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.

Did Pontins ever have a good name ? I always thought it was a poor man's Butlins?

@Mrsjayy the Blackpool one was bulldozed 10 plus years ago, only thing for it!

@Lincslady53 I didn't realise the Britannia hotel people ran them.. that says a lot. I remember an article in our local paper about a year ago that said the Britannia in our city has some sort of court order on it that allows police to enter any room immediately with no warrant because of the number of children/ teenage girls that are taken there by adult men . Staff clearly turn a blind eye. Disgusting place.

I went as a teenager to one maybe ainsdale i dont know. Rooms were basic but not dirty everything was clean. However the nightlife was shocking, adults whom disproportionately seemed to have tags on their ankles drunk and fighting whilst kids ran around everywhere. We left sharpish, stayed for 2 days but didnt go for nightlife the 2nd night. Was about 10 years ago.

Bleugh. I agree with pps, I feel ill just reading some of those reviews and looking at the pictures!

I’ve got no problem with cheap and cheerful- Butlin’s or Haven completely fine - but those Pontins places just look disgusting - not cheerful at all!

The first thing you want from a holiday place is for it to be clean for goodness sake!

Do people who experience this complain to other than Pontins?

It is an absolute dive. Friends of ours recommended the one in camber sands. Their house is spotless all cream and chrome. So we assumed it would at least be clean. We were supposed to be there for 5 days. Didn’t even last 24 hours. The swimming pool smelt of urine, was mould in the soft play, glass in the children’s play area. The food was inedible.
We booked into our apparently ‘gold’ accommodation: someone else’s wet vomit was inside the folded up duvet, pubic hair in the bath, absolute filth everywhere. The double bed tipped over if either person moved as leg was broken. It was a dive. The staff didn’t give a damn. I wrote an email to customer service and they offered us 50% off a return trip. Literally wouldn’t have gone back if they’d paid me to go

Ha! We went a couple of years back. It was an experience. It felt like how i imagine communism to be. Particularly the bit where we had to queue for our bedding and there was a near punch up at the front of the queue

I went to Pontins Prestatyn in the late 2000s and I'm pretty sure the bath, shower, sink etc were standard white colour, not 70s green.

It wasn't luxurious by any means. It's just a good place if you like clubbing as it was a 4-day clubbing bender. I remember it had an electric meter though and we had to insert 50p coins to keep it going!! 2 of us slept in a twin bedroom and the other 2 were on a double sofa-bed in the main room.

I don’t know why Butlins don’t buy the one at Camber. The beach is fantastic and it is far away enough from the Bognor site to make it worth having both. Could be great for Londoners or those from Kent to have a break.

@GameSetMatch bulldozered it was. For the best just get rid of all evidence 😂

God only knows I remember going to one in Blackpool when I was 10 or so and my mum cried all week

Oh god the 50p meter

I’ve been twice, once when I was supporting a vulnerable adult whose wish it was to visit Southport pontins. It was a dump. I couldn’t work out why I was so cold at night.. I pulled back the dirty nets to find a bullet hole in the glass. The wind off the beach was blowing through!! Stupidly, went a second time to rhyll with my young family. That was even worse than Southport. It was a complete shit hole. We left after the first night. I couldn’t stand it. It was like a scene from shameless.

I unwittingly went a few years ago with my 2 toddlers. Was dubious before I even went into reception to be honest. Then the reception desk was sticky. Was given the key to apartment and was scared before I even went inside, the windows were so cloudy you couldn't see through them and as we walked inside your feet made a loud noise sticking to the floor. The mattresses and quilts were threadbare and had brown stains all over, the whole place stank, and the cooker was absolutely filthy. I was brought up going to caravan sites for our main holiday, however Pontins is not comparable to anything I've ever seen or stayed in, I was shocked to be honest! I went back to the reception and was told no refunds. Got straight in car and came home. The whole place is a health hazard. Yes it's cheap, but it should still be clean and functional.

My best friend and I took DS when he was about 3 to Pontins Camber Sands. It took us 6 hours to get there (for a two hour journey) as there had been a massive accident on the M25. We should’ve turned back then. We arrived at 6pm and it was absolute carnage, NOWHERE to park anywhere near our ‘chalet’ and it was rammed full of shouting drunk people and out of control kids on their scooters until midnight screaming. Softplay filthy, swimming pool too grim to even consider, playgrounds full of dogshit. Room filthy, all just awful. Didn’t even attempt the food. DH came down the following day to stay one night with us, he couldn’t believe how awful it was and totally refused to leave the chalet once we were in. We left early on the Sunday and vowed never to return. It honestly was the most disgusting place I have ever been.

These comments are making me laugh 🤣 yeah it is a complete shit hole ,we had a four day break at pretatyn when I was on maternity leave with ds2 we were skint ,I must have very low standards because I quite enjoyed it despite the grimness, also stayed at the Southport one for a night ,it was ridiculously cheap which was the only reason I went 😂

Bloody hell, I didn't realise Pontins was still in existence. I went to one in 1999 and it was horrendous back then. Filthy, mould on the shower curtain, freezing cold, awful clubhouse full of drunks. Going by these reviews, nothing has changed!

@X2boys you are lucky you didn't catch dysentry something it is cheap but far from cheerful !

Why don't they charge more and actually run it properly? Even if they doubled the price, it would still be cheap. I'd love to get my hands on it!!

Christ I didn't think everyone would agree. It's just so wild there. But some people seem to really enjoy it. They have no evening entertainment anymore other than a movie until 6pm.
Then the entertainment ends, so people have been having their own raves or party's whatever you want to call them outside the chalets at night time.
Music blazing smoking and drinking kids running wild at midnight. I would attach videos if I could because I don't think a normal person would believe it's like that down there.

This is a screen shot of the video. Looks like something out of shameless

Another shot. One is Pontins one is Butlins.

It makes me sad that Pontins has gone so far downhill. I used to holiday there as a kid. The last time I went to Brean Sands was 1990. Looking at the photos on trip advisor it does t look like they have updated anything since then!!!

We went to the one in Southport around 10 or 11 years ago. The “apartment” was very shabby. Half of the suspension springs on the sofa bed were missing so we were effectively sleeping on the floor & the bathroom window didn’t close properly. The TV didn’t pick up any sort of signal at all.

The staff were trying their best, the entertainment staff weren’t too bad at all. It was just the whole place was so dirty, shabby & broken looking. I was amazed it was still trading then but even more amazed that from recent photos on Tripadvisor/FB etc the apartments don’t seem to have been renovated at all since!

Growing up I thought Pontins was akin to Butlins & Haven. But as time has gone by Butlins & Haven have evolved and Pontins has stayed firmly in the 70’s.