Camber Sands Holiday Park

We have been holidaying at this park for around 20 years and only ever experienced minor issues. We saved really hard for this years stay so we could upgrade to a "luxury" lodge - there was absolutely nothing luxury about this holiday and we have returned stressed, upset and nowhere near relaxed and refreshed. This holiday was so different and combined with Parkdean's appalling attitude we will NEVER EVER book with this company again. Below is the long list of issues - and despite a long, drawn out complaints process with Parkdean - all we were offered was a 20% voucher for our next stay (as I said, completely useless as will never use this company again) or a 10% refund on the money we paid for the holiday - zero compensation for the rotten food; extra expense of dining out; and 1.5 days of holiday lost. They wouldn't even offer us a replacement holiday for next year with a guarantee of luxury accommodation with no major issues!! Here are the issues: Issue 1 – Start of the holiday On arrival at the park, our accommodation was not ready for us at 4pm when we had advised we would be arriving. In fact it was 45 mins before the team of 4 Parkdean staff had finished and allowed us access. When one of them approached our car he apologised for the wait and said that they were trying to fix the cupboard door just inside the entrance, but unfortunately they could not fix it. On entering the Lodge, we found that the cupboard door wasn’t even in the property (and they did not leave with it) – therefore there was no possible way that this team were trying to fix a non-existent door! A different maintenance worker arrived within the next 10 mins to measure up for a new cupboard door, and said he’d be back asap, but he never returned over the next 6 days we were staying on park. We didn’t think that this would be any kind of negative factor to our holiday, but soon realised that when the boiler fired up, without the door on the cupboard, it was very loud to the point of drowning out the TV. Issue 2 – The Accommodation The luxury lodge was very spacious but we soon realised that it was not in a good state of repair or cleanliness. Here are some of the issues which we encountered: • The bottoms of the showers were ingrained with black dirt. • Window ledges and windows had dead bugs on them. • The 2 sofas were very badly stained. • The dining room chairs were very badly worn, meaning that they scratched legs when sat on, and also the black vinyl peeled off and found its way all over the carpets. • The coffee table in the lounge had the plastic edging hanging off which scratched legs as we walked past. • The bedside tables in the 3 bedrooms were all put into the main double bedroom, so we put them back to where they should be (why did the cleaners not do this?) • The radiators in 2 of the bedrooms didn’t work. • There were only 2 bedside lamps in the three bedrooms, one of which did not work. • The washer dryer was broken. On reporting thi

At first we had an issue with our boiler and we kept having to call for help . They where always quick to attend. Eventually the decision was taken to move us as we had two small children and the boiler kept going into fault. We ended up moving on the third day of our 7 day holiday which became a bit of a hassle as packing up for 5 people was hard and then the new accommodation wasn't ready till half 12 which meant we lost a whole day of our holiday. We where placed into a beautiful new caravan and carried on enjoyed the holiday. The park was clean and tidy (with exception of the toilets in the arcade) could have definitely done with a clean. It was quite and security always around which made it feel very safe. Especially for a young family. We booked for the messy play and the kids enjoyed themselves so much. Would definitely recommend. To conclude we would definitely recommend this holiday park.

We arrived early evening after a long drive with two young children to be given keys to a filthy, disgusting caravan that had not been cleaned since the last guests. There was rubbish everywhere, dirty cutlery, no hoovering, filthy bathrooms (toilet not even flushed since last use), a terrible smell, and beds unchanged. We immediately contacted the out of hours team who came to have a look and promised to find a clean caravan. After waiting over an hour and a half we chased the out of hours person who advised that all the spare caravans were just as dirty as they had a shortage of cleaners. She then told us that cleaners would be arriving within 15 minutes to prepare the caravan we were already in (as promised by the manager she was in contact with). We were sceptical, and after waiting another hour and chasing up again, she could not answer directly as to whether any cleaners were coming at all that evening. At no point did the manager contact us that evening to apologise or reassure us. We eventually had to make the very difficult decision by 11pm to leave the holiday park, as there were still no cleaners as promised or alternative solutions provided. Also, just to clarify that we had received numerous emails from Parkdean in advance confirming our booking and that they were expecting us etc. We had given them details of our arrival time, so they had plenty of time to prepare and clean the caravan in advance (“professionally!” as promised...). We then had to spend over a month fighting for a refund after being promised this numerous times by one of the on-site managers. She also promised to do her best to offer us a future discount. This was never forthcoming, and we had to go to Parkdean directly on multiple occasions to ask for a refund only to be told that the actual park are the only ones who can issue a refund – so beware! We eventually received a refund, but never got the future discount voucher. Appalling customer service in all respects and we will never be returning to Parkdean resorts after this experience!