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.

My friend and I took our dc ( 6 in total) to the Southport one about 15 years ago , the curtains were hanging off , things were broken and dirty we complained but nothing got sorted despite promises it would. We gave it a clean and just used it as a base and had a good time , the dc didn't notice the dirt. When we got back I wrote a letter of complaint and they sent me vouchers for the value of the holiday . I sent them back and told them we would never be holidaying with pontins again and asked for a cheque . And surprisingly that's what I got . We went to haven the next year - hafan y mor it's lovely there .

I am now reconsidering our October trip to Pontins Camber Sands.

It's cheaper than camping, but I'd rather pay the extra to camp - at least I know the beddings been washed.

I took the kids to camber sands about 5 years ago. It was a filthy shithole full of chavs!! I've never wanted to leave somewhere so much!

@RhubarbBikini

It's cheaper than camping, but I'd rather pay the extra to camp - at least I know the beddings been washed.

Currently you can either take your own bedding or pay £5 per person and you get to keep the bedding as washing it is a bit complicated with Covid. We chose to take our own.

I often see Groupon type deals for £89 for a break. I'm guessing if you are broke and really, really wanting a holiday you might think you can just use it as a base to go to the beach etc. I know some people book holidays and don't check the reviews. They probably assume that a big brand like Pontins will just be clean and basic.

I'm not surprised the cheeky gits have put up their prices since most people are staying in the UK this year.

There are quite a few Urbexs of the old Pontins Hemsby site. I remember going here as a bored teenager. Sad to see them being abandoned. www.28dayslater.co.uk/threads/pontins-hemsby-norfolk-2018.114278/

Every time I read a story about someone’s holiday from hell at a Pontins resort, I think - you’ve gone to the papers with this. Surely that means you were reading the papers when others sold their stories about Pontins too?
It won’t change. The whole place needs to be levelled.

To those of you who have been, I hope you got your swans (pic from the Pontins website)...

I've been. Without sounding awful, a lot of the families we saw wouldn't have given a shit about cleanliness and hygiene. Priority was fags and beer and not much else.

I know someone who has a static caravan at Unity Farm, the site next door to Brean Sands Pontins. Apparently Unity Farm have so many people coming to them from Pontins that they always keep a bunch of caravans spare purely for those who are fleeing the filth!

Where Butlins has moved with the times, Pontins had not. We stayed in Prestatyn with friends in other chalets and each one was from to say the least. Grim, grim, grim.

I stayed in camber sands years ago. Absolute shit hole.

I know it's not Pontins fault but the guests where even worse. Swearing at their kids was very standard. One woman was screaming at her partner at 2am for hours. Then I heard someone March past our hovel shouting she was going knock the f'ing bitch block off for waking her kids. The all hell broke loose and there was a mass brawl complete with what sounded like toddlers swearing like pros. I was genuinely the most scared I have been in my life. It was like being in riot but paying for it.

I would rather pick my eyeballs out with cocktail sticks than go back.

It's like a open prison

I'm going tomorrow . I've been for years and know exactly what to expect. It IS dire absolutely, it never ceases to amaze me now they haven't been shut down.

Usually I go as a community trip. The village centre I take my kids to run a group holiday with a big discount. Years ago I was a single parent student without a car (they are all by train stations I think) so the opportunity to go somewhere so cheap with other like minded adults I knew and liked and friends for my DC seemed appealing. I'd been to Pontins as a child and had fond memories. That first trip I was pretty traumatised! My parents assured me that it was actually that awful in the 90's too. Kids love it, adults hate it.

The next year I declined to go at all, but the day before, I was offered a free chalet as someone had dropped out, it was glorious weather and I decided to just suck it up and brave it out for my DC. That time, because I knew what to expect and the weather was so good, it actually was quite enjoyable.

Over the years the discount has diminished, the prices have crept up, and this year I finally said that's it for me, and I declined to sign up. It's one thing getting a chalet for 3 nights/4 days for £99, but this year we were quoted near £300 (pre Covid), and though I will go for a bargain, I won't pay that much.

Then fast forward to this week... We had planned to go camping in Wales today, but heavy storms are predicted for most of the time we are due to go, and my daughter's asthma is flaring and the campsite is very far from a hospital. We decided to see what we could find as an alternative and the only thing available to accommodate us (2 adults and 4 children) at such last minute was £800+ other than Pontins at under £300, which even has seperate rooms unlike the more expensive hotels. Would we book it if we had thought of it in advance? Absolutely not. But it will definitely suit us for the next few days and mean we can still afford to go away without taking a risk.

We will just use it like we are camping, to sleep at. We will probably use the onsite swimming pool in the morning, because the kids have been desperate to go swimming since March, and we will spend the rest of the time at the many local beaches and nature reserves. We won't endure any attempt at entertainment, arcades, food etc on site. We will come back late and watch movies (with own devices because they only provide old boxy terrestrial TV's... A couple of years ago my chalets TV was only black and white ).

We're going to a different site this time, I'm intrigued to find out if it's a carbon copy of our usual shit hole. Wish me luck.

Good luck user32723 - at least you're forewarned. Pack some bleach and ear plugs! Am both entertained and horrified by this thread. Have never been anywhere like this, thought Butlins/Pontins were broadly the same thing, and assumed they were just clean and basic. Wild horses couldn't drag me there, but am enjoying the stories!
(I should say that I was once made to go to a Centerparcs, and loathed it with such a passion that I left after a night - I was incredulous that people thought this was a holiday. I thought the - very expensive - accommodation was tired and grubby there, so I'd probably have some sort of seizure at Pontins!)

Currently you can either take your own bedding or pay £5 per person and you get to keep the bedding as washing it is a bit complicated with Covid.
We chose to take our own.

I didn't realise I could have kept the bedding
Not that I wanted too. It was weird very thin shiny fabric. The (flat) sheet didn't stay on the plastic mattress so between the slippery mattress and the slippery sheet I'm surprised I didn't fall out of bed
I'm not sure it would survive a washing machine either!

I would definitely advise taking your own bedding. Unless you are going on the train so can only take what you can carry! (Brean isn't near a train station. We had to go to Weston and then get a bus)

I’m always surprised that they’ve not been linked to a huge environmental health outbreak - how can they not be cleaning properly in these times?

My neighbours always go and raved about it. They are both big drinkers and live in a shit hole so I doubt they care about the accommodation. They say the kids love it and I actually believe that because they never get taken anywhere usually so for them it’s a lovely break away.

My dp has a friend who went last year with his daughters and invited dp and our dd who was 8 at the time for the weekend ( the others were all staying for a week ) and they went as it was less than an hour drive away and thought it would be fun for the kids.

My daughter was horrified! Asked to sleep in the car. Washing was boiled when they got back. Dd was scrubbed in the shower and dp said it looked like a concentration camp.

I went to Prestatyn Pontins by accident last year- it was awful. Had our little one with us so went to the onsite food place (for quickness) and it actually felt like prison. the worst help yourself I have ever seen with the only drink on offer really watered down squash.

Then went to take rubbish to the bins and a big brawl broke out. A man started hitting his wife and then all the kids and brothers started getting involved and it turned into a 15 person fight. Riot vans were called. We left after that!

And that's without the disgusting accommodation.
They were shocked when I checked out early and asked why.

I’ve never heard of having to queue up to get given bedding!!!! It sounds like hell.

In these covid times, don’t they have to clean? Surely it will only take one positive person to cause an outbreak on the camp?

DM- are you reading this?

Never been to pontins but I remember the adverts and always wanted to go when I was little. After years of seeing bad reviews I wouldn't go.
I do wonder how they are still going though. Surely they cant be making any money?
Butlins on the other hand is amazing would recommend it to everybody.

We recently had a week in a static caravan on a park which was part of a a small chain. Of course before we booked we read the trip advisor reviews, the majority were overwhelmingly positive, the few complaints were about the touring facilities which wasn’t relevant to us, but there was one very long, very angry awful review. In a nutshell this review said the place was filthy and run down and full of violet drunks, it worried us a bit but we decided this person was in the minority and if it was truly awful we could go home.

The park turned out to be quiet and extremely well maintained, our caravan was spotlessly clean and the other people there were mostly retired couples who owned their own vans and the closest they got to drunken violence was having a G and T and a chat with their neighbours.

DH and I puzzled over the bad review because even allowing for differences it was so far from reality, then we made a discovery. Five minutes away was a Pontins, which was called Placename Holiday Village, where we were staying was called Placename Holiday park. So putting two and two together I’m pretty sure the searing bad review was actually meant for Pontins.

People go there because it's cheap. I personally wouldn't go there, we usually go to Park Dean and it's always been brilliant. However it's a lot more expensive.
Its really sad if it's true that they are just being left to go to ruin.

Oh, it is so grim. A couple of years ago before we had children and were skint saving for our house deposit DH and I used to have little seaside weekends away instead of holidays. We did several Haven ones, a few B&Bs, I think a Park Dean. All fine. Nothing luxurious but clean and fresh.

Then we did Pontins Brean Sands maybe 2014 ish. My god it was fucking hideous. Filthy, tiny and looked like it hadn't seen a member of staff in there since 1970.

We only stayed one night, then we left and checked into a hotel instead. Foul.

Weirdly fascinated by this thread!