Advice on Centre Parcs

adamjth

Hi,
I have a booking for me and my kids in mid August that I have partially paid for.  On June 8th I am due to pay the remaining £500 for this trip and I am increasingly reluctant to do so.   My hunch tells me that with the current status quo:- either the break will be cancelled anyway or will have severe restrictions around it.   I have looked at the FAQ on the website and it appears that are still expecting me to pay.   Since there is no helpline or anyone to respond to am not sure what to do but I really don't want to part with more cash.   Does anyone know what my rights are in this circumstance - I know that had agreed to pay by this deadline but the circumstance are clearly extraordinary
thanks

Adam

Mrsn

If you don’t pay then they will treat it as you cancelling the holiday. You may only lose the deposit paid or you may lose all your payments made so far... you would need to read the terms and conditions attached to your booking.

adamjth

Thanks I suspected as much but will double check. 

 RANT:- You know all I would want to do rather than ask questions on a 3rd party forum is have a dialog with CP that went like:- either refund for tokens for next year, cash refund or push the date back much later in the year.     Tried emailing them last month with no response

savings37

I have a booking with deposit only paid for Christmas time and although a long way off I'm likewise concerned of them being open with social distancing restrictions, this wouldn't be a holiday we would enjoy and close on £900 for 4 days it's not cheap.

We have a refund processing for a separate Center Parcs break which should have started this Monday, I did contact CP via email before our booking date was within the official closed time and they did offer for me to reschedule my holiday but without the £100 off offer. They did email back within about 1 week. We eventually let it run and requested the refund.

millie

adamjth said:

Hi,
I have a booking for me and my kids in mid August that I have partially paid for.  On June 8th I am due to pay the remaining £500 for this trip and I am increasingly reluctant to do so.   My hunch tells me that with the current status quo:- either the break will be cancelled anyway or will have severe restrictions around it.   I have looked at the FAQ on the website and it appears that are still expecting me to pay.   Since there is no helpline or anyone to respond to am not sure what to do but I really don't want to part with more cash.   Does anyone know what my rights are in this circumstance - I know that had agreed to pay by this deadline but the circumstance are clearly extraordinary
thanks

Adam

We were supposed to be going to Center Parcs on 22nd of June. They are only asking you to pay the balance 2 weeks before departure at the moment. We had an email on Tuesday 19th May telling us it was cancelled, we could re-book at a later date with £100 discount or have a full refund of our deposit.  

manetti

millie said:

adamjth said:

Hi,
I have a booking for me and my kids in mid August that I have partially paid for.  On June 8th I am due to pay the remaining £500 for this trip and I am increasingly reluctant to do so.   My hunch tells me that with the current status quo:- either the break will be cancelled anyway or will have severe restrictions around it.   I have looked at the FAQ on the website and it appears that are still expecting me to pay.   Since there is no helpline or anyone to respond to am not sure what to do but I really don't want to part with more cash.   Does anyone know what my rights are in this circumstance - I know that had agreed to pay by this deadline but the circumstance are clearly extraordinary
thanks

Adam

We were supposed to be going to Center Parcs on 22nd of June. They are only asking you to pay the balance 2 weeks before departure at the moment. We had an email on Tuesday 19th May telling us it was cancelled, we could re-book at a later date with £100 discount or have a full refund of our deposit.  

I believe the balance due date depends on your arrival date, which make the situation different for adamjth.

"As we all continue to adapt and react to the changing circumstances and whilst we await any further guidance from the Government, we’ve decided to reduce the final balance payment date to 2 weeks prior to arrival for all UK village breaks up to 16th July and 5 weeks for all subsequent breaks across all villages until 13th August. All other break dates for all villages remain at the usual 10 weeks."

I assume this question is regarding Center Parcs UK?

millie

Yes I expect they will decide the payment dates based on the situation at the time and how far the restrictions are relaxed.

adamjth

Yes this is Centre Parc UK for a booking at Longleat and I have now sent  4 x emails with no reply.

Looking on the website I can't reserve activities for the dates I am there and FAQs still suggest they want me to part with an outstanding further £500 on Monday when I know the likelihood if the facility is open it will be severely restricted.   Reasonable I would have thought to allow me the option to discuss with them either delay the holiday or cancel for refund / tokens.

I know my woes are far less than some people on here who have likely lost holidays or worst this year but I am beginning to resent CP mgmt because likely they have furloughed too many staff (to save themselves cash at taxpayer expense ) when more of them could be working from home answering customers which is very easy to setup in this day & age of cloud based IT

[Deleted User]

I think you just have to be patient adamjth.   Centre Parcs like every other company will be working by date of travel.  They haven't got round to your holiday date yet so will not respond.   I personally think this is fair enough (because of the numbers involved) albeit frustrating for the individuals, however, I do appreciate your dilemma of whether to pay the balance or not.   

Your choice really.   If you don't pay it then you run the risk of the holiday being cancelled without being able to reclaim the deposit.   This is an ongoing debate about whether a non refundable deposit should be enforced under these conditions so it isn't totally clear if you will be able to rebook again in August for next year- certainly if your parc isn't open then you should be able to.  

If you do pay and your parc is open,  but you still don't fancy it at the time because of the restrictions then I guess it is just tough?   

I have listened to people saying "but it won't be the holiday I paid for"   No, possibly not but maybe it might be just as enjoyable in a different way?   I don't know if it would put me off going but that depends on what you were specifically looking for I guess.  I take it you hadn't booked anything yet other than the lodge?     Not having queues everywhere would be my idea of bliss 

adamjth

" Not having queues everywhere would be my idea of bliss "  thats a really good point.
I am not being a compo merchant in this and accept it will be a different holiday but I just think you pay for a premium for CP so they should be making more of an effort.   When you call them they say something like "we are protecting our staff with social distancing methods" and call centre is closed.   Thats disingenuous I think they could easily make arrangements for working from home for staff to meet this requirement. 
  
The other part of this is that we all know that social distancing will have to continue all summer and whilst it is possible to observe the 2 metre rule camping its not practical indoors.   I was due to attend a indoor trade show in Holland in middle of September and its been cancelled so I doubt CP facilities will be able to operate in August. People may say CP are waiting on govt advice but I sense unjoined up thinking & they should start to address things as the really are by making contact with their customers

Life__Goes__On

adamjth said:

Looking on the website I can't reserve activities for the dates I am there and FAQs still suggest they want me to part with an outstanding further £500 on Monday when I know the likelihood if the facility is open it will be severely restricted. 

There is a thread here about that same issue about what will be on offer when it reopens
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6149774/center-parcs-reduced-facilities