Hollywood Bowl Peterborough — Attraction in Bretton

My husband came here with our young son yesterday like he often does. He was waiting at the bar area to order food... he had been waiting a while and everyone else was being served whilst he was ignored. After 20 mins he asked if he could be served and the man behind the bar carried on to ignore him. At this point my husband was annoyed with the poor service and did raise his voice because no one was serving him, at this point the man behind the bar called the security over which created an even bigger scene in front of our six year old son which I am most annoyed about. The security man wasn't even interested in my husband's side of the story and threatened to chuck him out. My husband tried to explain what had happened but the security was so ignorant towards him. The security man then tried to bribe my husband with vouchers for when he next returns to which my husband refused, which you wouldn't do if you knew the customer was in the wrong. My husband is not from this country and we are not ones to call the racism card but it certainly seemed that way and the man behind the bar had a disgraceful attitude!!! Not to mention how upset our son was to have witnessed this situation!...

We were given some free game vouchers, so we booked to take the two Grandkids. Due to the paper vouchers, I couldn’t book online, so called up and booked, being told I’d receive a confirmation email soon after. It never arrived. Today was 29° outside so we were hoping it would be cooler in the place. It wasn’t. They have air conditioning but it seemed to be a bit asthmatic and we were all perspiring. The first thing you come across when entering is a plethora of arcade machines, rigged claw grabbers and 10p (10p?!) pushers. The girl at the desk checked us in, but only set up the lane for one person, so then there was an indeterminable wait for it to be rectified. We ordered (very overpriced) drinks using the QR code on the menu. It says they’ll bring them to you, but despite them being prepared, they were left on the bar for around 15 minutes before I decided to go fetch them myself. This place is set up to milk money from you and doesn’t give a particularly good experience for it in return. Won’t be returning.

Edit: the generic feedback from the owner means nothing. There won't be a future visit because your establishment is appalling! And you now lose a star for the...

DO NOT BOOK ONLINE because if you need to cancel you will not get a refund only vouchers that are only valid for three months. We went to bowl on Tuesday after booking online as we were meeting family and this was a good halfway venue. Unfortunately a member of the family came down with covid, I rang to put the bowling centre at a cost of 7p per minute to be told they don’t refund and I should speak to the centre’s manager. When I spoke to the manager she said that she doesn’t have the ability to make refunds, I discussed my circumstances and was told to email, which I did to be told no.

I also had an issue with players not wearing face masks, when I spoke to the manager to ask what there policy was, she informed me that it was mandatory however rather than asking players to wear face masks she said she would turn up the announcements. That was a total waste of time, who would have guessed we are dealing with a pandemic. Not good enough Hollywood Bowl. After talking to a family member it appears my local Hollywood Bowl isn’t the only one that does enforce the wearing of face masks. Shame on you...