Sherwood Pines Camping — Hotel in Newark and Sherwood

Well that response sums up the customer service with this company, I'd suggest checking my account reviews before believing them, at the time of writing I have given out 11 x 4 or 5 star reviews/ratings (some very positive, I haven't written reviews for all just gave out stars) and I have given out 3 x 1 star reviews (in 6 years!). You say it's hard to pitch people together yet the entirety of our stay there was a pitch available opposite our friends, I was complaining about the fact you wouldn't even check to see if we could move it was just a flat no and then me getting shouted at for saying the customer service is poor. Again this is the same situation with my review, not interested in to looking into the facts just a flat response that I'm wrong and just after a refund, which at no point have I asked for. I've emailed to complain as well and in that email I have not asked for any refund, I've just complained about the service hoping for an apology and maybe some sort of commitment to improving pitching with friends but the arrogance of this company is unbelievable. Nice enough site but terrible service if you do have an issue. Original review below:

Used to be a great site but let down by some terrible customer service and poor booking system. Don't come if you like to stay close to friends! Been here loads of times over the last 5 or so years but this will be the last after being shouted at for asking to be close to our friends rather than on opposite sides of the site.

When we booked we rang up we linked our bookings and requested being close together, never been an issue in the past but on arrival we were placed on opposite sides of the site and told it was full, we noticed that opposite our friends there were quite a few empty electric hard standing pitches so asked if we could move, without checking anything to see if they could help I was told no you get what your given. I said we'd linked bookings and aren't very happy that we pay a premium to come here compared to a lot of sites but you won't even look to help, next thing "Andy" starts shouting at me "listen to me" he shouts in front of a lot of other people "you've paid fully serviced, you're on fully serviced! You get what you're given"! a bit embarrassing being spoken to like a child and it escalated into a bit of an argument, he then shouts something about I've had this discussion with your friends "the Johnston's" (or something like that) no idea who he's talking about but it's a completely different group of guests to our friends so this is obviously a common issue and he's been arguing with other people as well. Bottom line if you come to enjoy time with friends or family don't count on being put together, the site has got busier over the years and they aren't interested in customer service anymore.

It's a nice location as we love cycling but don't think we'll be back unless they put a proper booking system in where you can select your pitch as the way they do it here is very poor. First time I've been shouted at like that for just enquiring as...

Pros: |- Really convenient for Sherwood Pines (5 mins walk) direct from the site with lots of cycle trails, Go Ape etc.|- Spacious pitches especially for those in tents who seemed to have double the space of the caravans! |- Lots of toilets and showers so never had to queue (although see below).|- Nice play park. |- Food trucks on site on a weekend are nice. ||Cons: |- The website describes the facilities as ‘exceptional’ which I think is a bit of a stretch. They are new but were never that clean. The campsite seems to have a really high turnover where people just seem to stay for a few days most, and on a weekend it was packed, so the showers and toilets were never particularly clean. I do think that a lot of this is down to guests not looking after the facilities but in my mind when the park is so busy with families, then a once a day clean isn’t sufficient. Sanitary bins etc were overflowing for days. |- Showers are cold when it’s busy- again I’d imagine this is down to foot fall but it was it isn’t good enough to have cold showers at all. |- Cars drove far too fast on site and up to the entrance. There really needs to be signs on site warning of children playing (don’t think I saw one).|- Two huge pylons run the length of the site which spoils the ‘back to nature’ the place has, and also means you can’t fly kites. |- Two sections of the site are in more wooded areas but are soft standing pitches- these seemed really nice however the main section of the site is more of a clearing and meant that your a lot of the pitches had no shade at all when it was hot. |- Never once saw the ice-cream bike that’s advertised on the website. |- Pitches are allocated on arrival so whoever turns up first gets the pick of the spaces, which seems crazy. We were in a 6 berth caravan for 8 nights and had a much smaller pitch that VW camper vans who were only there a couple of nights but arrived earlier than we did to pick their space. It’s also a real pressure when picking your pitch if you haven’t stayed there before! I’d much prefer to be allocated at the point of booking. ||All in all a convenient site for a short break either with family or to visit Sherwood pines, however I wouldn’t recommend it as a site for a longer stay like we did- it doesn’t feel geared up for that. It certainly it|Sent as nice as the website portrays and was expensive. Wouldn’t...

Liked: Site was well maintained and the facilities were SPOTLESS!! We stayed in one of the Bothy family cabins which was a great size for us as a couple travelling with two dogs!

Check in was really easy and the staff that we did see were all really friendly, there was a pizza van on the Friday night….. which was delicious!!! And the guys hit extra points with my dog Dave for giving him and his sister Lulu some chicken while we waited.

There was an abundance of wildlife around which was lovely to see and hear and some fabulous walks through the forest which kept us and our hounds happy for the duration of our stay!

The dog wash was also a very nice amenity to have….. although the door seals could do with being looked at or even having a mop to clean up any water would be great!!

Overall we really enjoyed our stay and would absolutely come back again.

Disliked: The floor of our bothy cabin wasn’t the cleanest, there was a number of dead flies around and the floors (when I wiped them with some floor wipes I had brought with us) were BLACK!!

The rest of the cabin was spotless but the floors really could have done with a hoover and a good mopping!

Talking of mop it would be handy to have one in the cabins for our stay so that we could have cleaned the floors properly….. I’m sure had I have asked one would have been provided but as I had the wipes I didn’t feel the need, I absolutely think it would be worth providing one though…. Especially with the surroundings as those floors get FILTHY!!

Another thing it would have been nice to have is a dog park….. a little enclosure where dogs could have a little off lead time… I’m aware there’s a big old forest out there, but, my two aren’t always the best with recall and so it would have been nice to have somewhere they could go and chase a ball round in a secure enclosure with other pig headed dogs and their frustrated owners! 😂

The WiFi, isn’t 100% reliable it does dip in and out at peak times which could be frustrating at times however it wasn’t the end of the world.

The only other issue I had was with the hairdryers….. they couldn’t blow out a candle let alone your hair! 🙈😂 so either bring your own….. or have dry shampoo on hand if your not comfortable leaving...