Haven Holidays
Reviews and Complaints

Booking ref: [protected] Mr TG Hughes 26, LL13 9NH

To whom it may concern:

I am writing to you to make you aware of the extreme disappointment we experienced while staying with you from the 28/07/2023 to the 04/08/2023 at Thorpe Park. To start with we found on arrival our caravan was satisfactory but not worth the price we paid for it. As the caravan moved as any person moved or turned over in bed throughout the 7 day period. As we don't complain we carried on hoping to enjoy the rest of our holiday.

Also we opened the door to the caravan, we had no complaints regarding the cleanliness. However, I was disappointed with the interior as the settees were grubby and worn. The double bed mattress was solid and gave my wife back ache due to being so hard. My wife had to move into our sons bedroom as the mattress was softer. But as you can understand the beds in this room are for smaller persons so my wife had little room on the bed, and my wife is of normal stature.

On arrival at the entertaining areas we were overwhelmed at the amount of unsupervised teenagers who dominated the all play areas and were kicking footballs in areas where people were trying to relax and enjoy a quiet drink

including ourselves. Parents also were involved in this activity and when i asked a security person about their behaviour they replied that there was not enough security staff to control misbehaviour. Also these teenagers (Chavs) also controlled the activity play ground area by sitting and vaping so that younger people could not use the equipment, i.e. our 12 year old son, he also felt threatened by their present in these areas so could not partake or enjoy any enjoyment time. This carried on through the day and night.

Because our son could not enjoy the free outdoor leisure equipment, he went into the arcade most nights, and in this area we and my son found the staff in the arcade rude, ignorant, unhelpful and blatantly opening machines to move prizes away from any chance of winning, so you had to spend more money. I enquired with one of the staff who replied its companies policy to move prizes and with that walked off. Which i found to be infuriating and unbelievable. Blatantly ensuring customers spend more money with no gains. This includes all the amusement arcade games.

To add injury to insult we took it in turns to be with our son in the amusement arcade and sat in the Coliseum dog friendly bar area towards the middle of the week we found that our dog had been bitten by fleas, also ourselves, whilst sitting in the Coliseum. We had to purchase flea treatment which added extra costs of £60, and have the worry that our dog could have been allergic to the medicine given as our dog has allergies.

We pre booked activities for our son, and one of these was cancelled due to inclement weather conditions, (which is understandable) however we are still awaiting reimbursement for this activity. (The Jump).

Due to our son wanted to go for a bike ride, we hired two adult bikes and one junior for half a day but was charged for a whole day which we didn't notice until we checked our bank statement. The cost should have been £6 each adult bike and £3 for junior as this was an offer on the day, however we have been charged £12 each bike in total £36.00.

Another incident occurred with me when five teenagers (chavs) in the indoor swimming pool, where two of the teenagers with super soakers kept spraying me whilst playing with my son, and water at pressure went into my ear and i responded by telling them to stop spraying the water at me. They continued and i complained to the staff lifeguard, who did nothing, so i moved pools to confront the teenagers as my son started to cry at this point and wanted to leave. Again i said to stop squirting the water where they were just laughing at me, so at this point a staff member called the duty manager who intervened and eventually asked them to leave. All through this incident my son was so distraught that he asked me to leave which spoilt our family activity and also stopped my son from returning to the pool on our holiday.

As parents we were so disappointed that our sons holiday was ruined due to some individuals and lack of staff on site, we tried to redeem our holiday for our son, by booking an extra 3 nights at one of your other sites Golden Sands Mablethorpe, which was another extra cost which we did not expect to spend, but felt we needed to do for his mental health as he had a disappointed and unhappy holiday at Thorpe Park.

Golden Sands staff were much more friendly, no unruling teenagers, and our son stated that we should have booked Golden Sands and he enjoyed the extra three nights...thank god.

yours sincerely

Mr T.G Hughes

Our visit to Haggerston Castle took place in Augist 2023.

The grounds of the touring site are very old and need updating. Because the plots are not level when it rains there is constant flooding. I had to take awning down due to flooding. The ground was sopping and muddy. Took days to dry out. Thank god the rain finally stopped.

Also the toilet and shower facilities need upgrading and refurbished.

After talking to other campers found out they were having the same problems.

Seems whilst these Companies are getting money out of you they don't seem to care.

when i arrive the caravan was dirty and looked like green mould all over the outside

matteress was dirty full of hair crumbs and blood stains i did get this changed but still dont expect to be arrive on holiday to such a dirty matteress.

sofa cushions and table cushions were dirty and stained

outside the caravan was messing didnt look very nice to see.

Good morning

We booked our holiday for Friday 14th July to Weymouth Bay holiday Park Preston Weymouth Dorset.

This holiday was to celebrate my grandsons first year in remission from stage 3 cancer. ( they arrived later on the Monday)We chose this site as my daughter wanted to go here as she had with her grandmother many years ago and enjoyed it very much so wanted to return as an adult with her son.

Upon arrival to our caravan we were absolutely taken back by the disgusting condition of the interior. It was filthy the seating as stained and soaking wet , the cooker and floor was dirty and full of grease, the toilet had yellow pee stains on the underside of the seat. There was a pair of children's dirty socks on the side cabinet in the bedroom it was awful to walk into somewhere where we had to spend a week. My partner sat and cried. My partner called the reception and they sent a cleaner, it really needed much more than cleaning we have pictures to prove this. The cleaner arrived and I asked her to get the manager, he turned up and agreed the caravan was in a state, his name was Ed.

He was very apologetic and thankfully he was able to move us to a more suitable caravan. Thank you Ed ! as the lady on the phone from reception didn't really seem to be bothered.

We expected higher expectations from this caravan park as said earlier on that my partners family shared some good memories there and we anted to make memories with our grandson and give him a good time.

Thankyou.

Mr Perry Shackleton

9 Leycroft Close, Loughton Essex

IG10 3EZ

email [protected]@live.co.uk

We feel we needed to

This complaint is about a claim compensation. Claim was dealt smoothly but at the end when there was a payment time, your Bharti Rathore was deducting £600 on the name of deductible money. From the beginning till the last minute, it was not mentioned at any stage that we deduct access money at all. This is totally unfair. The total damage cost is £1894.72 without VAT and this is repair cost for the car and paid to the garage.

Claim Ref.2022/TS/052583.

Incident was happened on 03/09/2022 at 15:45app.

Everything is in your record. The incident was reported within 24hours and it was nonfault.

You have increased my car drivers premium because of this incident. You have claimed this damaged from the third party as well. But you are penalizing me and trying to keep money in your pocket which is totally unfair. If you do not resolve this issue, I will take it further.

I phoned on 27/06/23 to claim department and spoken to Mr Alex, he promissed me, he is going to lodge this complaint and someone will get intouch in week to 10 days time, but untill now i have not got any response from this department. I try to phone couple of times but have not got any response.

Church Farm. Poor customer service. Reluctant to solve problems - hear, but don't listen, complaints process does not result in a positive outcome, don't listen to customers or want to solve problems. We have been looking forward all year to this holiday and we are so disappointed.

Terrible communication - huge changes not communicated prior to stay which would have resulted in us not coming here.

Escalation to head office which is where we were told the below decision were made, were then passed on to a local manager who couldn't address the complaints or provide a resolution.

Without communicating and different to previous years, the outdoor pool has reduced hours to open at 12pm and not 10am (it was confirmed on asking due to budgets) and the restaurant now doesn't open until 11.30am and so you can't get breakfasts there - you have to queue up at a machine in the market and drink it in the car park. They are understaffed and it took 30 mins for a drink in the evening. The mini market has no food in. The caravan had equipment and towels left from the previous guests. Terrace is app only which discriminates against older people who are jot tech savvy, and it is impossible to get a waitresses attention and you can't order at the bar.

Thr pool was a huge disappointment and they said the numbers of people demanding the pool earlier in the day didn't justify opening then. However there were queues of people (owners and guests) complaining about this at the activity centre. And because they don't open until midday, you are not guaranteed a space as the queues are huge (opening earlier would reduce this). Plus, you then can't book an indoor swim session as they are all booked up due to no outdoor pool. And we have been many years in a row and would swim at 10am and it was always packed - so their position does not align with the reality.

The tables on the terrace are broken, the chairs on the grass are broken, the sun beds on the outside pool are broken or in such bad condition. There are no spaces in any of the activities as they don't have enough on. There is no WiFi.

They claim the week we are away is off peak and as one week prior to many school holidays quiet, however it was kost certainly not an the actuvity team sais not. And having been for the previous years, customers were not treated like this and did not experience such a poor standard or service.

They may be a business, but they provide customers with an experience. This was the worst experience. We will talk with our feet now and will never come back and encourage others to do the same.

First time to a Haven park so have not got comparisons. Issues:

Arrival- very poor customer relations. Three receptionists who were chatting to themselves totally disregarding customers and not one had a smile .

From the start not made to feel that we were here to have a quality break.

Went to use facilities to find that they had not been cleaned and no toilet paper in one of the cubicles.

Directions given to the mobile site were unclear and as if they were not interested.

On entering the static shocked at how dirty things were , found old sachets in cupboard , just half a roll of toilet paper for eight of us, I thought it unbelievable that there was no washing liquid, dishwasher tablets, kitchen roll , dishcloths etc, but on reading info. found that these weren't provided. ( although these are small touches that would go a long way)

We paid extra for outside furniture that was filthy and two chairs broken, we reported this and was told that this would be rectified but nothing was done about it.

Tabletops sticky and beds really uncomfortable, this was one of the most unpleasant experiences I have had.

Fridge freezer was very grubby and oven full of fat.

Having treated our family to this weekend I found it incredibly expensive, totally inadequate and quite frankly can't understand why families would want to stay let alone own a static mobile on this site.

I am so disappointed and can't remember complaining like this.

My recommendation would be to send in an independent undercover customer to report all shortfalls as once rectified could be so much better.

Mr Leslie Miranda

4 nights booked from. 26th June to 29th June

Ref : [protected] LA1 0061 F- Lander

27th complained at reception no internet available in the caravan

28th June 2023 complained again at reception no Internet in caravan or outside -only at the reception area - others complaining as well.

No answer at reception as closed at 5 pm. Called security arrived at 6 pm ( John and Ben) . Unable to help as the SeaGulls are protected species . They are logging the complaint. The caravan should have not been booked out under these conditions, and should have been checked before letting out.

Excessive noise from the Sea gulls on the roof , day and night.

Unable to sleep- so handed in the keys earlier to Lilly at reception.

Ruined our holiday break, hence seeking refund.

Please see attached photos.

Email address : [protected]@yahoo.com

This is more for information at the moment,as we will be sending in the full list of trouble that we've had since buying a caravan at Blue Dolphin Filey, so we'd just like this logging at the moment so we have an open case to refer to,and it will reach senior management at the company.

We brought a caravan in Nov 22, our first ever caravan purchase, we chose Blue Dolphin Filey as we had stayed at The Bay on numerous occasions and love the area.

It had to be re-sited, which took over 4/5 weeks after the season started to get all the area around the caravan cleared.

When an engineer came around to turn the water on the bathroom and en-suite were flooded(not his fault)

We've had nothing but trouble with the alarm system in the van, to the point where we were told a lot of security ignore it when it goes off. It went off a few weeks ago, 3am ish, security didn't attend(although they said they had) and our caravan was broken into and tellies stolen, plus damage to the bathroom window. Things are ongoing still with Blue Dolphin and the Police, and our caravan was the only one out of approx 900 caravans that got hit! It stinks to high heaven of being dodgy, but like I say things are still happening, and to say that we are slightly brassed off with the whole Haven ownership experience would be an understatement!I

Like I say, once things have been sorted with the caravan we will send ALL the details properly, this is just a taster, and a reference point for a case reference to be logged.

Thanks

Mr & Mrs B Sheppard (Nottingham)

96 The Larches @ Blue Dolphin Filey

My booking reference is [protected].

As this booking shows I booked a silver standard caravan, however I was quite disappointed on arrival to see that the caravan was below standard.

The dining table trim was falling off and had clearly been nailed/glued previously causing it to split with sharp edges. We reported this to reception. The TV unit Formica was split, peeling off and sharp. The carpet was heavily stained and dirty. The cupboard door under the sink was held together with duct tape and inside said cupboard the bin was broken. The higher kitchen cupboards also had splits in them. We stay with Haven every year and have done for quite a number of years and this is the first time we have had to complain about the accommodation. The reason we did not complain and ask to be moved is because we were travelling with an autistic child and any further upheaval would have been very distressing for him.

I booked a holiday for the 10-14 april I asked for gold accessable as both my son and myself are diabled and need plenty of room close to amenities as we cant walk far we were giver a2 bed very small lounge no room to walk about the electic firredidnt work the central heating didnt work the gas bottle was empty scurity came out tues said no gas tthe toilet was leaking wen you had a shower the shower head dropped down my sonwas getting very frustrated he had to share my room as the other was only suitable for children we went to reception and complained they said I booked a saver witch is basic iv never booked a saver they are no good for diabled people my son was so upset he said he needed to go home as he couldnt cope in that van so we left a day early 2 days later my was son was dead all the stress brough on a massive heart attack the holiday was for him it was a lot of money for what we got iv had haven holidays before and always got what I asked for not this time mablethorpe cant check the vans to make sure everything is working they didnt I had a fall on wed I had to get a first aider to sort my face out I hope I get compensated for what we had to put up with I cant send photos as im 84 and cant work the new phones

Was trying to book a holiday for 7 adults and 2 children for 3 caravans near each other as 2 adults have mobility issues so needed to be near each other sent emails no reply, had to ring up in the end and was informed that we'd have to book individually and that there was no guarantee that they would be near each other but once booked we could then ring up pay extra to request to be near each other but this wasn't guaranteed either

Which I said this wasn't acceptable
I was informed that we could cancel the holiday but would have to wait 35 days for a refund, what sort of encouragement is that to book with you
That is discrimination for disabled people who have limited mobility and need to be near family
So I've not booked but the other 2 families have because your policy stinks

Good afternoon,

My partner and myself paid to camp on your site last weekend{7th -10TH April 2023}.On using the showers we only had very lukewarm water For the three days that we had to use them. Lovely underfloor heating in the showers on the first day but not on any of the other days. No weather warnings were given to any of us camping in your fields{I know that your unable to control the weather}! Also there was a lot of arguing and smoking of cannabis on two nights that was very unpleasant and intimidating when walking past the group responsible .Concerns were raised about this and the behaviour of the groups children who were shouting and swearing to others in the amusement arcade area with members of staff stood near them. On Friday night we went to watch the band play but was disgusted with the amount of popcorn spilt on the floor and not cleaned and dirty table tops that were only cleaned once it was closing time!

Caravan hadn't been cleaned, worktop full of crumbs, table sticky, toothpaste marks in bathroom along with a kids tooth brush, crumbs all over the floor, dried beans in the drawers, kitchen sink had been blocked. Which no one came to fix so my partner who's a plumber had to unblock it which isn't good enough cost us £309 for this caravan and also drove 4.5 hours to get there for it yo be disgusting. With covid still going around hygiene is very important

My child went on the climbing wall Saturday 29/10/22 and rebooked for Sunday 30/10/22 but my Child was 3 minute's late for a safety talk on the Sunday and was told he could not go on it! No more slots for our last evening! He even still had the blue wrist band on from the Saturday!

No refund given or even offered! What a joke!

Booking Ref [protected]

Order confirmation number: BHAMGP3R

26TH SEPTEMBER 2022

Allocated accessable caravan as requested, I have to use my electric wheelchair most of the times due to illness and disabilities.

On breaking seal saying caravan had been thoroughly cleaned my wife and I found there was an extremely strong smell of bleach. We soon realised this was masking a very unpleasant smell coming from the area of the small bedroom.

on looking around we found the seating areas all to be dirty and very badly stained, the edges of the flooring dirty, carpets stained, bathroom/wet room dirty. Sliding door to bathroom broken. Window in lounge area broken taped up with black tape.

Called reception, a member of staff came to investigate looked all around caravan took notes and photographs, acknowledged the horrid smell but like us could not identify where it originated from. She agreed that the caravan was unfit for us to stay in. there Unfortunately there wasn't another assessable van available.

We said we would book in to a hotel for the night before returning the 160 miles home next day.

We waited in our car while the staff member went away to see if there was some alternative accommodation we might find suitable if not she would assist us with finding a hotel.

On return she asked that we look at a superior caravan with decking and only three steps up. I managed to enter using my two walking sticks. The caravan was clean with large showers ,so although it wasn't ideal we decided to accept this and manage as best we could. It was a lovely caravan very clean and comfortable but due to my mobility issues I did encounter many problems. so we decided to return home a day early.

The points I wish to make

This caravan should not have been passed as clean and suitable to let.

No customer should be expected to live in such filthy conditions.

The manager of the site should have at least contacted us with an apology

and inspected the caravan personally to hopefully ensure appropriate action was taken to ensure a customer never had such a distressing start to their holiday.

dear heaven

on the 28th of September there was a power cut on site. power went out about 1am. Because of this we had to go out n paid for breakfast. we came back to caravan later that day after we received a message say power was back but we still did not have power due to power box tripping its self. We lost loads of food including loads of home made baby food. We also didn't have any hot water for hours after as the boiler had lost all pressure and had to wait for someone to come out and that left a 7 year old a 6 year old and a 9 month baby with no heating n very cold. We contacted reception bout this and they basically said they cant do anything. I am one very unhappy customer and thinking bout going somewhere else for my holidays from now one if this is not sorted

my thanks

Hi on booking holiday through Haven, asking to be near complex due to health issues at moment, long covid breathing problems in and out of hospital. adviser informed me he would put this onto the computer/notes he did say to secure nearer if any available at a cost, i have now contacted Haggerston Castle direct there to ask where my caravan is and being told its the new part and couldn't be any further away, right at the back. The lady informed me that this in generated, or caravan picked through a computer so why wasn't i informed of this at the time. this holiday is supposed to be relaxing for myself and now this has left me completely distressed and not wanting to come, I have been using Haven for many years now this will be my 3rd at Haggerstson Castle, even when i attended the last time i asked to be near due to my mum being with us on that holiday who uses 2 sticks to walk, and had just went through surgery, we were right next to complex, I am honestly so upset and worrying about this holiday.

booking reference [protected]

Mhairi Mathieson

[protected]@hotmail.com

We have booked haven vliff holidays with referencr number ([protected]), and canelled it on the next day as my child was unwell. Thy said money will be in the account with in 28days. At the end of Augut when I rang them, they said, they have some mistake in the amount and they get it prioritised to get the refund. Now I contacted them again they were saying yhe same thing. I am very disappointed with your service and looking forward to know why this had happend.

Check in was between 5 and 6. Didn't get checked in till 6 with a 2 year old had nowhere to nap or relax.

Buggy which we asked if we could rent on the day, were told about 3 times by staff to keep coming back later which eventually by 7 we got one

Broken bench in the caravan with screws sticking out and also with a plank of wood lay on the side surely breaches health and safety when we have a 2 year old and 4 year old running around. Nothing done about this even tho reported and was still stuck there in caravan by the check out day

Staff unhelpful and under trained with ridiculous queues and no information about how long stuff would be. Burger King with no burgers being served

Entertainment lounge with no space for children and when spoken to haven I have been told in a very snotty manner that I shouldn't let me child sit in the stairwell. Explaining to a 4 year old he can't watch the entertainment he's been looking forward to because every table is taken isn't easy. My child had an awful time from start to finish

All activities were fully booked and booking slots is difficult with a 2 year old who still naps and needs fed as specific times however when complaining was told i should book 4 weeks in advance. Clearly not taken into account you can't just plan activities like this around a 2 year old. Swimming always fully booked as people just booking it early regardless if they will go or not and haven allow this

Only 3 beds out of the 4 made up for us on check in, so although no hardship a snotty response explaining that one bed was forgot to made up by the cleaning team simply doesn't cut it when I pay for a holiday and have to hang around till 6pm.

Holidays a shambles from start to finish and I won't go back. Even the email from my complaint has been met with a snotty response and contradicting manner

Thanks

Greg