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?!?!

They've probably spent the intervening time racking the price up by the power of 5 over the bank holiday, in case anyone does want to rebook.

The cleaning staff are all contracted, and no one could refuse to work because your contracted day is Monday. However CP does have a problem with recruiting and retaining staff and a lot of their sites are rural which means they have to bus staff in. It may be that a lot of the bus companies have said they won’t operate.I imagine it’s very hard to recruit last min agency bus drivers if that’s even possible. Or they simply know that a large % of staff won’t be able to come in because of short notice school & nursery closures. However normally when we are really short staffed the mangers just have to do all the extra work. I can’t believe this would be different. I can’t decide whether this was a decision based on practicalities , or just really misguided with them thinking they’d be more criticised for staying open on a day when everyone is state ordered to be stuck at home crying into their cuppa.

And to be fair to Cp every other leisure facility in the country does seem to be closing for the day. All the other holiday parks are shutting down operations. CP sites are much much bigger so there has to be a min number of staff on site for H&S. Maybe that was behind the absurd idea of kicking everyone out. I can imagine they got a bit of FOMO and panicked that they’d be the only place in the U.K. open as normal and would be criticised by the wider public for it.

@User56473 to be fair, bank holidays do get a lot of no shows so I guess it may have been worse next Monday.

All the people saying the cleaners are on zero hours, you can't get a zero hour contact at centre parks

Just seen an article on BBC news website, there is someone there who is staying there for 2 weeks! That is one expensive holiday

Although it is earlier than they initially said (they'd said no check ins before 4pm on Tuesday and now they're saying 10am). Agree it's been a really shambolic handling of it all, from 'no we're staying open' to 'we're shutting everything for everyone' to 'different rules for different stays'... All in less than 24 hours!! Absolute PR disaster and we have also made the choice not to book with them for our next break.

Congratualtions Center Parcs on managing to have the biggest PR blunder of this whole occasion. WTF did they expect when they announced this?

Well done for back tracking centre parks, although be sensible and let people check in on Monday after the funeral, or late as planned on Monday.
Hopefully it was just some idiot that had a great idea to kick people out and then no one could question their authority as they were a computer says no type of person.

They said 10am to enter the site and 4pm for access to lodges. Which is their standard timings.

Those people who miss out on 24 hours are getting a 30% refund.

But then all of their cleaning and reception staff would have to work on the holiday to prepare the lodges and check people in! I don’t think that’s the idea

ah no! The people possibly going Friday to Friday and now cancelled?

Yet another example of how unclear the communication has been - in the BBC article the quote Centre Parcs gave said guests could check in from 10am on Tuesday, but as you point out their website now says 4pm(!)

@kateandme have I read your post right that you’re aware of someone being able to arrive on Monday to start their break early?

im due to arrive Monday but even after calling today they are still saying absolutely not and not looking like they will back down on this one so would be interested to hear if they’ve bent the rules for anyone else.

This country is more batshit crazy than I thought!!

what a monumental pr disaster who the hell thought this wo9uld be accpetable only for hundreds to complain so they had to backtrack

i bet theve lost thousands in future bookings now

Erm, have you seen their pricing? an out of season 4 day weekend a few years ago when I really wanted to take my son somewhere at least once in his childhood was going to cost almost a years wages for me even then!

I’d stay put and refuse to leave unless they refund the whole cost of the holiday. Where do they expect people to go? sleep in bus shelter?

I think it’s all overkill. Not everyone wants to mark the occasion. For some who have the anniversary of a loved one this month, this has made a difficult occasion even worse.

This takes the biscuit. I would understand if their facilities were to close so that holiday makers could make their own arrangements, i.e. self-catering, after all they are grown-ups - but to tell them to leave for 24 hours and then possibly return is utter madness. It defies all common sense.

They will get very bad publicity about this which will be entirely deserved. Are none of these firms run by sensible people anymore? Many customers will bad-mouth them all over social media and it will hurt future business.

Even worse (though I agree CP position is fücking ridiculous), people’s hospital appointment are cancelled and some food banks are closed (I guess its disrespectful to eat). That, combined with individuals standing peacefully with a sign saying ‘not my King’ being arrested, is really a recruiting exercise for Republicans.

Surely some food banks are closed because the volunteers now have childcare issues because the schools are closed? Rather than because the organisers feel that it would be disrespectful.

The Trussell Trust has closed all the foodbank. Some may have been able to open. Not all volunteers will have children.

Most trussell trust foodbanks are independent and were given the option to close (based on local circumstances) and supported by the trust. They were not all closed by the trussell trust as a blanket choice.

Just read CP has changed its mind and backtracked on closing for the day.

No, Monday is changeover day anyway, so it just means that people who were due to start their holiday on Monday will now have to delay it until Tuesday.