Sun £9.50 Holidays - very costly upgrades!

matt_anna

Hi everyone.

Im new to this forum but thought i would let you know about the experience we have just had when booking a £9.50 holiday with Haven.

Lat year we went to Haven Hopton in Gt Yarmouth for 3 nights Fri-Mon in the middle of May. As we were priority Sun customers we were able to book our break online, and by doing so we could upgrade our caravan from 'standard' to 'luxury' by paying a small supplement. When we arrived our caravan was very nice and clean but only had a gas fire and no heating in the bedrooms. Heating is apparently only available in the Prestige caravans. At night it was freezing to the point that we decided to come home a day early as the bedrooms were far too cold for our 1 & 2 year old girls at night. We explained to Haven who couldnt offer us an upgrade due to the park being so busy but were advised to book the next caravan catagory up next time we visit.

Fast forward to Monday when we booked our break online again, this time to Haven Seashore, we upgraded to the highest catagory of 'Luxury Plus' costing us £17.50 per person.

Once booked we called Haven to make sure that our caravan would have heating this time, and the lady on the phone said that the Sun 'Luxury Plus' catagory wouldnt have heating. We explained that this was the highest catagory we could possibly book and enquired how much it would be to upgrade to 'Prestige'. The lady said that because we had booked 'luxury plus' the cost to upgrade to a prestige caravan would be £145!!!!:mad: More than twice what we had already paid! To kick me in the teeth even more she told me that if we had booked the 'standard' catagory caravan with The Sun it would only have cost £30 to upgrade to prestige. I asked her rather confusingly why we have to pay so much more, and she said that Haven cant upgrade holidays that have already been upgraded from 'standard' with the Sun and that unless we pay the full £145 there is nothing she can do!

So now we are stuck with a caravan with no heating again.

Morale of this rambling, be careful to check what your upgrade includes and if you havent booked yet and are planing to do so with Haven, book standard first!

gracie10

we always take portable heaters with us for the bedrooms if we know its going to be cold and then you have the gas fire in the living area, so we never end up cold.

matt_anna

We did consider the portable heaters but didnt want to leave them on all night in a caravan, but it may be the only option. We are going a month later than we did last year so hopefully the nights wont be as cold.

gracie10

The one we have you can set so it just comes on and off as and when the temp drops, hope you get something sorted.

wookie_2

We just left our gas fire in the living room on low all night to keep us all warm, there is no risk as the caravan is well ventalated and alarmed up. It was nice to get up to a warm caravan in the morning...

matt_anna

Thats a good idea. Ill look into getting one with a thermostat. Do you tend to find they heat the whole caravan sufficiently or do you put one in each room?

jonaylor

Hi we use these in each bedroom and they seem more than adequate.
HTH
http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/4152174/Trail/searchtext%3EFAN+HEATER.htm#pdpFullProductInformation

matt_anna

thanks for the link!!

qetu1357

jonaylor wrote: »

Hi we use these in each bedroom and they seem more than adequate.
HTH
http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/4152174/Trail/searchtext%3EFAN+HEATER.htm#pdpFullProductInformation

We took these last time - warmed rooms up a treat

Be careful you don't trip the power supply though!

dogtigger2000

I have booked sun holidays for years now but am disgusted this year. We got butlins in june and received the booking confirmation and its forty pound more going with the sun then booking direct with butlins. I couldnt believe it. Rang butlins up nothing they can do all I can do is cancel the sun holiday and book with them but then i will lose the sixty pound. No win in this situation.

karenhumphries

We've also upgraded to Luxury for our Sun Haven holiday - already thinking it's not worth it as all their caravans come with a microwave and we usually take our own linen and Luxury upgrade said beds made up on arrival so i assumed we wouldn't have to hire linen but i've since found out that we still will!! Anyway was intending to take a portable heater with us but might take two so we've enough for all the bedrooms as we're a party of 5 so hopefully will have a 2 bed or above. Going on 30 March so definitely will need some extra heating!