Pontins Brean Sands

3 readers found this review helpful

Arrived ate in restaurant the first night food was disgusting part cold part hot. We stayed half board. So we were meant to eat breakfast and evening meals in pontins.
I say meant to but yes we got ill and it was only because we ate there. I have a higher certificate in health and safety so i know what food posoining is!.
I found out food is not cooked on premises so wherever it is cooked is not up to standard.
I complained about the food and the fact that i had got ill and staff were very aggresive and unapologetic.
The chalet was disgusting and dirty and the matresses had holes in them the bedding was very dirty. we found cockroaches in room and there was no toilet roll! (not good if you are ill!).
I complained again and was offered an upgrade i asked for my money back and was refused!
Was told i could cook my own food instead.
Staff filled up the orange juice on top of the remaining old orange juice this was done 24 to 30 hours before breakfast!
The tables were very shabby and a health hazard.
Just to add insult to injury no Wifi like advertised.
The park also offers an all you can eat breakfast buffet which is not true at all. they should stop calling it a buffet.
I was not the only one to get sick others got sick to with vomiting.
I will say to everyone never ever go here especially the elderly disabled or children because food posoining can Kill BEWARE!!!!
My children never want to go here again they hated it and we had the holiday from hell!
We will go to Butlins in future.

3 readers found this review helpful

If we had gone self catering this would have been a 2!
We booked through the Sun Holiday Offer and, yes, you get what you pay for. The chalets (not apartments) were very old and in dire need of updating. That said, they were clean, the kitchens were adequately equipped and there was lashings of hot water for showers, baths, etc.
The furniture was extrenmely uncomfortable - I can only say I was pleased the weather was so good that we hardly spent any time at all in the chalet. The bed was so poor it put my husband's back out, and that has never happened before, even when camping.
The food was OK. It wasn't brilliant, but we didn't pay the earth, and there was enough choice every night for all of us to have something different. Breakfast was a bit samey (?), but you could just have cereal or a bacon bap if you wanted.
One thing that did make me cross what the food was served in the Vic (the campt pub) and you had to go through the amusement arcade to get there. My kids are 3 and 5 and were mostly happy just to sit on the car and gun games with no money, but we still managed to spend a few pounds every breakfast and tea time. I should imagine this would be really difficult with older kids.
The leisure pool was a bit of a joke. The water was cold and murky, the slide was not operational and it was closed from 12 til 2 every day. When you had finished swimming, you could not shower as the water in the showers was absolutely freezing - your hand went numb just holding it under the shower to test it.
There were a few play areas for children outside which were great - climbing equipment and swings etc, but nearly everything else cost you money.
The park has apparently been bought by Britannia Hotels and they are carrying out some refurbishments. I did not see any 'laminate flooring' that the rep informed me was being laid, but I did see a lot of painting of exteriors - if that is all they are doing it is no where near enough and totally inadequate.
On the plus side, the staff were all really friendly and pleasant, particularly the waiting staff in the bar.

1 reader found this review helpful

attitude of staff getting of the keys like a cattle market. beds a disgrace dirty ants..

1 reader found this review helpful

Took my family here in April, the place was a absoulte disgusting pre war mess.
This is a disgrace and needs shuting down
I wrote a letter of compaint but no body came back to me
This place should go on watchdog bbc1

6 readers found this review helpful

We should still be on our holiday but chose to cut it short by two days due to the sub standard conditions at Pontins Brean! We arrived early and wanted to check out the facillities on the site we should have run whilst we had the chance! The indoor childrens play area was stark and unfriendly and was manned by a very strange woman who felt the need to interrogate anyone entering. Our 18 month old was not allowed to play in the same room as his 6 year old brother unless he stayed off the equipment and played on the grubby floor! We left this and decided to chance the outside park where we met other families who were talking about the horrific conditions that their accomodation was in. The check in was at 4pm and we were told by other holiday makers to get there early as you had to line up for your room key. When 4pm came we wre ushered into a hall with over 200 other people it was like being at a cattle market and very degrading once the keys were dished out there was a mad dash to get a parking space in the same area as you challet, needless to say it is a very stressful way to start your holiday! The challet is horrific, dirty dated and smelly the toilet didn't flush unless you put your hand in the cistern and held the ball cock down, the shower didn't work the sofa bed was filthy the bedding had blood on it and the tv had only two working channels. The rest of the park facillities look like they should be condemned every where has several layers of grime on it i couldn't wait to get home and have a shower we will never use a pontins again!!!

6 readers found this review helpful

What a total dump, filthy, run-down, a disaster waiting to happen.
And to top it all a heater fell off the wall narrowly missing my 90 year old mother.
Staff just useless.
My rating is 1 as not able to put 0

4 readers found this review helpful

Really looking forward to a nice weekend break with my husband and 13 year old son.Arrived to find check-in delayed til 5pm so decided to explore the camp.I cannot put into words the dread I felt as we wondered around. Dirty,old-fashioned,never imagined there were still hovels like this in 2011! The only nice, clean and welcoming part of the camp was the Nisa shop!!! Eventually got to our chalet and this only mirrored the rest of the place, full of offensive but unknown smells, cleaned surfaces but dirty underfoot and feeling dirty in general. unable to eat at the centre as we couldnt distinguish what was lurking in the greasy hot trolley, looked quite disgusting and screamed "salmonella". Ended up buying food from the shop and making our own. we did eat earlier in the restaurant opposite the camp called "The Place" which is highly recommended. went to bed and couldnt sleep due to extremely noisy neighbours(walls are paper thin)who decided to party for most of the night! even woken up early by the same people then next morning! This was the last straw and decided to leave for home after breakfast. I had read reviews before we left home but have always given places the benefit of the doubt, however, Pontins has changed this belief in the fact that I would NEVER visit a Pontins site again and be more trusting in the reviews of the general public in future.You have been warned!

4 readers found this review helpful

My family and I checked in no problem but on arriving at our chalet the first thing you notice is the poor conditions outside all the rooms, with paintwork peeling off and all the windows and door glass fogged up and subsided frames due to old age. On entering the rooms you then notice the smell of sweat ground in to all the furniture and the damp smell coming up through the floor in the bedroom. The bathroom smelt of urine and the floor had a sticky feel under your feet. On returning to reception to complain I encountered another gentleman complaining about the same thing as I was, and the reception staff though agreeable explained that all the other accomadation was the same as ours and that changing rooms would not rectify the situation, they did offer to reclean the room but I enquired about having a full refund if I was still not satisfied, which they accepted. Having the room sprayed with what I assume is disinfectant and air freshner to basically cover up the smell and thin bleach put down the loo, I was then informed by the cleaners that the damp smell was caused by the rainwater pipe outside being broken and leaking down the wall, but there were no signs of damp on the walls and being a plumber I think the smell was of damp sewage possibly from a cracked pipe underground. After the room being sprayed but still not clean my family and I went off site to find alterative accomodation to stay at and were successful in finding a loveley mobile home accross the road for less than we paid Pontins. We retuned to Pontins reception and received a full refund no problem, and once again encountered another family complaining about the same things as myself. I do believe this happens alot. The facilities I cannot comment on but the Queen Vic pub on site looked like it needed a facelift too.

4 readers found this review helpful

My husband and I pride ourselves for taking our grandaughter on holiday each year, bless her she is indifferent to the accomodation. My god I felt as if I was in army barracks or it could be described as a P.O.W accomodation. The smell of damp was apparrent, paint hanging of overhead window, you could,nt swing a cat(not that I would want to). The pull out bed was so uncomfortable and heavens knows the last time it was moved to be cleaned underneath. The icing on the cake was when they came around to PAT test electrical equipment and we were not informed a master key was used I see that as an invasion of privacy. We booked out a day earlier and paid for a mobile home it was bliss and so clean.

6 readers found this review helpful

First and last Sun Holiday,18th-22nd april.The apartment when we finally got it was cramped and smelt of cat urine.The apartments must be pre war, and i think the bed settee was the same age,pillows had footprints on, bedding was clean but tatty,glad i had the foresight to take an underblanket and my own pillows,even so we spent 3 nights vomiting with the smell we could not get rid of.We cut our holiday short as we could not spend another night in the place.We paid for entertainment passes and never needed them as there was no entertainment we wanted to do in such a dump, calling it a dump is the politest word i can think of.Captain Cod is a big rip off too, frozen chips and the fish was definately NOT cod, purchased cod and chips 4 times and recieved 3 bags chips and 4 fish.most of which went into the bin, it was foul.Still looking for the microwave, i think it was invisable,tried the heating to dry the towels , glad the weather was lovely coz there is no way those heaters gave out any heat.If you are 4 adults like we were i suggest you upgrade or better still go elsewhere.Staff were not even shocked when i told them the apartment smelt of cat urine, so i wonder how many others had the same complaint.I have told everyone i know to avoid the place like the plague.