Am I entitled to a refund it I leave a campsite early due to bad behavior - UPDATED

paul112

I booked and paid for a campsite for 2 nights. On the 1st night the noise coming from the adjacent tent was awful. They were obviously drinking heavily, very noisy, arguing, driving round the campsite playing loud music and even after we (and a few other campers) asked them to keep the noise down they carried on. This went on from about 10pm until 5.30am in the morning. We got absolutely no sleep.

We complained to reception at 9am, along with about a dozen other campers and we were told they would deal with it. They then asked the problem campers to vacate the site and threatened them with the police if they refused. They made no effort to pack up and refused to leave. The campsite phoned the police but were told that unless they were causing a problem at the moment they could not do anything about it.

We decided to pack up and leave because we didnt want to risk another night with our children listening to them and getting no sleep.

The campsite have said they cannot refund us as they were dealing with it and were confident that they would get them off the site that day. And, if the worst came to the worst and they didnt leave they would make sure security would patrol the site to ensure it didnt happen again. Yet, 4 hours after being told to leave they were making no efforts to pack up.

The campsite told us that they have security people driving round the site each night to keep a check on campers up until 3am in the morning. There is no way anyone came past our section as it would have been impossible not to hear the constant racket and bad language. I told this to the campsite manager and he agreed and said the fault seems to be lying with the security team who didnt appear to have been doing their job that night. The campsite are totally passing the buck to the security team and said they intend to deal with them and that they cannot take the blame and issue refunds because of this.

We didnt have any faith that the campsite & security would prevent a repeat episode the next night and we also feared repercussions from this family as it was obvious which campers had complained about them so we felt we had no alternative but to pack up and leave.

Is there anything we can do?

T_T_2

Camping rates aren't widely known as being prohibitively expensive, so can I ask just how much money you paid per night? Or in other words, is this more about the principle of the matter than the money?

If it is the latter then it might be best to just write this off as an incredibly unpleasant one-off experience without letting it put you off camping again in the future.

CKhalvashi

It's not the fault of the site, however I can understand your frustration.

I remember a time at Center Parcs (we disappeared for Jubilee Weekend) there were problem people in the chalet next to ours, and nothing could (legally) be done about it. The main problem here is that trespassing isn't a criminal offense.

I drink a little more heavily when I'm away than when I'm not (we can quite easily do a bottle of wine each a night), however we don't turn into a problem.

My frustration is when people drink and do turn into a problem, but unfortunately, that's life.

CK

paul112

it was £35 per night. It is not just the money though, it is the fact that a family weekend away was completely ruined. A weekend that took alot of planning, time off work, excited children.

warehouse

OP, it's absolutely vital that you leave a review on trip advisor and be totally honest. As a fellow camper I'd love to be forewarned about totally incompetent management like this.

paul112

CK - I understand what you're saying. But I think if the site employ a security team to ensure problems like this dont arise, then the security team dont do their job then surely someone is accountable for a family holiday being ruined and money wasted.

As far as I'm concerned, this was a totally avoidable situation, in that if security were patrolling (as they should have been) then it could have been nipped in the bud at around 11.3-pm/12am and nothing more said.

paul112

Warehouse, I fully intend to. I would hate for this to happen to anyone else. I know its impossible to know who is likely to pitch up next to you, but if they are employing security then to me, its a site that they think sometimes needs it and they should be doing their job.

We have been on some lovely sites with no security and no problems either.

CKhalvashi

paul112 wrote: »

CK - I understand what you're saying. But I think if the site employ a security team to ensure problems like this dont arise, then the security team dont do their job then surely someone is accountable for a family holiday being ruined and money wasted.

As far as I'm concerned, this was a totally avoidable situation, in that if security were patrolling (as they should have been) then it could have been nipped in the bud at around 11.3-pm/12am and nothing more said.

As mentioned, leaving a review on travel sites may get their backsides into gear.

You know that they have let you down once, and surely they won't want to lose more business.

We employ a night security team (2 people) purely due to the amount of money's worth of stock in the building (the studios on their own are worth about £2.5m), and they do their job properly.

Were the security SIA authorised? This may be another route of getting your money back.

CK

Mojisola

Would it have been possible to move to a different part of the site?

T_T_2

CKhalvashi wrote: »

Were the security SIA authorised? This may be another route of getting your money back.

Why would this ever be a route to getting a refund? The status of their SIA license is irrelevant when you consider the fact that the security team were not even apparently present. The reality of the matter is that Customer pays £35.00 a night, first night is ruined by a bunch of yobs, site owner apparently does very little to resolve the situation, Customer leaves dissatisfied. All that's left now is for Customer to decide whether or not it is really worth pursuing campsite for £35.00 or whether it is best to just get on with life.

The mere existence of this thread would indicate where this is going, although I can't quite imagine the OP (who by all accounts has presented themselves as intelligible) contacting the campsite and saying 'We want a refund because your security team didn't have an SIA license'

If the OP does choose to pursue a refund I suspect they might be more inclined to stick to the 'Our weekend was ruined and you did nothing to stop it' route.

paddyrg

Can I ask, was there any way, a phone number or similar, which could have been called at say 11pm or midnight when the noise was embedded but the night rescueable? Or was the first person onto site at 5.00 in time to meet the disgruntled campers? Just wondering if they had been given an opportunity to remedy the problem, or if they could have been, at the time.

The security were clearly not doing their job, if part of the advertised attraction of the site was overnight security patrols, then there is an argument that the accommodation was not as described.