Hollywood Bowl Tunbridge Wells — Local services in Tunbridge Wells

Feedback on My Son’s Birthday Party Experience - Terrible Experience

I booked a VIP lane for my son’s birthday party which is today (27-09-25) expecting a stress-free and fun celebration—but unfortunately, it turned into a very disappointing experience.

I originally booked online. When I went at the site, I asked the staff if I can add more children on the date of the party just in case more children will turn up. I was told by staff that although the minimum booking was for 6 children, I could add more on the day and simply pay the difference. Based on this, I arrived with 13 children in total.

We came 15 minutes early 04:45pm, but the cashier looked confused and said the VIP lane was still in use, which was fine because we were early. However, even 30 minutes after our scheduled time (5:00 pm), we were still waiting. Only after I followed up were we directed to the VIP lane.

When I mentioned we had 7 additional children and that I was happy to pay the extra cost, the manager insisted only 6 children could play and told the others to leave. He claimed the other lane was already booked, which later turned out to be untrue—no one used that lane during our entire time until 6:30pm. Instead of offering solutions, the manager argued with me for 15 minutes, making the situation more stressful.

Eventually, the staff (who were all kind, accommodating, and professional) helped us sort out the situation, and the children managed to take turns within the hour. And no one has to leave. But by then, we had already lost 30 minutes of party time, and the VIP experience I paid for was far from what was promised.

On top of that, the website stated that VIP bookings include balloons, but there were none provided. We did not experienced any VIP experience at all!! We were treated awful. I really want to cry because I was so embarrase to my friends. Can you imagine we were being told to leave (the party has not even started yet that time) despite I told him I will pay full for the other 7 children.

To be clear, the staff members were wonderful—always smiling and doing their best to help. Unfortunately, the manager’s attitude, unhelpfulness, and misleading statements ruined what should have been a special and memorable celebration.

I truly hope this feedback is taken seriously so that other families don’t go through the same experience.

I will give 5 stars to the staffs who were very kind to us. I will give zero to the manager. I am so upset until now. I am...

I enjoy bowling, my other half and i have gone plenty of times but this was our first time to this particular 'Hollywood bowl'.

Its half term so it is fairly busy which is to be expected and of course there are going to be kids.

We arrive at 17:30, book our slot for 18:30 and go sit down in the diner area to have some food and wait. The food we ordered was a burger, vegan burger, onion rings, and two milkshakes. We also recieved two lemonades for free with our tickets.

The burger was okay, nothing special, cheese and a burger in a bun, the vegan burger was dry with no toppings, asked for mayonnaise which they didn't have, asked for ketchup and was given incredibly sweet water ketchup sachets, the onion rings where tasteless and uninspiring and the milkshakes were flavoured milk not milkshakes.

There was one employee who had to keep darting between the bar and diner to serve people who i felt bad for as she was clearly overwhelmed. The server who gave us our food was equally rushed and was mid sprint away from us before i could ask for cuttlery and ketchup etc.

So already not incredible.

And then we get to our bowling alley, this is still the height if a pandemic, we are wearing our masks and washing our hands/anti baccing things we touch to keep everyone safe, and we arrive to our lane to find a fammily of 4 young children and bith their parents all without masks touching, leaning over and breathing all over their bowling balls and ours. An employee walks over to 'clean' our seats, balls and screen although a quick wipe of disinfectant was all it actually was, didn't even clean the inside of the finger holes.

So we went to the front desk and asked if it was at all possible to move somewhere else or get a redund for just one of the two games as we did use the drinks ticket (although i offered to pay for the drinks if it would allow us a refund). We were told a refund isn't possible and that if you wait for an hour you can have one game in a private bowling booth.

Which to be fair isn't the worst deal, yes we only get one game after paying for two, but its a private booth which means we can stay covid safe. However, waiting another hour after seeing people not wearing masks inside (kids i understand, but adults is not okay), the bad cleaning and the awful food. We decided to just take the loss and go home.

Overall food was 2/5, Covid safe 1/5, customer service 2/5 and bowling...

I had high hopes for my daughter's 11th birthday celebration when we booked a visit to Hollywood Bowl. Unfortunately, our experience fell far short of expectations. Upon arrival, we were greeted with a messy scene in our reserved booth. Previous attendees' drinks and food were left strewn about, and despite staff members passing by, no effort was made to clean up the mess. This lack of cleanliness was disappointing and set a negative tone for our visit. To make matters worse, the adjacent lane, which was occupied by a group of boys about my daughter's age, became a source of disruption. They were throwing multiple balls down the lane simultaneously, running around, and creating a chaotic environment. Despite attempts by a staff member to intervene, the situation persisted, ultimately upsetting my daughter to the point where she no longer wanted to continue our game. In an effort to address these issues, I sought out a staff member for assistance but found none in close proximity. After finally reaching the main desk, I expressed our dissatisfaction to the gentleman present. However, his response was brief and lacked any meaningful resolution. As someone who has previously enjoyed experiences at Hollywood Bowl, this visit was a disappointment. Every guest deserves a pleasant and enjoyable experience, especially during special occasions like birthdays. Overall, while Hollywood Bowl has potential, our recent visit left much to be desired in terms of cleanliness, customer service, and overall experience. I hope the management takes our feedback seriously and implements improvements to ensure that future guests have a more...