Butlin's Reviews

We could only book a few activities as they had all been over subscribed from the start. The few activities we could book were very amateur, low quality.
The apartment was disgusting as it hadn't been cleaned. Dirty plates, uneaten food, it was the worst I've seen. This was surprising given that we are supposed to be in the middle of a pandemic!? After searching th resort, I managed to convince a staff member to view the apartment after I disclosed that someone had left their clipboard and staff keycard in our room. After 2hr of sorting I managed to arrange to get the room cleaned, finally!
The whole trip was a let down for the same reason others have reported. The only reason I'm giving it 2 stars instead of one is because the children had fun (due to my wife and I over compensating and also going into town and the beach). The children loved splash world, which we managed to attend twice, which was great.
I'm sure it has the potential to be a fun holiday once they fix the cleanliness of the rooms and most importantly provide activities that can be booked and increase the quality of activities (no one under 40 knows who Dave Benson is, who's sourcing your entertainment? they are out of touch)
The only time I'd book Butlins again is if they had an activities guarantee policy e.g partial refund based on what you managed to book. You're being charged for the resort entertainment, but not receiving it, this seems unfair and poor value for money.

When you pay a lot of money you expect to get some value for your holiday. We are booked for 21st June and today (14th) we had an email to say activities are open to book within 45 minutes later nearly everything is booked up full. When contacting customer services they advise check on the day. What's the point in going if your paying all that money for just basically a place to sleep and eat. There was a reason I booked Butlins (Fairground, Shows for my 3 Year Old)

We were not told about the booking system and when we tried to book it was all full, The swimming, The shows, EVERYTHING wall booked up for the next month, The customer service were bad and I see that a lot more agree with me but Butlins does not care!!
Advise to anyone going: DONT GO

After having two butlins weekends cancelled due to the pandemic my kid's (5 and 7) were really looking forward to finally being able to go next weekend (11 June 2021).
That's was of course until I tried to book the children into certain activities, I kept getting the annoying message stating I was unable to book at this time, until the only slot available for the splash park was at 8pm to 9.30pm on the Sunday evening, which is pretty pointless for very young children who were so excited about that sole activity alone. The climbing wall is all booked up too after frantically trying to book alternative fun stuff for the children.
I tried to call butluns today in my lunch break but after 45 mins waiting in a queue for an available assistant I had no choice but to hang up, and lines are shut when my shift ends in the evening (I'm an NHS rsdiographer).
So, butlins you have ruined two little girls and both parents weekend and we haven't even got there yet.
Why book people in when you haven't got the resources to distribute the main activities fairly for all of your guests.
Ridiculous.

Been Butlins Skegness approx 21 times in the last 7 years and until this week was v happy but I think greed has taken over this place. Paid over a grand for a 5 day break was promised at least 2 swimming slots which didn't materialise everything fully booked rung up to complain and they still couldn't get me a swimming slot. They have this place at full capacity at the moment but the waterpark is restricted so you are booking up with false promises accommodation only cant even see a show. I strongly recommend staying away until covid restrictions are over otherwise you are paying way over the top for basically nothing.

Echo what most people are saying on here. Booked to go June and can only get 2 swim sessions. Everything else is fully booked.
Why are they over booking their resorts and not able to offer entertainment to all guests, they should at least share it out amongst guests as I suspect the people lucky enough to sit on their phone all day and book every activity within mins of the "allowed to book email been dropped" prob have 10 or more activities to attend whilst everyone else has little, or nothing. Disappointing.

Read reviews about shows being booked out, so called Butlins every week to ask when bookings would be open. First it was five weeks before the holiday, then three weeks, then no-one knew, then I was told would have to book on the day when we arrived. Butlins sent a link out ten days before but, by the time we got to it, everything had been booked out. No shows, no swimming, nothing - We then had to spend hours on hold on the phone only to be told that we would need to rebook our holiday for a different date later in the year and pay a lot more to do so. Even then, there's no guarantee of getting anything booked. They claim to have all these free activities and shows, take your money, then tell you that nothing they advertised is available. They need to be reported for false advertising.

Book for a 3-night stay and starting the 21st of May 2021. You have to book activities and events through the app. Total app crash and keeps saying failed to load. Butlins email us acknowledging there is a massive failure with their system and gave a link to book events and activities through a web browser only to find all items booked! Might as well just of booked a B&B, what a joke Butlins.
This system is so unfair!!!
Well on the stay it got even worse. App continued to break and the only way to get into a activity or show was with the app working to show that you had booked for the event. No app working and the rough nightclub bounce, yes bouncers! Removed your from the line and said tough!
The shows I did get into were over half empty and can only assume these people did not turn up or was denied access due to Butlins failing app!
Talk with manger about the problems on site. Paul and all you could say is you have a crisis meeting everyday at 5pm to discuss the issues they are having! If there’s a daily crisis meeting then there’s some serious problems they know about and are unable to address them! Though profit before problem and let the paying customers bare the brunt!
So basically Butlins has had a year to test and sort out any issues and it seems the management have just stuck their heads in the sand.
Poor costumer service Butlins very poor

Have had two holidays cancelled due to covid in the last year
Have never received money back until i have threatened legal action and complained via resolver
I will be taking them to court this time to claim for late payment interest
They have no right to hold onto millions of pounds of customers money

Fantastic PHENOMENAL, Reputable and Kind Honest Company.My,Mum God Bless her, before she departed.Took,my Younger Brother,every year.Mum,had a Gold Card and I thank Butlins,for the Fantastic Memories of Lovely Holidays,for my Family.Whom,were looked after Exceptionally on every Holiday...One,of the most renowned, reputable, honourable, Holiday Company's, throughout the WORLD...

We went to Butlins in 2019 and really enjoyed our time there. We booked for Tots Week in 2020 but it was during the lock down so decided to move it to December. Butlins remained closed after the November lock down so this time we asked for a refund. We were told the refund would take 28 days, which is a ridiculous length of time to wait but we did. When the money still didn’t arrive I contacted them again to be told the form (they filled in) hadn’t been filled in properly so the refund had been rejected... but has now been put through their “push through” requests but will still take 5-7 working days. So now it’s Christmas that will be some time in January... So their process when they don’t fill in their own forms correctly is to just leave it and wait until you ring them up for your money. What a load of rubbish!
Butlins shame on you for the lies you come up with to hold on to peoples money. We will never come back!

Butlins Minehead so good we are going again in December.
Due to Covid we looked at holidaying in Britain and it has been nearly 30 years since we were last at Butlins so really weren't sure what to expect.
The booking was 2 adults for 4 nights (Mon 12th Oct to Fri 16th) in a Deluxe Suite with the food court dining package and we cannot fault anything.
From check-in to check-out all staff were so friendly and we felt safe and they were doing all they could to prevent Covid and cleaning all the time, but beware other visitors didn't seem to think that the rules applied to them.
Our apartment was very good with separate lounge, bedroom and bathroom areas all being much bigger than we were expecting. Along with the TV in the loung area, there was also a DVD player, plus a smaller TV in the bedroom both TVs running 'freeview/sat' channels.
The TV unit in the lounge also housed the kettle, had shelving, plus 2 cupboards, one of which had a drink & wine glasses, mugs, tea spoons the other one a surprisingly spacious mini fridge. Not sure if it was due to no housekeeping during our stay (Covid safety) but Butlins also supplied a tea towel & scrubber/sponge, washing up liquid and cloths (nice touch).
The bathroom had towel warmer (2 bath towels supplied), bath with shower over and VERY hot water.
The bedroom had a wardrobe, hairdryer, ironing board/iron, safe, bedside cabinets, and a very comfortable double bed.
Outside the apartment was a private patio area with table and chairs. The only downside to the room was that the walls were quite thin, so the loud talking neighbours were annoying waking us up before 6am each day.
All public indoor areas a face mask had to be worn (unless you were exempt) and not removed until you were seated and put on again when moving around the venues.
Food Court had a very good selection of hot food at breakfast and an amazing choice at dinner time, 4 prepacked salads, half a dozen freshly packed desserts, wide range of main courses, plus Vegan, Vegetarian and children's options, served by the staff,
so we never had a problem finding something to eat. Hunters Chicken was very nice.
The queues for food were never too long and they could serve 2 or 3 people at a time and just let them know what you would like (don't forget to ask for salt & pepper, sauces etc as there are no self service areas).
Coffee Counter. Cappuccino, orange, apple juice etc were available at breakfast and in the evening too.
Icecream was also available from the coffee counter in the evening.
The booking of shows, swimming on the Butlins app and the use of the venue NHS Covid app worked well and we soon got in the swing of using apps.
Swimming areas were surrounded by lifeguards and blew whistles when swimmers were doing something wrong. Masks had to be worn until you were in the changing area.
The flumes were well controlled too and we both enjoyed the raft ride (Master Blaster) and afterwards a gentle few times around the Lazy River.
The Fun Fair rides were cleaned after each go and masks had to be worn on Waltzer and Dodgems but not on the swings or carousal.
Evening shows were well controlled and the queues did not take long to get in. A good selection of shows for all ages and even for us oldies.
As we said above we had such a good time we are going again to Minehead in December and trying Bognor Regis in March.
A&K