A mum has hit out after her family's Butlin's break was spoilt by closed pools, long queues and an alleged poo stained toilet.
Bev Wilson spent around £1,000 on a four-night all inclusive stay at the Skegness holiday park with her joiner husband Tristan and their two children, Ava, six, and two-year-old Oliver.
First impressions weren't the best when she says they arrived at their 'comfort' two-bedroom apartment to find a poo stained toilet.
Pools closed for half the stay
But her biggest complaint is that the pools were closed completely for two days of their stay and not fully open for the remainder of their break, with massive queues to get inside.
Following the closure, Butlin's said opening hours were extended on the two following days to give guests more chance to enjoy the facilities.
Bev, a teacher, shared a video on TikTok showing the queue to get inside the pool snaking back into the holiday park as guests waited for it to reopen.
"The pool was closed for the first two days of our holiday, so we were really disappointed," she said. "Then when it opened on the third day, the queue went all the way through the resort. We queued for two hours.
"They said the closure was due to a pipes issue, but on day three the lifeguards told us they were still having issues and so the main pool would still be closed."
Lifeguard shortage claim
"One of the lifeguards said they had to partially close due to not having enough lifeguards. They said the kids pool was open but because capacity was lower, they needed to wait for 400 people to leave before letting others inside."
The 42-year-old added: "I thought this was absolutely shocking for a summer holiday break that obviously costs a lot more than any other time of year.
"My kids weren't too bad about it, but there were kids there with special needs who really weren't coping with the ups and downs - the queues and being told it was open and then closed."
Queues for everything
At night time she said one of them had to queue up for an hour before entertainment started, otherwise they wouldn't get a table and it felt like 'you had to queue for everything'.
"You have to reserve a spot, but if you arrived at the time of the event, or even half an hour before, all the tables would be gone even though we had a booking," said Bev.
"So we realised to get a table we had to queue up an hour before a show and also to get a table at the kids disco we also had to get there an hour or more before, or there would also be no tables. At one point there was even a queue to leave. I feel like it’s all we did."
Complaint dismissed
When she called at the booking office to complain, she said there was a lady sitting there cutting out the customer services phone number from a sheet of them to give to guests.
"I walked in and she handed me one, so it was like she knew exactly what I was going in there for," said Bev, who lives on the Wirral and returned home from the holiday on Friday, August 7.
"I called guest services to complain but got nowhere. They just stated that the terms and conditions say that they can close the pool if needed. But this doesn’t change the fact that it spoilt my kids' holiday which they were really looking forward to.
"We've been to Butlin's lots of times before and enjoyed it, but this has made us think that we probably won't go back again."
Butlin's response
A Butlin’s spokesperson said: "Our 950-capacity pool was temporarily closed due to a technical issue. The queues shown in the video were before the pool opened at 9am. There was no shortage of lifeguards, and we extended opening hours to 9am to 9pm on Wednesday and Thursday to ensure as many guests as possible could enjoy a swim.
"We have no record of any cleanliness issue being reported during or after this guest’s stay, so we have had no opportunity to investigate the allegation or put anything right. Our shows are popular during the summer holidays and, while some guests choose to queue early for preferred seats or tables, all guests with bookings for our bookable shows are guaranteed entry."
