Center Parcs Easter 2011 mistake

wma345

Center Parcs was on watchdog 2/3 weeks ago about high prices for school holidays, if you have a passport and car it works out cheaper to go to one of there centers aboard than to stay here, i hope this helps someone

sassyblue

luvly jubbly, cars are not allowed onsite, only to offload and reload at the end of your stay (although you can take car to villa all the time if you're disabled). Bike hire for the week is around £25 so much cheaper to take a bike rack and take your own, yes there is a supermarket onsite and it's well stocked, prices are a bit higher than normal and you can't take loads of food with you for teh fridge as they are smaller than average so you will need to do a little shopping. Elvedon is quite small take the walking times they advise with a pinch of salt (imagine they are for people walking with small children ) Prices won't change on something you've booked, they mean if you don't book and wait and see, we've done this and the prices have gone up, it's better to book early for CP they are trying to stop cheap late booking.

laurenjade: Having looked at my sons school hols for 2011 it does appear that he is due to go back Tuesday 26th April - the Easter school hols that year are from 8th April :mad: but we've booked now and a week towards the end of the school year shouldn't hurt, why oh why do they have to change things around?!

pudding

I am getting £669 for a weekend for a family of 4 at sherwood forest.Theres no way i would pay that for a weekend away..We have been to centerparcs in holland in august school holidays and paid half that for a week..i know it's each to their own but that's really expensive with food on top etc...

bargain_hunter_2

CP are soooo quick to put their prices up - they seem to have a tiered pricing system now where its so many at one price and when they are gone it jumps up to the next price.

We booked for October half term for next year about 3 weeks ago - paid £549 for a four bedroom new style villa. Just priced the same just now after reading this thread and its jumped up to £800 odd !!!!

We love CP's and go every year but I'm not happy with this new pricing structure - wouldn't be paying 800 quid - we've always paid around the 500 odd! Seems to be now you have to get in quick !

sassyblue

bargainhunter, we've been for years l really love it there but l'm less than impressed by their prices lately we hung on for a late deal and didn;t get one... in the end l rang them and they said they are changing it now so the earlier you book the better the prices are - not many holiday companies can get away with that. Mind you if people don't book them they'll have to change it back....

pudding, that does sound expensive, can't believe you paid half that abroad CP would never do them that cheap here :mad:

Unknownlegend

Centreparks is a complete and utter ripoff as shown on Watchdog the other week.
Anyone who books this is crazy.

RoxieW

I booked this a couple of weeks ago and the price has now doubled.

pepperoni_2

poet123 wrote: »

I have looked at these hotels before, and they seem ideal for an active family break with everything onsite. What made me hesitate was their disclaimer about the quality of the rooms. What are they like? is one hotel nicer than the other?

The rooms at the Manor are absolutely fine....no plasma screens or other 'fancy extras' but they are very clean, TV and Video player (tapes to borrow from a substantial selection) hairdryer, tea and coffee making facilities, clean bathrooms.
You spend very little time in your room and if you do want to just sit around the lounge areas are very comfortable. I think the tourist rating agencies just rate hotels on the rooms and in this case the hotel facilities, never ending supply of food and the fact the facilities are free or more or less free never register...and I would think around 75% of their bookings are repeat. We've stayed in the Hilton in London (once) and this place 15 times ...£ for £ I know where it'd rather spend my time. We've recommended this place to plenty of people and no complaints so far. Booked again for next year..and I'm mega picky where I stay.
It's privately owned and the owners pump a lot of money back into the site...and live on site as well.
Hope this helps.

pudding

we have been twice the last week in august and paid about £300 for a weeks stay.One place was next to the beach and the other was inland...we loved it...I have never been to one in the UK because of the cost...I am sure though they never used to be this much before...also for holland we did book in advance for a better discount

rosatoso_2

Center Parks have apparently got rid of their promotional discount codes and have now opted for a flexi-pricing system - apparently to incentivise people to book earlier.

They can obviously tell via their website search summary which dates are being checked out and are therefore popular, they then adjust their prices up accordingly. I don't think this applies to school holiday periods though, they just set them high and keep them high.

We booked in July for November for £299 - this went up to £569 and is now £499 - I am going to keep checking to see if the prices do come down before we go.