This time I booked a ‘ luxury lodge’ and it’s cost just under £800 😫.

For this price I was expecting something extra nice. However it’s basically just a jumbo sized caravan with the same furniture and fixtures that the previous ‘ deluxe’ caravan had. The only difference is 2 showers instead of one, a larger dining table and a larger outside area. Okay fair enough it didn’t live up to the expectation I thought on checking in but it gets worse...

When we arrived at the check in time they advertise I drove round to find repairs still
Being carried out to the ‘ lodge’. Okay not great as with two kids and just me I didn’t feel comfortable to start unloading everything in so they delayed us.

Upon placing things in their rooms and kitchen and so on I notice the cookware is thick in the previous people’s food and greasy. Then I see there’s a pubic hair in one of the showers. Then o walk into the bedroom to see BLOOD smeared on the wall by one of the beds... I called reception and explained. A cleaner turns up and removes the blood, and exchanges the manky cookware for clean ones.

Then the accomadation ‘ manager ‘ comes in all smiley and very dismissive saying to me well we aren’t responsible for the previous people staying and my cleaner said it was a bogey. I told him I had taken photos and it wasn’t a bogey. I explained this is supposed to be ‘ luxury’ and it’s not. He apologised but said ‘ well we got it sorted for you very quickly ‘ with a cheesy grin and a couldn’t give a toss attitude... I said you wouldn’t expect these standards and how could a cleaner miss it !?? That it made me feel sick and for the price I paid .. it was a let down.

When he left I emailed head office and sent them some photos. I said in the email I hoped to find nothing else but going to bed last night I went to pull back my duvet to feel something crusty and old ( looked like food ) on the corner of the duvet...

Also when I moved one of the smaller beds to Male way for my son’s travel cot again noticed stains on the sheets. If I don’t sleep like this at home why on earth have I paid £800 just under for this experience...

I’m
Gutted ... they don’t care with the well we fixed it attitude.. I’m planning to go home early. What I didn’t know and what he never told me is that Haven do have a gurantee that if your not happy with your standard of place you can go home the same day and recurve a refund. Well I didn’t know that and we have stayed now..

Some things I have found after the Intital email to head office. Shall I email again with the other things ? I just feel dirty in here and I expected way better. No where that I have ever stayed in had had someone’s blood there for us to walk into too..

😖😖😖😖🙂

If it's a cloudy day make certain you don't go to the pool. The changing rooms come with a shitty nappy in the corner and a sanitary towel stuck to the wall as standard.

At least at Allhallows the pool area is cheered up by at least two mothers a day having a fight.

Someone shit on the water slide at Devon cliffs 😮, staff handled it like a regular occurrence.

My dd was sick in the pool in Blackpool Pontins. Obviously I took her straight out and reported it to the staff, immediately.
The pool was cleared out right away and was closed for the whole day if I remember rightly.
There was no messing from them.

OP MN reviews can carry a lot of weight, sometimes threads reach national newspapers, maybe this one will, I'm sure your more than lacklustre experience won't do much for their publicity. Serve them right their standards sounds appalling. Hope you get a refund.

You know, reading these posts about horrendous accommodation, you would think, because more people are holidaying in this country, holiday firms would be upping their game, to keep people coming back. Why aren't they???

Because there really is a Rip Off Britain culture in this country. These sites really, really don't care; if they did, they'd have enough staff and resources to ensure basic cleanliness. But they don't. Instead, they do the bare minimum to get people in and out for as much as they can charge, especially at term break times where they can charge more and not even pretend to do better. £800 for a poorly maintained, no doubt filthily and thinly-mattressed, actually dirty caravan pretending it's 'luxury' is a prime example.

But people keep going, so things don't change.

We haven't, by the way. Nope, nope, nope. The holiday Havens and Butlins etc all look filthy and like our idea of hell, so we haven't ever visited. But we know people who have and the stories have been very mixed.

Exactly Beware.

Our room in Crete this year wasn’t what we’d booked and was very unsuitable.

One phone call and it was sorted.

Perhaps you’d say that’s not to be unexpected, after all that’s what hotels are for.

The phone call was at 1am. It was followed up by another call half an hour later to make sure we were ok and a meeting first thing the following morning.

You can holiday at Haven for a lot less if you use the sun voucher codes.

That said someone I know had a holiday from hell at a Pontins through that with a blood stained room too.

Complain on their social media pages, they will soon sort it out

Sounds horrible. We had a trip once to Pontins in Camber Sands and we thought it would be like Butlins, that we had already been to. It was so dirty and disgusting and everything looked cheap and nasty. We honestly didn't even want to bring our bags in but the kids don't notice this stuff and they were so excited we couldn't do it to them. Would never go again though! Keep on at them, they need to refund you.

Another one for social media. Sadly I sent one company email after email after email, only to be ignored.

I write on FB, they were on the phone within an hour.

@GabsALot that's not right. To successfully prosecute a drunk driver the offence must occur at a place that the public has unfettered access to. Warnings, signs etc can prove it's not public. In this case though the man did leave the site at least once and we saw his car pull into the pub car park up the road from Church Farm when we went for a walk (to get away from his ranting down the phone) and called police but they didn't come. He reappeared at his van soon after, by car.

@MrsWombat we had exactly the same at Church Farm - couldn't get a seat at the Halloween night as it was standing room only - it was heaving! We only stayed one night for the reason I mentioned and couldn't stay for the entertainment as standing with two pre schoolers for the evening wasn't appealing.

Have you managed to get any sort of resolution OP?
We've been to a couple of Haven sites - Wild Duck and Seashore. at wild duck I paid for a platinum van and it was beautiful, clean, fresh, airy and all the good things. The site itself was much cleaner and more pleasant than Seashore too. Having said that, we've never had a terrible experience there either, it's just slightly more grubby looking than Wild Duck.
My friends and I went on one of those "back to the 90s" weekends at pontins last year. The place was quite dirty and it was small, the pillows and duvet provided were both paper thin too. As it was a dirt cheap 2 night piss up with friends it was fine, but I'd have hated to have been there for a family holiday

I went to Haven at Hayle in Cornwall during the summer and I have to "stick-up" for Haven and say that the park and caravan were spotless. The linen (pre-ordered) was crisp and clean, pots, pans and crockery were squeaky clean. Maybe I.was just lucky but I was impressed.

I used to work at Haggerston, and knowing the corners they wanted staff to cut in order to save a few pennies, I would never, never stay at any Haven park. I spent most of my working hours apologising for all the rubbish going on, with absolutely no support from higher-ups. They just didn't want to know, or told you to stop wasting your time if you tried to help a guest.

I had to come back and correct my earlier post (which is probably page one and forgotten :-) ).

I said I'd had a holiday with Haven in Cornwall. I didn't, just checked and it Hoseasons - Seaview Holiday Park in Polperro, near Looe. Sorry about that. It was many years ago and was lovely at the time. Don't know what it is like now.

OP, hope you get your refund. Your experience was ghastly!

I am surprised at PP's complaining about Ayr

So am I, we went at Easter and it was great. The pool and changing rooms were spotless when we went. In fact I’ve not had a bad experience at a Haven yet.

OP I’d go back to that ‘manager’ and ask to speak to their superior. That van sounds revolting

OP MN reviews can carry a lot of weight, sometimes threads reach national newspapers

Actually this is old news and was covered continuously with Watchdog

Just had a weekend at Haven Hopton and could not fault it.

Sounds exactly like our experience in the summer! I paid £2200 for 2 weeks in a caravan. We had to wait an hour past our check in time for our caravan to be finished ‘cleaning’. The floors were filthy. Like you said, the crockery was all thick with grease and filthy, so I had to wash the lot. The front door wasn’t on properly so there was a cm gap in the top right corner that let a draught in all night, making it freezing. The window in the bathroom didn’t stay open and the extractor fan didn’t work. Hairs in the shower and muck on the floor.
There were cupboard doors hanging off. The dustpan was smashed to bits and there was no broom. There was barely any cutlery and no sharp knives.
The on-site staff said someone would be round when they were free and never came. It’s safe to say we won’t be back, plus when I emailed head office I got no response.

I think for that money, I'd be 'getting my moneys worth' out of the cleaners tbh. Keep calling them back untill it's is clean.
I think it's a bit sad to rob the boys of their holiday

Haven, butlins, center Parcs. They are all a massive rip off. For the same money you could be holidaying in Spain in the sun including your flights. Seriously, the same money. Why do people do it? They only get away with it because they are so popular they know the poor reviews won't stop people coming.

If you leave without informing reception and giving haven a chance at correcting this issue then I don't think you stand any chance of getting a refund.

You need to address the issues before you consider leaving.

maybe send head office a link to this thread ....no one is going to book a Haven hols ever again..

I went to Haven in various Wales locations all the time as a kid, it was always nice.

Clearly it has gone downhill since then!