Pontins Holiday Parks in Administration

PasturesNew

Holiday park Pontin's calls in administrators but says all parks will remain open and reservations will be honoured

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/nov/12/pontins-goes-into-administration

andyroberts1967

Oh I'm not surprised. I drove past one in Suffolk a few weeks ago, and it looked run-down and grotty. I thought to myself, I'd rather stay at home or hire a cottage than stay in that sort of place.

mbga9pgf

Pontins. The only holiday place I have seen where the barbed wire points inwards.

Reminds me of auchwitz.

Loughton_Monkey

So. Where now? The dreadful mould-ridden Haven Holidays as noted in Watchdog last night?

PasturesNew

When I was a kid, holidays meant getting in the car and heading somewhere, then looking for a random hand-written "caravan to rent" sign at some farm house.... no heating, gas mantles, no shower, shed next to the caravan with a chemical toilet in it.

One year we just couldn't find any signs.... and dad pulled up at the gates of a Pontins.... oooooh myyyyy.... I thought finally we were going to have a holiday in a camp. He went in through the gates.... and came out again, got in the car, started the engine and said "too expensive" And we kept driving round looking for a shabby caravan to rent.

Loughton_Monkey

It says "Reservations will be honoured".

Who'd want to go now? Do we think the cleaners will be idly gossiping instead of cleaning? Will the majority of staff be cheap student labour - naive kids who were born yesterday and never done a proper day's work in their lives?

Er... no change, then.

1984ReturnsForReal_2

So much for record numbers holidaying in the UK.

nomoreboomandbust

Spent a week in prestatyn-North Wales- Haven complex, this was back in 1997, never again , came away with crippling back ache due to the beds.

vivatifosi

PasturesNew wrote: »

One year we just couldn't find any signs.... and dad pulled up at the gates of a Pontins.... oooooh myyyyy.... I thought finally we were going to have a holiday in a camp. He went in through the gates.... and came out again, got in the car, started the engine and said "too expensive" And we kept driving round looking for a shabby caravan to rent.

That's a shame Pastures. We could have met up as kids otherwise. My summer holiday as a kid was one week at Pontins. I remember the brochure. For the really rich people there was Pontinental, with resorts in far flung places like Majorca. We never got to go to those though.

And we always went in the cheap season, which meant freezing under the single 1 bar fire.

I haven't heard of Pontins for years. Tbh I'm suprised they were still going. Fred Pontin and Billy Butlin provided holidays for a different generation.

PasturesNew

I remember Fred Pontin's adverts on the telly. You'd get the advert, then right at the end it'd be Fred Pontin giving the "thumbs up" and he'd say: Book Early!!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Pontin

PasturesNew

He bought the first site for £23,000 in 1946, he put up some money, borrowed from Barclays, then got investors for the other half.