Tasman Holiday Parks - Picton — Hotel in South Island

Never again!! An absolutely disappointing and upsetting experience that spoiled our holiday with friends and family.

Having had a wonderful experience at Tasman Picton in Dec 2023 we rebooked in Jan 2024 for Dec 2024 for 2 weeks. Given the size of our group’s vehicles, they offered to place us on the tent village for our stay and blocked out the whole village for us. At no time during the numerous communications during the year, or when we all checked in, did they advise us of any issues with our booking. At check in, it was again confirmed we had the whole village and told to park anywhere so, with no other guidance, did just that, assuming enough space to adequately setup but leaving plenty of room for other campers.

The following day we were told we were taking up too much room and needed to condense our footprint, resulting in 3 setups on the equivalent of less than 2 sites. Day 2, we were told to move from the tent village to other sites when space allowed, as the tent village was for tents only - at that stage tents had already been packed in around us. We checked the sites on offer - the ones situated together were not big enough to accommodate our individual setups and the only other alternative had our group distributed around the park, not ideal for a group holiday.

After several discussions with the camp manager, she suggested emailing the regional manager. After an entire day of emailing to and fro and having to remind them of their contractual obligation and the expectation we be allowed to stay put until we checked out, the regional manager finally agreed.

However, the win was not ours, the camp manager then set out to make our stay as difficult as possible - there were many empty sites around the park and yet they packed tents in all around us, to the point we had difficulty moving around and accessing our setups, parking cars etc. We were told to move the car we had in the communal carpark onto our camp site or we’d be towed, and yet there was NO room; and one of our group was sworn at by the camp manager for having 1 wheel of their car slightly on the access road because, again, there was no room to get it in properly.

Speaking to many other campers, including those who have been coming to the park for more than 30 years, revealed many very disgruntled, unhappy campers, following the treatment they’d also received.

Aside from the appalling treatment, the facilities are very run down, filthy (including the constantly disgusting condition of the toilets), and supplies such as dishwashing liquid, hand soap and hand towels, normally provided at a holiday park, were sparse to non-existent.

Shame on you Tasman for treating our group and many others the way you did. We’re voting with our feet and will...

I am not normally one to leave reviews, but do rely on them when I am travelling; I do feel in this instance travellers must be forewarned of what to expect with this particular holiday park.

We stayed for 10 days last December/January, and found the park a fantastic place to stay; it is handy to town, the facilities were clean and tidy and the staff were wonderful to deal with.

So we made the decision, at the end of our stay to come back to this wonderful place, and recreate our fabulous 2023 holiday (we booked and paid our deposit while leaving the park).

Our lovely friends, who were also staying, decided to do the same, and also rebooked for their site (the tent village) for two large motor homes, a smaller motorhome. When one of the motor homes was unable to stay, we asked if we could be moved to their spot on the tent village, which at that time was not a problem (and we have numerous emails confirming all of this).

Well, what a disaster of a trip we have just experienced; the park has deteriorated markedly (the toilets and bathrooms are just feral); an extremely unhelpful and hostile manager literally ruined our holiday, clipboard Karen was on a rampage nearly every day, demanding us to move as we were taking up too much space; demanding we move as caravans and campers are not allowed on the tent village (despite us having email confirmation that we had the WHOLE tent village to our group); packing in as many tents and travellers as she could into the tent village around us (despite there being numerous empty spots in the camp).

I wholeheartedly give this camp a one star review, I would give it a zero star review if I could. We are leaving this poxy place early, and abandoning our paid nights as we cannot face another day of CK demands; I salute you CK with my middle finger! And vow we will not...

We usually stay at this accommodation when going to and from the North Island and South.

Accommodation in all categories is five star however not this time. We had a late check-in, our room had a really bad odor smell and the bathroom was worse. We were killing flys and other bugs for a couple of hours. It was very late at night when we checked-in and the office was closed, we didn't consider it an emergency so we thought after a 10 hour drive we will just suck it up have a sleep and book elsewhere.

I had a conversation with the manager who said they will organize a refund but it's been a few weeks now. The site cleaner said they had already advised reception staff (previous to our check-in) that the room we slept in needed to be deep cleaned and not suitable to hold any bookings. The site manager also advised their was a mix up with the rooms and will organize a refund via booking.com as thats who i booked via. I've been advised by booking.com that they could not come to resolution with Tasman Holiday Park. No refund from Tasman Holiday Park has been received.

Happy to edit review once both sides can come with an...