Parkdean Resorts Sandford Holiday Park, Dorset — Hotel in Great Britain

EDIT: A rep for PD has responded, stating that new fire safety equipment was provided, and old units are vestigial. I'm not convinced, as some extinguishers were out of date, but okay.

They stated that a "thorough review" has been conducted, and they have "spoken with the individuals directly involved". I have reached out to some of those evicted and have confirmed that this is a lie. No one has been contacted.

I have reduced my review to one star, as I do not appreciate being publicly lied to.

ORIGINAL: I recently stayed at this park for an event, and had been excited by the upgrade from a far smaller venue in previous years. The event space is genuinely fantastic, with a really impressive main stage and well fitted restaurant/bar. Most of the entertainment facilities were closed, but this was understandable for the outdoor activities due to the off-season visit and the weather. However, the arcade was closed for no particular reason that anyone can figure out, and the indoor pool regularly adjusted their opening hours. There's a small range of takeaway eateries alongside the main restaurant, but much of the food was out of stock for the duration of our stay, apparently not expecting the number of people - but the entire park was fully booked, so they very much should have anticipated it.

Our accommodation was decently located and stocked with mostly brand new kitchen equipment, which we appreciated. However, a number of issues became obvious, with progressively more impact on our stay - from out of date safety inspections, to doors not shutting correctly, no TV, missing bedding and a myriad of other small issues. WiFi didn't work majority of the time and phone signal was nearly non-existent. To be clear, most of these issues were minor and could have been overlooked in isolation. It should be noted that friends had issues with out of date fire alarms, carbon monoxide detectors and fire extinguishers. I've left more details in the appropriate section.

A major weather event absolutely drenched the park, and we were lucky to be in an area that was not seriously flooded as some others were. Poor drainage and road condition throughout did lead to some minor incidents with friends, but none too serious.

Now, the elephant in the room - the staff. I should first state that all the staff in the bar, reception, restaurant, on-site shop and repair team were all lovely. I had no issues. The issues largely stemmed from an overzealous security team who took it upon themselves to disrupt and intimidate visitors of a largely queer-attended event, circling caravans repeatedly, peering through windows with flashlights and conducting destructive raids on random caravans. Various people were ejected for holding "excessive" parties, (a description seriously in dispute), with one group being evicted in the middle of the night. Individual caravans were widely threatened with having their power (and heating) cut off during the aforementioned storm. Demands were made to stop playing any music, at any volume, presumably requiring said visitors to not even use the TV included in their accommodation. The behaviour of the park security staff was a serious over-step that I suspect would not have occurred at an event largely attended by straight people, and ruined the event for a number of people.

I can't highlight just how much the overreaction from park security impacted our stay. We were considering leaving early, and I know a few people who were discussing the same. The weather isn't something the park can control, but the decisions of the security team (and, for that matter, the event itself - but that is a separate company) turned a well located and fitted park into a stress-laden disaster of a weekend that left us feeling intimidated and uncomfortable.

I'm not going the full 1 star here - the park facilities are genuinely great, and the staff working those roles were fantastic and friendly. But I cannot overlook the aforementioned experiences with security and the more serious issues others had with their...

We booked 3 nights in the touring pitches for the first May BH 2025. On arrival it looked promising. We were given a full list of rules but we don't mind that. One being no noise after 10.30pm and passes along with directions to our pitch.

When we walked around the toilet/shower facilities we realised they had seen better days. Not very clean (some due to inconsiderate campers not cleaning up after themselves) but they also had a big problems with drainage so a bit smelly and off putting when showering in unclean puddles. We soon realise we had made a big mistake booking this place.

We had people turn up in VWs and caravans after 10.30pm and they were shining torches shouting trying to set up on their pitch. This went on until nearly midnight. (no noise after 10.30)??? No care in the world for those who maybe sleeping around them. First red flag.

Children running through your pitches, riding bikes in front of your pitch constantly doing wheelies on bikes just missing some of the vehicles whilst doing so.

Lots of unsupervised children some very young running around, some on illegal electric scooters being used on site by teens mainly 🫣 even though they are not supposed to according to the rules.

That night the antisocial neighbours decided to party when they got back from the pub. Having been woken passed midnight I got up and went to ask them directly to keep the noise down at least 10 adults 3 kids still up one under 5. They initially apologised but as soon as I got back in van they continued. Eventually I called security who was swift to attend they drove around twice but I didn't hear them stop or say anything to them. Anyway the gathering/noise went on until 2.30am. I couldn't get back to sleep and I so wanted to give them a peice of their own medicine back once they had gone to bed but I didn't of course.

In the morning they were showing intimidating behaviour towards us staring us out (I'm not easily intimidated thankfully) one decided to brush his teeth outside the pitch and spit the contents of his mouth on our pitch saying to the kids out loud another party tonight then whilst looking at me lol. But we had already made the decision to leave. I can only hope the site took action against them after we left, but I doubt it.

One of the seasonal people told me they do have problems like this from time to time including needing an armed response to evict some travellers who wouldnt leave. I said doesn't it bother you he said I try to ignore it, it's better to keep people like that he on side than make enemies of them... Oh my goodness what kind of site had we naively booked I thought.

At this point hubby and I had, had enough so whilst he packed I went to reception to ask to cancel our last day and seek a refund.

They initially tried to fob me off saying they couldn't refund and I would have to go through the complaints route. Having my phone records showing I called and text security, and I showed copy of the email sent to complaints at 3.40am (being sleep deprived) I demanded the staff member call the manager which she finally agreed to do and after disappearing for a while she came back saying they would refund the last day/night day of our holiday. In all honesty they were lucky I was only seeking a refund for the last day and not the whole 3 days as our break away was ruined all because they don't enforce the rules they advertise. Still to this day Parkdean have not responded to my complaint email.

It took a further chasing email but after 2 weeks I finally got my refund of 1 nights stay £35.00

The site itself would be lovely if staffed sufficiently and managed better.

If you don't have children or prefer quieter sites that enforce the rules with tourers ettiquite then this is probably not the place for you. Well not on BH or School Holidays anyway, it maybe better out of season.

That said we have heard people say nice things about other Parkdean sites but for us this experience had sadly has put us off. Maybe we were...

Liked: The fellow guests, the activities and night time entertainment is good

Disliked: There is no clear signs showing a second reception for tourers at the back of the park as you enter the resort. So when entering with a caravan we believed main reception was where we had to book in but with no place to park with a caravan, after an 8 hour drive, I got out of the car and walk to be told wrong reception and where to go. Meanwhile we was blocking everyone so had to lap the resort leaving me confused on where they went - there is also hardly any signal on the resort so I couldnt get through on the phone. We finally bump into each other and get to the touring reception which was a small stuffy shack with no seats. I was then told I was put right in the middle of the touring pitches. I did ask for most private pitch available and whilst there I saw end of row pitches available the whole time. I wasnt offered a private pitch with hedges, but after seeing that every car on the touring side has to drive past these to get to their pitch I'm glad I wasnt. At touring reception i asked for someone to help us reverse onto our pitch, the lady radio through but the man on the other end didnt want to. After some back and forth he agreed. She told us to wait at our pitch he will be with us soon. We waited over 30 minutes before other guests helped us onto our pitch. The electric hook up wasnt clear, other guests shown us it was through the fence to reach the box and helped us. We was all set up before the park dean worker actually turned up. The toilets were horrendous the entire stay! The disabled toilet door doesnt shut without force so was unlocked all day for kids to play in. The general toilets were worse with faeces all over them. Next morning scooter from Rapid Mobility should be waiting so I go and collect from main reception. I take it and let other disabled guest use it for a shower. During that time reception call saying I have the wrong scooter and have to come back and swap immediately. Now I'm stressing telling him ive got to wait until they are back as I dont know exactly where they are. Staff find her and swap behind my back. I'm still trying to call everyone to no avail so I try call reception back but it was impossible to get through to the resort directly, only head offices. When new scooter comes there is no charger but didnt realise immediately as we were booked in at several things in dorset and was already running late because of this situation (I'd stopped getting ready and was calling round stressing) we went out and later realised no charger. We had plenty of charge in the scooter no it wasnt an immediate issue. Next morning we are booked in early for monkey world which making on time was already hard with two disabled guests and two children. I tried to call every number available but no one could put me through to the resort to see if they have the charger at reception. They gave me an email, so I emailed to no reply (no stress plenty of charge). The next day I found a number to text so I texted twice on the 18th and still no reply. I went and checked at reception to find they didnt have it and I had to drive to poole to collect. I wish they had waited for me before they returned the other scooter so I could have checked, or if they could have checked for me since i wasnt there. I didnt like only having tiny flimsy pieces of paper for hub passes which are meant to be shown for every activity. When swimming we got them wet and had to dry them out before we could use them again. They should be laminated, like I said signal is terrible on the resort so digital passes or booking online is so difficult and time consuming. The show bar doesnt have enough seats downstairs. There is no lift to go upstairs to the extra seats, craft activities or soft play. There are many improvements needed at your sandford resort to actually make it disabled friendly, a couple of toilets...