Herston Caravan & Camping — Hotel in Great Britain

Booked our break about 6 weeks before christmas. We were so looking forward to a Christmas break away from work. Upon arrival we got the key from the bar, as the reception was closed. From then on the nightmare began. This review may offend some people but it’s honest and it’s what we experienced. Got to our lodge, to find bedding all over the floors in the bedroom, no clean bedding on the beds, just stripped and left bare. The kitchen bin was in its side on the counter. The carpets had bits of rubbish from the previous guests. I couldn’t believe it. Went back the bar to explain and ask for another lodge as the one we were allocated wasn’t acceptable. The women behind the bar said there was a mix up with the dates, either way I wasn’t happy. She made a call and said have a drink on the house and someone will clean it while you wait. So we waited a good hour, I eventually asked for my money back. The same lady said she couldn’t do it. So I asked for the manager she replied he’s not here. I asked for his number her response was I don’t know it. I asked for the owners number again she responded I don’t have it I’ve don’t know him. So I said what if there was any emergency. She said we have a maintenance man, that’s on call. I was beginning to get cross at this point as it was obvious she was lying. She scuttled off and came back 10 minutes later saying our lodge was ready. We went back and couldn’t get the heating to work. Another lady appeared I think she was the boss, she had all the keys, masters keys office keys etc. she said I can offer you another lodge. So in desperation we followed her to another lodge. This one was seemed a lot better and was warm. This was at 10.30 at night, and the lights in the lodge were very dim. We were all Tried we all went to bed. The next day however it seemed this lodge wasn’t that clean. After getting up I noticed a stain on my pillow it was dried blood and it hadn’t been washed. I felt sick I had been lying my head on a dirty pillow case. After this I went to use the master bathroom. The was a stain on the floor and on washing my hands I noticed a crack in the basin. There were dead flies on the carpet in the lounge. Stains and the carpet. One sofa fell apart on one of the ends. There were stains on the curtains in the master bedroom . No dishwasher tablets were provided, so I went out and brought some. The bar stools were in the way of the dishwasher door so every time you needed to load the machine you had to move the bar stool out of the way. The hot tub didn’t get very hot and had dead insects floating in the water. I didn’t see a pool maintenance guy the whole time we were there. I did mention some of these problems but no one seemed to care. We decided to leave 2 days early as we didn’t feel very comfortable, and decided to go home. When we went to hand the key back there were 2 ladies in the reception one was in the back room and one was on the front desk, counting a big handful of cash. She didn’t stop counting and ask if everything was alright or sorry your leaving early, she just pointed to counter to leave they keys and carried on. The other lady didn’t speak. We paid just over £900.00 and feel it was a complete waste of money. It’s such a shame because the location is lovely. The whole place needs a good clean and tidy up outside. The bar is very dated, but with some updating it could be a nice area to eat and have a drink. So if the manager or owner reads my review, I did mention my concerns but no one...

I've never been on a touring site so poorly kept.in my life of Caravanning and Motorhoming, greeted by a woman in reception that wasn't aware of my arrival. On finding the pitch I had been allocated, I was gob smacked at how untidy the pitch and all around had been looked after. All pitches had at least 4 inches cover in long grass, and weeds were abundant on the hard standing areas, also the toilet shower facilities looked as they'de not been cleaned for weeks, and had a horrible odour coming from the entrance. One even had excrement on the floor and it looked like it had been there for days. We're not usually so critical of touring facilities but this one was an exceptional case. I had been told that some Campers-Caravaners and Motorhomer's, some of which hadn't stayed because of the poor state of this touring site, and this only echoed what I thought. I did speak to the staff at reception but I wasnt taken seriously, and when I informed them of my displeasure, this was only replied to by a man on the desk that they'de had someone of with COVID !!! I then suggested they should be informing local health if this was the case. He then tried to retract his statement and also tried to add a further statement by making other excuses, one of which was, and I quote " some of the lads had been out on the PISS !. I then requested that he should be asking the management to offer a refund because of the below average state of the touring site, and his unacceptable poor comments for reasons of the poor quality they were offering to tourists, little to say someone did appear two days later with a push hover mower to cut two or three pitches, the pitch I was on and two either side ! However the rest of the site remained uncut for nearly a week or so. I never heard from anyone who owned this site for my duration and decided because there weren't any touring sites around with vacancys, we would use our own Motorhome toilet and shower so as not to spoil the rest of our stay.in Swanage. As for the Elsan points we had to manage with very poor emptying facilities, least to say we won't be returning, and I found it very hard to give it a score of 1/10 😡

Alan Hobson

Images taken of Herston Farm Caravan/Motorhome and Camping Touring...

Do you like role play? Do you like the sound of living in a shanty town for 3 days? Then come to Herston Camping and Caravan Site! The fantastic management have made sure that all tents are within touching distance, plenty of overlapping guy ropes, and that a fire risk is possible at all times. Management have made sure they keep piling on tent after tent, there are approximately 2,500 people on site this weekend (August bank hol). There is no enforcement of the campsite rules - drones being flown over our tent at 6:15am, people shouting and playing music at 1am-ish.

Each new person coming in is told the same - "just find a space" - whether this is on a pre booked pitch or not.

To add to the sense of risk and excitement, individuals speed past our tent at 1:30am, and because we were advised to pitch so close to the car lane... we were never sure whether we would be run over in the middle of the night. Great fun!

Further, water ran out across the whole site on our final full day - no toilets, no drinking water, no showers, no washing up. Adults crying, children screaming. Unreal.

Having said that, we are still alive, we have invoked the blitz spirit and if we don't die tonight we will be toasting Winston Churchill in the morning.

And review by 11 y/o Daughter: Came on a nice family camping holiday to Herston caravan and camping. On the first night I was kept up by swearing and shouting (bearing in mind this is a family camping site.) Then found myself listening to loads of cars driving back and forth. In the morning I woke up to see LOADS of cars (about 12) for about 3 tent pitches. Definitely...