Parkdean Resorts Camber Sands Holiday Park, Sussex — Hotel in Rother

I have just returned from a holiday at Parkdean Resorts Camber Sands which was extremely disappointing and very distressing and quite shocking. When I went to collect our keys there was a couple complaining that the caravan they had checked in to didn't look anything like the pictures of the caravan they booked. Mark at reception told them the pictures on the website was for illustrative purposes only and this was the caravan they had booked. They demanded to speak to the manger. Another lady then said the same thing had happened to her.||When we arrived our Fairlight caravan was not what we were expecting a three bedroom caravan with decking and an en-suite to look like. It certainly didn’t look anything like the caravan that was advertised on the website.||Areas of the exterior were covered in mould or grime, the decking was dirty and the decking gate was missing leaving just the gate peg, broken electrical posts were everywhere and there were no paths to the caravans. The surrounding caravans were also covered in grime/mould.||The interior of the caravan was nothing like the pristine photos depicted on the website for a Fairlight caravan, the fridge was held together with duct tape. The carpet in the kids bedroom was coming up, fixtures and fittings were falling apart and in a general state of disrepair. The general interior was in a poor standard of cleanliness.||We went to reception and were told we wouldn't be moved as they had nowhere to put us and they had resolved our issues by sending maintenance out to spray the carpet back down and remove the shelf that was ducked taped in the fridge, leaving us with no door shelves and without the new fridge promised. They also said they would jet wash the decking and surrounding caravans the next day. They also explained that if we had wanted a quality caravan that we should have booked a gold premium caravan as the gold caravans were just bigger and not good in quality standards.||Once we explained that we had used inheritance money to book the holiday they said they would move us to a caravan without decking. They then said they couldn't move us as Hoseasons had allocated the caravan and we needed to speak to them. We phoned Hoseasons and we had to walk in to the reception with a Hoseasons representative on the phone as Hoseasons said they could not get hold of Camber Sands staff as nobody was answering the phone. The Hoseasons representative was listening and making notes on the Camber Sands Staff responses. We were told Hoseasons refused to push a button on the system to allow us to be moved.||At the same time we were making our complaints there were a a lot of other people complaining as well and there was a queue of people out the door. We heard one man complaining there were toe nails on the floor, hair in the fridge and old pasta in the corners of the carpet. One woman said there was a mouldy duvet on the floor of her caravan and all the bed linen was dirty.||That night the boiler started leaking copious amounts of water and a lovely security guard was unable to fix it, we had no heating or hot water. We have a 2 year old who is recovering from a respiratory infection, it was freezing.||We went back to reception and again asked to be moved but the Camber Sands staff Mark and Tria flatly refused to move us and said it was because we booked with Hoseasons and they were fully booked and had no spaces. They also said that no one who'd booked with Hoseasons had ever asked to be moved. One member of staff said he would lose his job if he moved us. They also gave the excuse that they couldn't move us as we had actually paid £350 for our holiday not £439 as Hoeseason's had taken a cut.||We queried why our decking didn't have a gate to be told that their decking doesn't come with gates! Despite there being a gate peg where the old gate used to be and plenty of other caravans having gates!||They sent a maintenance member of staff to carry out a repair, we subsequently discovered that the boiler in our caravan had been broken for quite a while as it had been on the repairs list as Mark informed us. They knowingly put us into a caravan with a broken boiler! When we complained again we were given the Parkdean head office number which is apparently only available for a short time on Monday, we were given this number on Saturday. They knew full well we wouldn’t get through to anyone.||After we spent a long time arguing that we needed to be moved they still flatly refused and said no we won't move you. We received a phone call half an hour later after we said we were going to the press to say that they had found us another caravan but that “it had been a massive pain in the ar*e to do!" Whilst we were waiting for our new caravan to be cleaned we went to find it and see what it looked like. We were told it was caravan 233 but when we got there there was no caravan, just a concrete base saying 233. We phoned them and they said no it's 333. Whilst we were waiting for it to be ready there was a lightning strike that took out the power across the park. They did however rectify this pretty quickly.||We arrived at our new caravan to find a leaking toilet, the bottom unit of the oven coming off at the wall, a dirty shower, stained toilet seat, rusty handles and mirrors, broken buttons on the heater and a very dirty floor that gave us black feet! The fridge was out of use and they had installed a free standing Beko fridge we assume only to get us moved as we suspect the caravan was out of commission beforehand.||Aside from the serious health and safety issues with our caravans there there are serious health safety and maintenance issues park wide including -||-broken electrical posts and units.||- cardboard soaking up sewage in the club house. The smell was intolerable.||-Broken and blown speakers around the club house hanging off the walls.||- broken decking around the park.||- dirty nappies all over areas of the grass.||- mouldy caravans.||- mouldy/grimy decking on caravans.||- unsafe manholes standing proud by several inches.||- no paths to the caravans.||Our experience on our visit to the clubhouse was rather unpleasant. The environment was generally "unkempt and scruffy”. The clubhouse stank of sewage and when we went in the toilets they had cardboard all over the floor soaking up what I can only describe as toilet water or sewage. ||We felt we couldn't even go to the pool to use the pool facilities as by we were concerned about the lack of cleaning and maintenance and were concerned for our two year old and also that we would become unwell.||On day three we were phoned and told we should be checking out and to leave because people were waiting to book into our caravan. I said we had booked for seven days from the 12th to the 19th of September. We went to reception and the manager asked to see our reference but wasn't happy that we only had a Hoseasons reference not a Parkdean one (which of course we had never received). The staff actually stated that people might turn up at our caravan and try to move in while we were in it. This was very distressing and upsetting as it meant that we couldn’t go anywhere or even have a nap in case people arrived at the caravan to move in. We said that we had paid £439 for a week and wouldn't have paid that for a weekend in September. We were advised by Tria that peak season that is what a weekend stay of three nights costs. We refused to leave and then said we had provided proof that we had paid for seven days and said we would return to our caravan which they didn't really acknowledge.||We then went back to the caravan and logged into Parkdean resorts portal to find our stay had been shortened to the 15th of September however the entertainment passes were dated to the 19th. We decided to call Hoseasons as we were worried people would turn up at our caravan. They said if they ask you to leave we will refund your holiday in full. We decided to leave anyway and accept a refund.||On departure we told the Camber Sands staff that the park was the pits! The manager Tria's response was 'I know!' .. 'leave a review!' We said you couldn't pay us a penny more to endure any more of this “so called holiday”! We were also told by Mark it was head office who had shortened our stay when they moved us to another caravan.||The whole experience was traumatic and exhausting. It caused a lot of anxiety and great expense. Not to mention lost days of annual leave and having to pay for wifi we didn't use. What was meant to be a fun filled holiday for my sister’s birthday and my two year old turned into a living nightmare!|| I would like to categorically state that I have booked with Hoseasons over 15 times and I've always been happy and had a great time on their holidays. I have never had to ring their customer service line before and yet on this holiday I had to ring them five times and they were so helpful and nice and bewildered at the service I was receiving from Parkdean resorts. They gave me a full refund but I have seen other complaints where unhappy customers never get a refund from booking directly with Parkdean. Thank God we booked...

We arrived at your Camber Sands park on Monday 22nd July around 13:30. I popped into reception on the off chance the caravan was ready which it wasn't but was told we could use the facilities on site. No activities were on as it was changeover day. I returned to reception at 4pm to check in and the caravan still wasn't ready, I asked how long it would be and the female receptionist abruptly told me "check in is from 4pm not at 4pm". I advised her that the email sent to me states check in 4pm not from 4pm. I was emailed prior to our holiday asking the time we would be on park and I clicked 4pm. Wording needs to be changed in your emails if check in is "from" a certain time. After waiting over an hour and a half I was given the key. In this time our children had become extremely distressed and I was very frustrated waiting around for so long. When I went into the van it was absolutely filthy and had damage to it. Sticky mess on the kitchen floor Lounge carpet covered in stains Sofa covered in stains Furniture was dirty and worn Bed linen dirty and had holes in Mattress covered in dirty brown stains Faeces in the toilet Rubbish left under the sofa Used dirty tissues under the bed Damage to toilet, walls and surfaces.

I went back to reception and showed them photos of what we had found who agreed it wasn't acceptable. A request for a reclean and for the mattress to be changed was made. Several hours had passed and I was back and forth to reception as nobody had arrived to clean the van. Our children were very upset with how dirty the caravan was and we didn't unpack anything. My son went into crisis due to how filthy it was. Eventually we were given keys to another caravan to go and check. This caravan stunk as soon as we opened the door, it was generally dirty and had blood stains on the mattresses. Numerous times I asked for a manager but was told there were none available. I went back to reception where Marc put in another request for our van to be cleaned. All the cleaners had left and it was nearly 9pm by this time. We had no choice but to stay in the van we were given, it was late and the children were exhausted, we had already had a 3 hour journey to the park. My eldest son was so distressed he refused to stay in it so we stayed in the car overnight. On Tuesday 23rd july i attended reception mid morning as nobody had come to clean the van, again Marc put in a request for a reclean. We went out for the afternoon and upon returning we still had a dirty caravan. At 3pm I went back to reception where Marc requested a clean again. Around 4pm I spoke with a female manager and explained our situation, she agreed it wasn't acceptable and moved us to a different van. Again this was stressful for the children as it was a change. Although it was cleaner than the previous van it still wasn't up to scratch. lots of dust on surfaces, soap scum all around the shower and shower unit, corners of floors dirty. I paid extra to have a parking space due to the needs of our children and the new van was right at the back of a field of caravans but we had to make do with something cleaner. Due to the needs of our children I phoned in advance to enquire about activity passess, with my autistic children they need to know the agenda for each day. I was told we could just turn up and show our passes. We had planned a schedule for each day to ensure each child had activities planned. When I went to the activity hub I was told this wasn't the case and they had to be booked in advance. I spent £130 on activity passes for the children and we had to make do with what times and days were left, some activities were fully booked. On the whole the park is run down and grubby, we also experienced several rude and arrogant staff members. Our first family holiday was absolutely ruined by the incompetence of cleaning staff, lack of communication between departments and staff with bad attitudes. The distress it caused our children was horrible to see and in turn made us as parents feel guilty for the experience. We will...

Now I can FINALLY post a review after finally being refunded! - 145 WILLOW WAY!!!!!

Let's just say! Worse experience EVER! so we arrived on our holiday (x2 adults x1 child - 2 year old) on the 2nd of June 2025 , we was supposed to be there for a whole week! We checked in at 4pm, went to find our caravan and as soon as we arrived at it we was like what the hell is this! The surroundings were covered in rubbish, the caravan (clearly owned) beside it was dirty, and nasty to look at. Then as soon as we step inside we are hit with a nasty smelling caravan, like cigarettes and all sorts! We opened the windows straight away! Then walked round the caravan and see white powder on the floors, holes in walls, broken window latches , Mouldy pillows and a broken bed in the big bedroom. What made matters worse is I paid £25 extra to Secure this caravan! If I knew it was like this, I definitely wouldn't have paid it! And we stayed in Willow way before, Back at Halloween time last year, Never had a problem!

I got my partner to go to reception straight away to report this problem, As the smell was so bad and we have a young child with a Respiratory problems, who's been in and out of hospital since 8 months old , We didn't want to risk it. We was told somebody would come in and do an odor thing Which meant we had to leave the caravan for an hour. So we done that, came back to the caravan And it still smelt a high heaven!! So I went back to complain AGAIN! Was told that they will put loads of plug-ins to help! So we went to the evening entertainment, Came back only was ONE plug in in the living room and oh my God! The smell! DISGUSTING!! And worse in the small bedroom (which would have been our daughters) Luckily, our friend was staying on site and because reception was closed at this point, we stayed in her small caravan overnight.

Went back the next morning straight away to complain again! Was told to come back in a few hours as people haven't Checked in so they might be able to move us. Obviously came back later, And unfortunately, they didn't have a caravan that they could move us to!! And at that point enough was enough! Our holiday was already ruined! So we decided to check out and head home!

We were gutted and fuming! Danielle told us we would get a full refund and she'll get right on it, And we would receive it in the next 7 days... Let me tell you when I've only just received that money this morning (1st of July) ! A month after we got there...

I had to send my friends into the Reception TWICE While they were still on the holiday! To be told it's being sorted.. I then had to live chat multiple times!! Email multiple times!! I even had a phone call from the head office asking how our holiday went! That was a funny part Because they had no idea that we even had checked out or had a problem 😂 This lady even said she would sort it And that phone call was three days after we were supposed to check out 😂 The lack in Urgency with any of this was disgusting! It's like they were hoping we would forget This whole situation! And forget about the money! Because I was the one that had to keep chasing them! And it's funny how last week I chased them again Only to be told they didn't have my bank details on record and that's why they hadn't refunded me! And instead of them contacting me and asking for them, it took for me to contact them AGAIN 🙄 Which then took them seven days To FINALLY Give me my money back!! And let me tell you if I didn't get that today, I would've had to contact them again...

Funny how I was looking through the Google reviews, And someone else has complained About 145 Willow Way!! And that also explains why there was white powder all over the floors! Now, if you've had previous complaints About this one caravan! (Only two weeks before we checked in for it) How are you still renting it out?! Thought you would've had more common sense!! Parkdean CAMBER SANDS do better! DONT STAY AT 145...