Hollywood Bowl Basingstoke — Attraction in Basingstoke and Deane

I'd like to share my experience at Hollywood Bowl Basingstoke and explain why I gave it one star, although if I could have given it less, I would have been happy to do so.

On my girlfriend's birthday, we visited Hollywood Bowl Basingstoke, with the aim of playing pool and taking photos of the game with an old Nikon camera from 2013 (you will understand why I specified the year of the camera's release). At first, everything was fine, we were playing and taking photos, until a security guard came up to us and told us that it was prohibited to take photos here, we said okay, he went away and we continued to take photos, because in a public place it is not prohibited to take photos and there are no restrictions on it. After that, he came up to us again, paid attention to us again, and I asked him why we couldn't take photos in a public place. He gave me an incomprehensible answer and we decided not to take any more photos.

However, my girlfriend didn't like this situation and asked the guard about it, and he told her to talk to the administrator. And the most interesting thing is that he himself could not explain why it was prohibited to take photos in their establishment. Let me remind you that this is a public place, and their website does not have any prohibitions on taking photos with a camera or phone, or any kind of photo/video. My girlfriend showed him that there were no rules on their website prohibiting taking photos and he replied that yes, it was their fault for not stating that and still did not allow photos. He started telling us that he had also spent many years playing the photographer, but why do we need his life stories? Then my girlfriend asked him what was the difference between a photo on a phone and a camera, why is it possible to take photos on a phone and not on a camera? He replied that a camera is a professional tool, so you need to ask permission and that you can print photos from cameras and all that. I wonder if he thinks you can't download or print photos from your phone? And as I wrote earlier that the camera is from 2013, and the phone is from 2024, and as many people know, phones now take very good and high-quality photos, and this incompetent administrator clung to the fact that the camera is a professional tool and you can create some content with it, the funny thing about this is that there are now a lot of photos/videos taken on the phone and they are definitely better in quality than the camera from 2013.

After that, he started telling us that other people might appear in the photo, in response to which my girlfriend opened the camera on her phone, pointed it at our friends who were playing pool at the time and asked if he saw any other people there, to which he replied "No, however, they might appear in the frame". Nobody expected such a ridiculous answer, this man was telling us that he used to walk around with a camera and taking photos, but in reality he doesn't know the difference between a photo and a video? Where a photo is a certain moment, and a video is a certain period of time that moves in time, and it's true that people can get into the frame, but we make a PHOTO.

In the end it ended up with him telling us "Okay, I can tell you this and you can take pictures, but it's all at your own risk". What risk? It's a public place where there are no rules about taking photos or videos, only incompetent staff who can't even explain in any logical way why it's prohibited.

Unfortunately, I do not know the name of this administrator, but it is outrageous to see such...

Visited on the 20th of July for my daughters 7th birthday (not a party booking). Booked online for 6.20pm for one game between 4 children. ordered a pitcher of slush puppie for 6.99 which was given as an option through the online booking system. On arrival there wasn't a que at the desk, all seemed fine, we got given lane 26 and told to que at the food desk for the slush puppie pitcher. This is where it went down hill.... I was waiting at the food bar for a good half hour. There was just one lad on shift for the alcohol bar, people that came to the bar area after me, got served before me. This was not the lads fault, they were clearly understaffed and the poor lad was struggling on his own. Eventually I got served by a young lady, I ordered nacho's, two lot's of chips and handed her my voucher for the slush puppie pitcher. I also asked for a pint of bud, (it clearly says above the food point "beers available". She said she can't serve me beer I have to go to the bar. Then the card machine on the food bar gave up on her so she had to move my order to the bar.... So I asked... "now I am at the bar, can I order a pint of bud at the same time?"....she said no because she was underage. That's fair enough on her part, it's not her fault. But maybe on a busy Saturday night, employ 18 and overs for the bar?. Any way.....everything was ordered then she went to pour our slush puppie pitcher, she said it wasn't freezing so handed me back my voucher and told me she would come to my lane and bring the pitcher for us. My kids were thirsty so I ordered a pint of coke for them to share for the mean time.

Went to our lane, started playing. Half way through one of my children got a strike. But the screen still said it was her turn, pressed the help button. Waited for someone to arrive but no one did. So I went looking for a member of staff and asked if she can sort it out for us. She said, if we throw a bowl down the lane it will reset the screen. Did that, and it came up as a spare rather than the strike my daughter had made. Eventually the food came towards the end of the game... I must say, the chef that brought it to us was polite and the food was actually really good. So no complaints there. We asked him about the pitcher of slush we were still waiting for. He asked for a description of the girl that took our voucher, then she came to our lane shortly after to explain that the machine was not working and offered coke instead..... Now having 4 children under the age of 10....of course they will say yes to coca cola!. But I had already purchased a pint of coke so preferably would of liked a refund offered, and the fact I ordered online... I expected it to be waiting on my lane I booked. So maybe state that you still que. Seems pointless booking online if you still have to line up at the food bar!

At the end of the game it didn't come up with the winner, ended up going to the arcades which the 2p and 10p machine was empty.

I may seem like I'm having a right old moan, but this is the first complaint I've ever made. It wasn't the young staff members fault, they were rushed off thier feet and it must of been a stressful shift for them. I only saw 4 staff members, otherwise I would of complained last night to management, but that would of been unfair on them taking up thier time. I would of gave one star but the two stars is for the staff that are clearly...

Awful! We booked two games in the Laser Tag as an Easter Treat. We are a family of 5 and the children were really looking forward to it. The children are 9, 12 and 13. We got there 10 minutes before the first game but there was no one on the desk. When the man appeared, he told us we were late as we had missed the briefing. He got us ready quickly but we joined the game 5 minutes late. This was fair enough if we were late.... We were surprised by the amount of rules as we had been to quite a few different laser tags before. This one had NO running, No standing still, No shouting, No crouching..... it didn't feel like we were about to have fun. We went in and it was quite empty. We separated ourselves into two teams. Me and my 13 year old against my wife and the other two children. After 5 minutes my wife came to get me as she said our sons gun pack had stopped working. We went to find the staff member and he said that it had gone off because our son must have ran. My wife assured me that they had been together and he had hardly run but had been following us, trying to shoot us. The staff member said, 'I'm sorry but he needs to leave the game'. We asked if he could reset the pack but he said no, he was disqualified from that game now. He went to take his pack off him and my son burst out crying. I tried to give my son my pack but the staff member said that wasn't allowed either. Obviously, we weren't going to let our 9 year old wait outside on his own for the game to finish on his own so we all left. The staff member had no empathy at all. We did stay for the second game but there was only us and 3 other people. Whilst just walking around, it was okay but far from enjoyable. We paid almost £50 for this. It was NOT worth it. Our son left upset and our other two couldn't believe how boring the centre had managed to make something that is supposed to be fun. No wonder it was so empty. We won't be going back. Such a shame as Bournemouth and other centres that we have been to before are great. Easter fun?...