Center Parcs closing for funeral

[ViscountessBridgerton]

Had the email to say Monday arrival delayed until Tuesday, can't get in until 4pm. 30% refund offered. From social media, it looks like people on a 7 night break are actually expected to leave at 10am on the Monday and not come back until Tuesday! People on a weekend break aren't being compensated for having to leave by 10am on the Monday.

AIBU to think wtf?!?!

To be honest why should they? I know that in theory guests can stay until midnight but realistically how many do? We are due to leave Friday and I suspect we’ll be out before 10am.

On the other hand thinking about it whilst typing this how are they going to get 700 lodges worth of people out by 10am? It’s not going to happen.

🤣

Have they not? Well it's been a while since I worked there I'll admit.

It’s people who have to find accommodation for one night that are really losing out

I haven’t been to CP but I have done holidays with small dd, I imagine many guests will be young families

The idea that you can turf people out and say find something else short notice for one night is off

Plus all the extra packing up etc.

Well they should because many people do stay for the day (we never have on a Friday to Monday but others do) and they’re losing out on being able to do that.

Hopefully having watched the funeral of a complete stranger will be of some comfort when they lose their jobs.

I'm sure their staff would thank them for the option to spend Christmas Day with their families.....doesn't happen though.

I'm really glad they're closing. Their staff will thank them for the option to be part of an historic occasion. ah, the PR department have arrived.

What, even the staff who are fielding thousands of complaints today from angry tourists? I think they might have some thoughts on it.

So can you imagine interviewing their pr manager when they resign and start looking for another job?

“So, using the star model, tell us about a time when a decision you made had a significant impact.”

I would like to say that this will backfire and people will vote with their feet and refuse to use CP again.

But no. Give it a few weeks and it will be back to normal

Yeah, it’s a decision ‘for the staff’ after all…😏

haha. Country really has lost its collective mind, eh?

Housekeeping was cut, even in the bigger lodges, along with chalk bowls, toiletries (other than soap), information folders in the lodge.

It’s all small things but does detract from the experience.

Hmm I think yes and no. Their timing couldn’t have been worse, because we’re just reaching the point when energy bills are going to rise significantly, and so many people won’t be booking holidays for the foreseeable.

And there will without a doubt be people who were regular, who have been thrown out and who will never go back.

But when there are job losses because of the pact of this decision they will be able to blame the financial crisis.

I can understand closing some facilities perhaps but making people vacate the accommodation is wild.

In what universe did the PR team and Center Parcs think this would play well to their customers and potential customers? This is a PR disaster.

I'm sure that Center Parcs have plenty of people who would be willing to work the bank holiday - foreign nationals for a start. Why don't they close nearly everything, say there won't be cleaning services that day (small discount?) and have a skeleton staff on site. They could have a big screen for the funeral or people could watch it in their chalets.

We have a family of Ukrainian refugees with us - grandmother, mother and son. Grandmother and mother both work as cleaners in a hotel - they've jumped at the chance of working the bank holiday

a) because there is extra pay
b) because some of their colleagues changed shift so they could be involved in Ukrainian Independence Day celebrations (lets hope they'll be attending more celebrations soon!) and they want to return the favour by letting them watch funeral
c) Because they need the money

Presumably, they'll be extra busy as there's a centre parcs not too far away and all these people will need somewhere to stay.

We have a chalkboard and bowl of chalk here…

And their guests, with nowhere to go (even if they found a nearby hotel they probably won't be able to check-in until mid-afternoon) will completely miss the historic occasion.

If my employer made this kind of mad decision affecting our clients I'd be off. I've worked in hospitality and travel all of my adult life and like many in the same industry I believe the guest/client comes first, always. Working in a service industry means working when others are off, always has done and always will do.

With all due respect to Her late Majesty, there must be enough people on the staff who are entirely indifferent to this historic event to keep Center (ugh) Parks going for a few hours while the funeral's taking place. I can see the appeal of the bank holiday is universal, but staff wellbeing doesn't appear to be very high in their list of priorities.

It is bonkers, why can't they shut the activities and restaurants and let people just stay in their lodges/stick to walking/cycling/be advised to get supplies from local supermarket for the day and offer a discount for goodwill. When we went we took bags of shopping in with us anyway so we didn't have to pay for every meal in the restaurants. Turfing people out only to return the next day is just bizarre.

My thoughts exactly 😂

Are you confusing this with changes for covid times when they reopened? We stayed over the summer and had nice message written with chalk for someone in our party celebrating, with the chalk and bowl left there. But I’d hardly class that as a luxury? It’s a nice, fun touch.

Wonder what message those having to vacate on the Monday night will be writing on the chalkboard?

@Housebytheseanc

Thank you for this post.

You responded to @justaladyLOL so much better than I did, when she said my DS should not be allowed to enjoy one day of a well-earned short break (for which he has been offered NO compensation), and she also said the vast majority will want to watch and respect this historic event, which I disagree with too.

We always go swimming and have lunch and a last play on the park before leaving, I think that’s pretty common.