Butlins Shoreline Hotel

4 readers found this review helpful

We booked 4 days of fun and joy for the children (3 & 7 yrs) & us.Reality was So disappointing.The experience was akin to living in a shopping mall.
The food was appalling.Shoreline Hotel offers processed crap food at restaurant prices.A chilli con carne was kidney beans and tinned sauce,no meat.Apalling. When we complained staff weren't concerned.Seemed that was the norm!
Fish & Chips at Finnegans stayed with you for hours!!!!
The site is overpopulated and can only get worse with the building of a new hotel.If you want to go to Splash World get in the queue early and expect queues to get on a ride.
The Redcoats venue needs to be refurbished,it smelt appalling.
On a positive note the room in the Shoreline was pleasant and comfortable.
The hotel is showing signs of wear and tear.Carpets stained,walls marked and dirty windows restrict views of the sea.
Butlins please get a grip.Arcade machines,volumes of processed food,mall entertainment and views of a car park do not add up too a good holiday.
If you need to experience Butlins go to you nearest shopping mall,purchase a pack of sandwiches,find a bench and watch the locals smoking themselves to death in the cold winter air. When you've had enough go home satisfied that you haven't wasted hard earned cash here.

3 readers found this review helpful

Visited in Apr 2008 to the Shoreline Hotel. With 2 young children aged 5 & 2 the Butlins experience was ideally suited to them. As the other reviews state the food selections were pretty "junk food" not really many opportunites to eat your 5 a day!!
The hotel rooms are really well equipped, clean and child friendly. My kids really enjoyed the bunk bed area that was equipped with their own tv & dvd player.
The entetainment was of an excellent standard although hard to get a seat at an evening time. We found the staff to be friendly & attentive. We hope to return very soon.

2 readers found this review helpful

We are a young family with a 2 year old daughter. We had the bed breakfast and dinner option. We found that the rooms were ok , but the food was not worth it at the hotel.Luckily the dinner vouuchers were transferable at other eateries . The food in the papa Johns was excellent .
The staff seemed a bit uninterested and stressed.They completely got a simple ordrer for a glass of white and a pint of calsberg wrong,the baimaid served red wine and a shandy .(no real apology given)
THe setting at shoreline restraunts not really ideal for a young child that cant sit still.The rest of the resort was brilliant and we thorougly enjoyed it ,its very good value for money.
I will recomend not to eat in the Hotel as the other places were excellent and more children friendly for anybody with kids.

2 readers found this review helpful

It was discusting. All the staff were so rude to me and one even swore at another member of staff in my presence. The kids were treated really badly when i dropped them off at the play centre. The food was terrible because it wasnt even cooked right. My room service was terrible and my towels that had been replaced hadnt been cleaned at all. When i first arrived i saw a rat in my room which i was discusted at. The other holiday members were extremely rude. I also found that alot of the time our restaurant had double booked us so we had to wait for our table. The coach driver got lost so we missed our evening meal and the tour guide left us to find our room key and room for ourself. When my children went on the rides they wernt proper safety regulations were not followed. The maid did not lock my door when she had finished so several of my possesions were stolen. My insurance did not cover this and Butlins did not accept liability.

1 reader found this review helpful

Fantastic rooms well equipped clean and tidy. Great views if you are on the west side of the hotel on upper floors.
The site had some renovations taking place but did not spoil the holiday itself. The skyline was well decorated for Xmas and New Year, kept very clean during the holiday even after New Year’s Eve party, would recommend to people and families of all ages.

2 readers found this review helpful

After being slightly nervous of going to Butlins, I have to say, myself, my family and the friends we went with have just had the most fabulous weekend there!
We stayed in the Shoreline hotel in the Columbus quarters with a sea view and were there for the Halloween/ firework weekend. As soon as we arrived we were really pleased with the hotel, the rooms were clean and well designed, fantastic for the kids as well as the adults.
There is so much to do that you have to decide which activities you would like to fit in as it is impossible to do them all, the kids were never bored, they loved the pool, the fair rides, archery, football etc. We went to see Cinderella which was great and a band in the evening which again was really good.
There are plenty of places to eat, although you do come home craving vegetables!
The firework display was fantastic - well above our expectations, truly the best display I have seen, very impressive!
All in all a great long weekend which my family and friends will definitely be booking again for 2008 - well done Butlins!

1 reader found this review helpful

We've just returned from the Shoreline Hotel in Bognor Butlins. We've been to a lot of other holiday parks with the kids with the big companies and to be honest Butlins knocks them all into submission.
We had never been to Butlins before and had no clue what to expect but the hotel was lovely. It was clean and well maintained and the breakfasts were great and really set you up for the day.
You got a choice of a traditional English breakfast or more continental pastries, cereals, yoghurts, toast, porridge, and various drinks. The kids are busy all day and although I took a bag of toys for them they never even opened it...I can't say the same when we've been away in this country before. We even took them to the cinema for the first time, lovely being able to take two toddlers in to see a film with no worries about if we would be allowed in, (They do ask that if your child starts screaming that you take them out and return when they're calmer). Our kids loved the free trampolines and carousel.
I have rated this a 9 because as with all holidays there were things that in our opinion spoilt it slightly.
A bottle of water on site is £1.39 in Tesco its 36p. If you need to get supplies take the 10 minute walk into Bognor and visit Morrison’s (if memory serves me correctly). The onsite shop is convenient but very overpriced.
To get to see the evening entertainment and get a seat near the front (ideal if you have toddlers that like to dance) you have to start lining up at the doors a good 45 mins before they open and when they do open it's every man for himself. We sent my Husband dashing up the stairs to grab a table while I had to wait for the lift which is VERY SLOW and can only fit one buggy and one adult in at a time.
We went on the week that Butlins was hit by a violent stomach bug (see Sun headline Hi de hurl on 21/09/07) but despite people being sick all round the place we had no official news from staff. All of our party was sick on our return.
Also be aware that as lovely as the Hotel is your room only has a fridge...take away food sounds great but after the third day of eating it sitting on your bed the novelty wears off. We found there was little healthy food options and the hotel restaurant was quite pricey. By the end of the holiday you will be sick of burgers and pizza and craving some veg. We did see a Beefeater (or something like it) on the sea front toward Bognor town centre but didn't get the chance to try it.
We also got the impression when booking that the characters (Bob the Builder and Billy Bear etc) wandered the camp talking to the kids when instead they dash through the camp from one job to another and if you try to stop them they normally say 'no, sorry we've got to go'. You can of course have breakfast with them for nearly 30 quid per child.
We were also aware that the atmosphere changed towards the weekend as you seemed to have different people staying. Instead of the family atmosphere that had been there all week there were a lot more roaming teenagers towards the end of the week. We didn't see any trouble though.
And my last pet peeve was that nearly all the staff bar the Redcoats seem to be European which kind of gives the impression of cheap labour which tarnishes the Butlins name a little. Also some of them don't speak brilliant English.
These are minor moans though, please don't be put off...the good does outweigh any bad in our opinion. I just think it's nice to be forewarned. These really are little niggles. We've already booked for next year so can't be all bad and I can honestly say we're normally super picky but we all came back thoroughly exhausted and we've really enjoyed ourselves. This holiday is great if you have small children but we found the food issue a big problem so will be going self catering next time.
Go and enjoy.

I usually go to Butlins on my own, just to get away from things at home, I thought being a holiday camp I'd be safe going on my own.
The hotel itself was really nice, and the staff where friendly too. I found my room and then struggled with the key card that I had been given at reception. The way they said to use it didn’t work. When I finally managed to open the door and entered the room I was gobsmacked. It was actually quite nice, spacious, well cleaned, and tidy.
King size bed, I was in heaven. The TV was a bit small but I suppose they don’t want you to sit in the hotel room watching TV. The bathroom was nice with complimentary toiletries, there was a small children’s room with bunk beds too.
I left the hotel room to go and have a look around the park, and boy was I shocked, the chalets where something you would expect to see in Hi De Hi and didn’t look to clean, clearly they needed knocking down and started again.
I only booked the room and soon wished that I had booked dinner and breakfast too. There was nowhere I could get a decent brekkie from and by time lunch came I'd given up hope.
All I could find was Burger King and a fish and chip shop. Bearing in mind butlins is aimed at families with children it doesn’t exactly have anywhere to get a healthy meal from.
Day times are really quite boring when it comes to adults, the only things going on is children’s shows, ideal if you take your kids but I wouldn’t recommend going on your own.
By day 2 I was depressed and really wanted to go home.

1 reader found this review helpful

I wanted a weekend away by myself earlier in the year but was a bit concerned about going on my own, so a friend recommended Butlins.
The Shoreline Hotel was absolutely gorgeous and the staff where really helpful,
the room I stayed in (Columbus) was the best I've seen in ages, a nice king size bed, LCD TV, leather chairs, tea and coffee which is refilled every day, a mini fridge, and the view was quite good too.
The only complaint I had was the fact the air conditioning kept switching itself on.
There's also loads to do for the children, and plenty to do in the evening
Even on the day I checked out the staff where still polite and even phoned a taxis for me.
I would definitely be recommending them to friends and family.

1 reader found this review helpful

This resort was not only very unwelcoming it was also not very clean. The food was very poor and the facilities left a lot to be desired.
Because it was remote from the town things of local interest were far and few.
Regrettably this resort made me think of the HI-Di-Hi programme and the surroundings were even less modern.