Butlins break cancelled because "we aren't on the electoral roll"

[Butterlins]

Firstly - we are on the electoral roll, always have been, have voted in every general and local election, and can provide proof of being on the electoral roll.

We got a letter from Butlins today - I only picked it up at 6pm because I was working today, so I haven't been able to ring customer services. The letter says (happy to post it on here) that because we aren't on the electoral roll, our break has been cancelled, our money will be refunded, and this decision is final and cannot be reversed. *
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A small amount of googling has shown me that Butlins do this for anyone with an Irish/traveller sounding surname. Surprise surprise, we have a surname common in the travelling community.
There is a number to call to "arrange your refund", and my googling has shown that when others who have received this letter ring to explain actually they are on the E.R and can provide proof of this, Butlins say "tough" and refuse to reverse their decision.

And I can find many many instances of people with "English" sounding names (Bishop, Cooke, Pitt, Patel) who AREN'T on the electoral roll who have never had any problems with booking at all. It seems to be directed only at those with "blacklisted" surnames, even if they are on the ER.

I imagine I'll have a battle on my hands when I ring Butlins tomorrow - anyone help on how to approach this? I'm fuming tbh. Me and DH have both booked time off work, the kids have been so excited.

*bee

Well as well as that group the obvious other group who aren't on the electoral roll are travellers I assume. So the end result is still the same it would just be indirect rather than direct discrimination

Be careful with the hysteria, if I was Butlins I would either close down sites that attract problems and sell off for housing, or up-grade and put my prices up a lot. I have never been there and never will, but they are a business who know their customer base.

To be honest - I have spent so much time over the last 24hours combing all social media/internet trying to find a single case where this "you aren't on the electoral roll, your booking has been cancelled" has been used against someone with a non Irish name, and it just hasn't, but I have found about 30 times when it has been used on Irish names, and they have still refused to admit those people even when confronted with proof the families are on the electoral roll, so I don't think domestic abuse victims will be affected by this policy, unless they also have an Irish name.

Also, my assumption would be that Butlins only have access to the open register. So what about all those people who opt out of the open register - it's a huge number, how are these people supposedly verified? Butlins told me out of 15,000 bookings they checked when they checked for mine, they only had "problems" with 100. So why was mine a problem?

Well, we're not on the open register. We do have a very foreign, unusual surname (not Irish) and we've never had any problems staying at Butlins or any other site like it. We're white english (post WW2 second generation on one side hence the foreign surname).

I can completely understand companies not wanting anyone disruptive on their sites. What business would? But you cannot ban a whole race of people, it's disgusting. They wouldn't get away with this with any other race, religion, sex etc.

Butterlins I have in fact spoken to Butlin's directly this morning about the domestic violence side and they have confirmed it will affect anyone not on the electoral roll register and their policy is clear that this is for their guests safety.

They have told me they have cancelled around ONE HUNDRED bookings this Christmas alone.

Hang on that’s an interesting question. I’m on the electoral role but not the open register.

My reply from Butlins

thank you for getting in touch with us. Our terms and conditions are very clear, and for the safety and security of all our guests and our team, we go to great lengths to make sure we know the identity of everyone on our resorts, particularly at the busiest times of year. If we find a guest or guests don’t meet our T&Cs, we will cancel their booking as a LAST STEP. For context, we have more than 15,000 guests coming to our resorts this Christmas, and this year we have had cause to cancel less than 100 – and in those cases, we are happy to have discussions with the guests. If any guests would like to discuss their own personal situation in regards to their booking and these terms and conditions then we will happily have this conversation. If you respond to this message with your booking reference number and a contact number then I'll have one of our team give you a call.'

This lady got hers cancelled and Howes isn't Irish I don't think but that's the only one I have seen.

www.kentonline.co.uk/ashford/news/banned-from-butlins-for-not-47868/

It's an offence, punishable by fine, not to be on the electoral roll.

I'm not defending Butlins actions in the case of the OP; it was unacceptable to cancel her booking as she met their terms and conditions.

@Xtrabroken - I already checked that one out, she was part of a large booking with traveller names/associations.

Less than 100 bookings out of 15,000 means around 0.5%, but there is a huge percentage of people not on the open register, so how are they verifying them?

And also, they are lying that they are willing to discuss individual circumstances or reconsider when given proof of electoral roll etc, as their letter and their phone call with me initially told me repeatedly this decision was final and they would not reconsider. It was only this social media storm that made them suddenly do a Uturn on that. I have found two other families who had bookings cancelled in the last 48 hours who were also on the electoral roll, and rung Butlins to explain this and provide proof, but Butlins still cancelled their holiday and refunded them.

To be honest, I'm not satisfied with their answers until they can clearly tell me what checks they carried out on me and how I failed them, and they are dodging this.

It's an offence, punishable by fine, not to be on the electoral roll

It’s not a public offence to not be on the open register though.
I wasn’t on the electoral roll at my current address when I booked my Butlins break as I had moved house 2 days previously.

Craigglen they are cancelling people who ARE on the register though just not the open register.

I wonder if they are using something like the one the Government uses. Like citizen safe or such which looks at electoral roll/Bank account/passport type things.
Doesn't make sense why it's not flagging up those on the other register though.

Ridiculous.

I hope you do take this further op.
Looking at customer service and people calling them and waiting two hours in the queue I'm pretty horrified and after their shitty response I am glad to use elsewhere.

I can assure you, DH & I would show correctly at our address at every conceivable database you could run us through - electoral roll, council tax, bank, drive by licenses, payslips, HMRC, NHS records, absolutely everything is registered to us at our address. But Butlins remain steadfast that we failed their checks, and won't tell me how/what checks.

Literally the only thing I can think of is our surname, which fits with others who have been refused but are registered on the ER etc, or that they checked our Facebook/social media and saw my DH owns a Paving/groundworks company, which is a common traveller profession, and made a huge assumption based on that combined with our surname. I have put in a subject access request anyway. I don't think anything will ever come of it, Butlins will cover themselves with vague waffle about "T&C's" again and again, but worth a try.

We go to butlins every year booked under DPs name which is English, mine is Irish I wonder if they would cancel if I booked under my name!!
Absolutely disgusting we will never be visiting butlins again
OP I am horrified for you.
Also waiting for daily fail to pick this thread up!

They've quoted to me since that it is for the safety of guests especially in today's current climate.

Apparently British born terrorists can't be on the electoral roll and foreign born guests can't have proof of address and a passport.

Knobs.

Another case on Mumsnet
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/uk/2904935-Butlins-booking-problems-anybody

How about doing a freedom of information asking for the surnames of all 100 people whose bookings were refused? It seems bizarre that more fuss isn't being made by the other 99 - I'd be livid.

Did you speak with the Independent journalist OP?

You can't do an FoI - they apply to public sector organisations only. I don't think the national debt is big enough yet to take ownership of Butlins!

It's likely that at least some of the 99 truely aren't on the ER so won't complain but it would be interesting to be able to find some of them to check.

An article in a national newspaper might reach people affected or people who know them.

According to Butlins' Terms & Conditions :

We will make checks to ensure that our guests are registered on the electoral roll and where not located we reserve the right to cancel your booking until you are able to confirm this. (bold is my emphasis)

So if Butlins cancel a booking and the customer then provides proof they are on the electoral roll, Butlins should reinstate the booking. Which it doesn't sound like they have been doing.

I wonder if they only reinstated the OP's booking because of the publicity?

But why should the service only be provided to people on the electoral roll? It is discriminatory.

Regardless of whether it's right it is presumably legal or someone would have challenged it imo