To ask how Pontins is still able to trade?

[pinkpetal2]

So I used to go as a child/teen to the Camber Sands Pontins resort last went in 2009. From 2005 now it has become so bad across each resort.

The reviews on trip advisor are terrible absolute shambles. Yet people still go? I understand it's very very cheap for a week. However the place isn't safe, management have told people to go away when you make complaints and they don't seem to ever be in trouble anywhere?

Watchdog have done reports, environmental health have carried out reports yet it still stands

Last year a ceiling collapsed on to people and injured 18 people at Brean sands and they are still thriving with bookings.

The whole place is really run down the accommodation is infested with bed bugs and mice it's really sad. They still have the green baths and sinks etc from the 70s.

I just don't understand how they are still operating? Every post I see from their Facebook groups are full of complaints and people walking away. I find it bizarrely fascinating to read.

When we last went in 2009 a manager we spoke to said they was being left to be run in to the ground so they could say it doesn't work anymore, knock them down and place hotels there.

I know people take the mick out of Butlins but I feel they really do provide a nice British seaside holiday experience and have fantastic entertainment, with Covid they have made a festival type outdoor entertainment thing at the moment it looks great.

Pontins have rooms that haven't been cleaned in months full of mice droppings? And you still have to pay for electric and bedding. I just wondered if any one has ever worked for them or knows how they get away with treating customers like this? It's been years now and hasn't changed.

Someone must like them.....

I don’t understand how they haven’t been closed down by the environmental health.

I've no idea it's really sad. People are paying about £130 for a weeks holiday turning up and then leaving and being told sorry no refunds.
That's all the money they may have and have tried to get a break as it's promised as cheap and cheerful to turn up to this, and be more a less sent home again.

I've looked at what Butlins and Park Dean etc and Haven have done to be Covid safe and it's really well thought out. Pontins have done fuck all. People have been opening their rooms with the safety seals on and breaking the seal to a dirty room???. It's shocking.

I've never been, but the reviews for Brean on TripAdvisor are amusingly bad. Even at under £100 for a week for a family of six, many leave and end up checking into premier inns. Rooms are routinely not cleaned. Honestly, I am itching (figuratively speaking) to go there and oversee housekeeping!

Nostalgia

I wonder why Clark’s kids shoes are so popular, when my experience is that they are neither a particularly cheap, or particularly good quality, I put it down to people buying the shoes their mum used to buy them.

Is it really that cheap? I know where I’m going next year now.

The place is a fucking dump. I have no clue why someone would go there.

We've got a house near pontins camber, too near. It is an absolute shitehole and a danger to public health.

It's very ,very cheap ,yes it's a bit shit and not the cleanest ,but if you don't have a lot of money it's a cheap if somewhat grim getaway

At £100 a week for an apartment sleeping 6 what can you really expect! There’s no way pointing can afford the staff for cleaning. Or probably to replace anything.

My sister went to the one at Ainsdale a few years ago. They literally didnt get further than reception and left. Said it was an absolute hovel.

Does anyone follow Angry People in Local Newspapers? Pontins comes up there a lot. It sounds vile. People have complained about rats, mouldy food in fridges, shit in the bath, the whole shebang.

This is one of my favourite reviews:

www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel_Review-g666384-d664583-Reviews-Pontins_Brean_Sands_Holiday_Park-Burnham_On_Sea_Somerset_England.html#REVIEWS

I honestly don’t get if either. What’s worse is that you then seen them running to the Daily Fail saying how awful it was

Oh, we went to a music weekender at Pontins Camber Sands a few years ago, thinking it would be much like Butlins Minehead. It was not. Fortunately we had sufficient drink and drugs to survive. It's now passed into legend as the Gulag Weekend.

We went years ago in Blackpool with a club for the weekend I ended up covered in bites and vomited for a whole day it was a fecking hole !

The pictures are grim as fuck and I feel ill just looking at them. I think people who read the reviews and still go any way , are hoping and praying that the reviews are left by anal fussy fuckers and that their standards are far too high.

I feel grubby after reading the reviews. It’s so grim.

We went to Pontins several times un the '70s and we had a great time. The last time I went was in about 2000 when I went for a short break to Brean Sands with my neice (who was 7) and sister. It was definitely looking very dated back then but the accommodation although basic was clean and we had a good time. But that was 20 years ago so I can only imagine how crap it is now.

The Blackpool one closed down I'm sure it's. A haven now I shudder every time the advert comes on tv!

I sometimes wonder what sort of person would leave a five star review. It's quite an interesting exploration if you choose to go down that route, esp if you look at their holiday snaps ( distant blurry photos of a solitary seagull perched upon a rubbish bin; family selfies of them all sticking their tongues out; photos of unbelievable inedible slop). It's both disconcerting and quite nice in equal measure, that some people are so easily pleased.

We went and thought we'd arrived a prison camp. And everything was worn and broken and it was filthy. Never again!!

Pontins is owned by the same company as Britannia Hotels. The company policy appears to be to aim for the lowet possible quality in everything they do, so they can offer very cheap deals. They own the Pontins in Southport (Ainsdale) plus the 2 main, long standing hotels in the town. The Prince of Wales and the Scarisbrick. Pontins pool used to be really good 20 odd years ago, used by the local scouts for their annual gala. The Scarisbrick Hotel was used by all the Rotary Clubs and Round Tables for their meetings. The other hotel had a brilliant ballroom for fund raising balls and dinners. All gone. They are now dirty, scruffy places that locals avoid at all costs. How the company keeps going god knows.

They're trading on the good name they had 20+ years ago. There are a lot of people who holidayed at Pontins as kids back in the day who don't realise how far the company has sunk.

I was going to clubbing weekenders at Pontins Prestatyn and camber sands 20 years ago and they were complete shit holes then.

I've heard they are awful but didn't realise they were actually that bad!

I just thought maybe the people I knew had ridiculous standards! Or were actually in bad accommodation because the use the Sun deals.

I need a rabbit hole to disappear down. Pontoons reviews may be it this evening