Are Butlins right to refuse bookings from solo travellers?

[KimberleyClark]

This woman used to take her son, he has grown out of it but she still wants to go on her own but Butlins Skegness won’t accept her booking on “family breaks” - she can only go on the adults only weekend breaks. Safeguarding reasons apparently.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9eerp43v12o

YANBU - ridiculous
YABU - they are right.

This is a bit sad, she looks like the kind of nice lady who when you are in a busy cafe and end up sharing tables would talk to your kids and give you 5 minutes headspace from talking about moshi monsters or whatever the lastest obsession was!

^Exactly. Cinemas don't screen parents for child sex offenses either.

Centerparcs don't want single people simply because they don't make any money from them. Ditto Butlins. Nothing to do with safeguarding.

I'm in the Skegness page and I feel really sorry for the lady, she seems lovely

I can kind of understand why Butlins have decided this but also it's kind of stupid to think child molesters only travel alone

I think it's more to do with the reputation of Butlins, they became known for rowdy groups and lots of drinking. They've really tried to separate this over the years with their adult weekenders, which this woman could go to, and family weeks. The just for tots week is great as everyone has to have small kids, so there's no loud, late night parties keeping people awake. I do feel sorry for her though but you can see why they've done it.

Its Legoland Discovery centres... the majority of the time you need to have a child. They have special times when adults can visit without children.

It’s for families only, so she doesn’t qualify.

People might argue that she’s doing no harm and won’t spoil anyone’s fun by being there. And that’s probably true. But we can’t always have our own way. Sometimes adults get told no and I think that’s right. The same way the adults in a family would be told no if they tried to book in to an adult only resort/hotel. Nothing wrong with letting families and children be the priority sometimes.

Yes, there are lots of things you can't do as a single person. You can't go to centerparcs, can't go on certain types of holiday, can't go to certain restaurants. I wanted to go to a nice restaurant for a big birthday but I couldn't book as a single person, even if I ate at 5pm. I have also been moved in a bar that does pizza type food. I was at the end of a very long table. There was a group of 8 at one end and me at the other. This is where the staff put me. A 2 adult 2 children family came in and sat at a table perpendicular to mine, next to where I was. The mother asked staff for me to be moved, all within my earshot. The staff were absolutely lovely and moved me to the bar itself. Ironically it was a bar that is mainly adults and you don't get many families in there.

There are various trips I would like to go on but can't due to my single status. What really boils my piss is being told to go on singles holidays. Nobody tells married people they need to go on holiday only with other married people. Ditto telling me to go on singles holidays where I would have to share a room with a stranger. None of the people suggesting this would dream of sharing a room with a stranger! I regularly stay in doems and these very same people say they would never do that. They are very adept at telling me to share an Austrian double with a random person.

They are quite right to ban the lady and she is quite right to feel upset. The weekends they have suggested as an alternative will probably have a completely different vibe and not be what she is looking for.

Lots of children's attractions don't let single adults in, and I'm happy about it.

While I think it's unfortunate for this woman, I imagine the vast majority of single adults wanting to holiday around large groups of children aren't people I'd want near my dc.

Well, good for you

While I think it's unfortunate for this woman, I imagine the vast majority of single adults wouldn't want to holiday around paranoid and self-entitled parents.

If they say it's ok because she seems like a lovely lady, how do they say no to the 60 year old dodgy blokes? They can't be subjective about it, it's a blanket rule. Or what happens when families start complaining that there are more middle-aged singles than families on their family breaks? Most are able to easily understand and follow that rule. Other options for her. I don't feel sorry for her because she's bringing ridiculous and entitled.

Entitled families?
Who the hell is entitled at butlins?

Single adults are often banned from places with kids like parks for example.
it is because some single adults ( particularly men) will go to watch, prey on, groom children. That’s just a fact.
if they want to ban single adult men which is clearly a sensible safeguarding policy then they have to also ban single adult women due to equality law.

there’s adult only weekends at butlins so she can go on those!
or wait till she has grandkids one day and go again then

”safe” adults undermine child safeguarding in general if they argue against rules in place to protect children as they themselves do not have ulterior motives.

Sounds reasonable.

There’s family friendly, and then there’s family breaks. They aren’t the same.

It's a family break holiday, for families. 🤷🏼‍♀️

Carrying on like you are being persecuted because the world won't bend to your every whim is getting really old.

Who cares? The point is still the same, there are many things one may not ‘get’ but the point being made is that we’re all different.

Like how some people are painfully pedantic to the point of missing the obvious. I don’t get it, but we’re all different

True. Like the way that some people get sarcastic when others point out the bleeding obvious. I don’t get it. But we’re all different.

Some paedophiles / perverts are genuinely that blatant though. Some bloke at my local pool was arrested as he was hanging around the kids Friday night fun pool session. Spent a lot of time in the changing area turns out he was filming children getting changed in the cubicles next to him.

Of course pedophiles would take advantage of allowing solo adults at a family weekend in Butlins. Very very naive to think otherwise. Safeguarding is thinking the “unthinkable “

no one imagined caretakers at primary schools would take advantage of their job to get access to girls until one did!

Parents and other close relations of children can be paedophiles too.

even teachers one needs to look out for and from both sexes
We taught our kids never to trust anyone and if someone asks them to do something we never have, tell us

indeed a fact and correct me if I am wrong - its often parents/relatives/step parents etc are the culprits

^This, and you are not wrong

That's why Butlins ask the question "Are you, or any of your group, a peadophile?" on the booking form.

Oh, wait, they don't actually ask that, do they?

That's awful. It's shocking what some people get up to.

I'm not sure if your point? Absolutely most single adults wouldn't want to join a children's activity. That's what makes it more uncomfortable when a few do. Hence the rule.

No need to be so rude about it, when you clearly agree with my point.