Debden House Centre — Hotel in Epping Forest

We’ve been touring the UK in a motorhome for the last three weeks, and Debden House is by a long margin the worst - and most expensive - campsite we have stayed at so far.

Let’s start with the positives. We had a friendly welcome at check-in, and the campsite has good access to the rest of London via public transport. The nearest bus stop is a 15-20 minute walk away, and from there you can connect to other buses or the tube. The campsite itself is pleasant enough with several large fields and walking trails.

Now onto the reasons why I’m only giving this place a two-star review. Firstly, after arriving we connected our motorhome to the mains power but it wasn’t working. We tried a total of four different mains sockets, but none worked so I initially thought the problem was with our motorhome. It was actually a failure of the power supply at the camp ground. No matter, it was quickly resolved after a trip to reception. However, other pitches also had no power even after ours was restored. For the next two hours we had other campers coming to ask us if we had power as they didn’t. Everyone should have been told this at check-in.

The next morning my wife and I ventured down to the toilets at 7.30 am only to find them closed for cleaning. Not a good time to choose to do this.

Next, we went to fill our motorhome’s water tank up from one of the water filling stations. However, none of them have hose fittings so there was no way to fill your tank unless you had a bucket and funnel. I’ve never been to a campsite where the taps don’t have a fitting for a hose. So if you stay at this site, make sure you have a bucket and funnel.

Back to the toilets. Every time I went they were absolutely filthy with human waste all over the place, and no toilet paper. So take your own toilet roll with you if you stay here.

We checked out this morning. We got up later than usual and arrived at the showers at 7.50am. They were locked shut. So we couldn’t have our morning shower. Then I went to empty our chemical toilet. When I arrived at the dump point it was locked shut, so I was unable to empty the toilet. I walked to the office to ask if they could unlock it, but the office was closed. This was at 9.15am.

Given that we paid over 40 pounds per night - far more than at any other site we’ve stayed at - the level of service is awful. Showers and toilets should be open in the mornings so that when people wake up those facilities are available. There should be hose fittings on the taps so you can fill your water tank. Toilets should be kept clean and stocked with toilet paper. And the chemical toilet dump should be accessible so that people can empty their waste.

One other thing, there is no phone signal here on the EE network, and patchy coverage on the Tesco network so if connectivity is important to you, you night need to think of...

We came back this year after having a fairly decent experience last year, but we won't be returning again. We had an awful time and considered leaving a day early.

We booked an adults only field only to find families and teenagers everywhere, flying about on bikes and scooters and screaming. We complained to one guy who said they'd look into moving them in the morning, and by the morning a different staff member said there was nothing they could do and they "couldn't regulate who books onto the field" despite enforcing a rule that every person has to check in at the desk and wear wristbands for the duration of their stay. They also claimed there was no where to move them to, despite having a day field that was 3/4 empty and an events field that was 30% empty, seems they're happier to let overflow onto the adults only field and ruin everyone else's experience. There was zero control on people playing music at 2am, and security had a dog who barked for around 2 hours before they finally took it inside.

Our closest toilet block went semi out of order by Friday evening (we arrived Friday morning) and by Saturday late afternoon all 3 cubicles were blocked. They have 2 gendered toilet blocks either side of these 3 cubicles, but as these were less accessible, I had to travel further to their only dedicated accessible toilet on site, which hadn't been cleaned all weekend. There was also no toilet roll in the main block between Friday evening and 10am Saturday morning because "the cleaners hadn't arrived yet" is a poor excuse to not have any toilet roll. The showers were limited to only being able to use 2 and the shower pressure was hardly more than a dribble. We were charged £3 for an ice cream only to find it smashed to bits inside the packet.

Complaining did nothing. All we got was a half hearted apology and claims that nothing could be done and to tell them if "anyone got rowdy" but if you did, nothing was done about it anyway.

It's a shame because this campsite has real potential but it seems they care more about income than their visitors. The only reason for 2 stars is for the layout and location of the campsite, but the management of it leaves much to be desired.

We had a bad experience last year of our neighbours who played music and laughed and shouted well into the early hours of the morning and very little was done to stop them, but we thought we'd give them the benefit of the doubt and try again. What a mistake that was. Sorry, the staff and security were friendly enough but you can't set out a whole terms and conditions essay when you book and then not enforce any of the rules. It's frustrating for people who just wanted a nice chill weekend...

I want to start by saying, we have camped at Debden house for years. I keep returning because I love it, the service, the atmosphere, the nature! Just wonderful. Unfortunately based on our experience this year, we won’t be back.

This year, was a major let down for so many reasons.

The first being, we booked a row of pitches as there was a big group of us and we didn’t want to disturb anyone, on arrival we noticed the the pitches were numbered completely different to the ones we booked online. I went to reception to highlight this and was met with the rudest, most uncompromising and incompassionate lady. She rudely explained there was a glitch in the system and we would have to be moved as another family was booked on our pitch, a pitch that we chose and paid for months in advance. She blamed us for booking so far in advance (which makes absolutely no sense). She said there was nothing she could do and she would not be moving the other family for us. It seemed racially charged and she snickered at us several times, telling us we had to move. We had already pitched our tents and had several children who were tired from the journey. She said we could move our pitches, leave or talk to the manger on Monday, we had checked in on a Friday. I returned to my tent, deflated, anxious and stressed, it really set the tone for the whole weekend, the trip was ruined for us and she found the whole thing hilarious. She flat out refused to help, it was completely fine to inconvenience ‘us’ but not others. There was another gentleman on site, I think his name was Bruce, he offered to move us to a private pitch, he said he would do what he could, as he wanted to make sure we had a good time. He was so kind and caring, if it wasn’t for him we would’ve left. The pitch was lovely but there were swarms of bees and it was mating season for the ants, some of which had incredibly painful bites. Our original pitches that we paid for, were at the top of a hill, I doubt we would’ve had these problems.

The toilets and showers were absolutely filthy. The showers opened at 7am, I was there bright and early, first one in and the floors were muddy, I spoke to front desk and was told the cleaner was running behind, she had cleaned the first block but not the showers, it took her half hour to come and clean the showers and she used the same mop and cloths she had been using in the toilets, the mop itself was filthy and the water pressure in the shower was nonexistent.

For the most part, the rest of the staff were really pleasant and tried their best to make our stay comfortable but the initial interaction ruined it for us. We...