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.

Plenty of cruises are adult only - no kids allowed. Plenty of hotels / resorts are adult only - no kids allowed. So why are you complaining that something designated for families only should exclude solo adults?

Thing is she CAN go to butlins on an adult weekend no one is stopping her.

My disabled bill was banned for life by butlins for being at a family event alone. He had the intellectual age of about 10, liked the children’s events.
He sadly passed away before we could challenge it.

Given that she and her son were guests for decades, and Butlins knows her, would they consider "grandmothering" her in as an exception?

Some cruises are family friendly, not aimed as family cruises. Butlins on the other hand are family breaks.
If this was a man in the same age bracket, trying to book a solo trip to family orientated Butlins, would you be protesting in support of him?

I don't think I would want to go on family breaks on my own, adult weekends would be much better and I understand where butlins are coming from on this, seems a little bit odd to want to go on family breaks as a solo person.

They're reasoning is safeguarding, but that's nonsense considering any member of the public can just stroll onto a butlins site on foot.

Um, no they can't. Security is pretty firm on this. No wristband or booking,no entry.

Anyway, my idea of hell is a family break at Butlins without needing to be there for the purpose of entertaining children.

Family friendly is very different to family breaks!
why is insisting people can only attend with children any different to the places that only allow adults to book?!….
Years ago Butlins did allow singles or couples to book.. a couple of years ago this changed and all holiday bookings without children were cancelled and refunded… there must have been a reason … we’ve been there before and had to deal with adults being drunk, loud, smoking drugs…. Fighting, assaulting security…. So yeah I understand a total ban on adults without children/people with LD

They can decide who they want in their parks…

I don't have a problem with Butlins not wanting solo adults, but if they allow childfree couples or groups of childfree adults to book it makes a mockery of the claimed 'safeguarding' reasoning.

I was at butlins recently and their was a group of adults no children was sat near them for ages definitely no children 4 adults so butlins seem to pick and choose for reference it was a family break

Why would a solo person want to be with families, that's just weird. I don't want to be with other families and I have a family 🤣

The children could of been somewhere else with another adult/s looking after them for the day? I’ve met up with relatives and they are very keen to be super aunts/ uncles and throw themselves into lots of activities with the dc. I’ll generally be found enjoying some adult chat somewhere else.

It is disingenuous of holiday companies to say this is about safeguarding. There's simply more money to be made from families, and single travellers tend to be more frugal (single traveller here).

If holiday companies were genuinely bothered about safeguarding, they'd ban families or 'family groups'. Remember that most abuse takes places within families and is perpetrated by a family member.

Unlikely I saw several groups of adults childless but that's a theory I suppose I've been 4 times this year and seen it on all breaks but of course your opinion is fine I was only their so what do I know

Cripes, why would you want to go back there once your kids have grown out of it?
We went twice a year sometimes sometimes, as ours loved it so much, they had travelled the world due to Dad's work, been to all the disney/adventure type places , but give them a choice and it was Butlins, it was bloody awful, but we always smiled and pretended we loved it as much as they did.

Well when ‘family breaks’ knock out all the quiet cheaper breaks, leaving the very expensive noisy weekenders for us OAPs to book. Children are there supervised by parents plus the security staff for child safety, but nothing is risk free.I very much enjoyed Butlins shows and all the facilities, but now on my own at 76, basic pension, like many older people, but we don’t seem to matter.

there’s nothing there for them??, the shows, the buffet meals, the arcades, the location, the cost??
those that can’t understand have yet to be left on their own, no one to holiday with, without pots of money. I and many other senior citizens don’t want a rowdy visit on the days we are allowed to go now.
Predators can just as easily be in a family group, if Butlins think they have a problem with this then banning single pensioners is hardly a solution.