Centerparcs Reviews 

First time I’ve had a bad experience with Centerparcs- sadly it’s enough to make me rethink visiting again.

Staff on the ground are always amazing. Helpful, polite and willing to go an extra mile. We’ve been coming for nearly 30 years and there have been niggles but always sorted quickly.

This year we’re at Elveden and not long before our holiday, which was booked during our last trip in February, we received an email saying some swimming activities were cancelled because of upgrades to the area. I’m sure this was planned before we booked but there you go. I called Centerparcs reservations who confirmed the work and said if I wanted to discuss a discount I’d have to call Guest Services. They also said that I could cancel and rebook but seeing the work will be ongoing until next year I didn’t see a point. I called Guest Services but couldn’t get through so I emailed. No response.

Fast forward to the holiday - we arrived, got our disabled permit to park outside. Confirmed the mobility scooter we had booked. It’s all good.

My daughter got to the cycle park, no scooter. They could only offer a wheelchair or bike with a cart thing at the back. So no independence for my son and he feels guilty because one of us now has to push him.

If this had been a cheap holiday the above would be minor irritations but Centerparcs you can’t have your cake and eat it. If you can’t offer the Customer Service of the luxury experience that you promise then you have to lower your prices.

After trying to modify for 2 months a stay for august, at SUNPARKS, contacting the parcs and meddling between them and BOOKING.COM, we finally were able to speak to a customer service person from CENTER PARCS, and this person was so rude, so extremely unpolite to me and specially to my wife, that she had an anxiety attack. We are still trying to either cancel or change the accomodation, but I am already giving up, and getting all the information I can gather to sue both parcs.

We are staying in a two bedroom executive Lodge in Woburn forest though its beyond fantastic looking nothing electrical comes with instructions luckily can search the web and find out ps if you intend to purchase the logs for the fire before arrival make sure you bring something to light them as they obviously think its funny not to provide matches with the logs so first morning could not have the fire on so upset with that as paid for a log for each morning

Cannot recommend this holiday enough!! We went to the whinfell parc and the location was beautiful. Lots of wild animals roaming around the site and lodges situated right in the heart of the Forrest. Booked all activities we wanted to and more as there are so many to chose from. It was expensive I’m not going to lie but making the memories we have as a family are priceless to me.

I go to center parcs a few times a year to Woburn and i book a mobility scooter to be delivered to my lodge prior to arrival and we sometimes get courtesy early check in. Yesterday I rang and i was past from pilar to post by guest services managers who 1 minute said yes we will give you a courtesy early check in, then no, then yes and then i was put through to a lady called Vicki in the medical team who asked me intrusive questions about my disability only to be told no we cant then yes we can said a lady in pre-Arrivals who gave me the wrong name or cp are denying a person with the name Niki works there. A man called Owen rang me today was hostile, abrupt but he said we can give you a curtesy early check in then i requested a email confirmation then he says no. Omg goodness are these people bipolar or are they taking the pi.s i asked to cancel then they said we wont offer you a refund. Awful money grabbers who have zero interest in making customers happy. If they said from the start that early check in is £40 i wouldve said ok. Even this only checkin fee is a scam because they charge different prices each time you call. Someone i know paid £60 for 3 lodges early check in and others are being told to pay £40-60 for 1 lodge. I asked owen if we can have a coffee machine and we are happy to pay but he was full of unnecessary attidude. I really dont know why staff are so hostile to me but i will never return. I feel its because i have ethnic name and these village people are racist

First the negatives. We booked an Executive Lodge for 3 of us and the room wasn't clean on arrival. There were sweet wrappers and bits of sweets in the bedrooms and one of the ensuites. The shelf by the fireplace was so dusty you could write in it and the mattresses were poor quality and we didn't sleep well. The most annoying thing was the Sports Plaza, which for reasons I cannot fathom, have decided to use a QR system, whereby you have to input your card details and order through your phone. This led to us inadvertently clicking a big OK button which we have since discovered was a scam. We then spent nearly 2 hours of our short break on the phone to the bank to cancel our card. Why they can't just use contactless is anyone's guess? Even the staff agreed and said they preferred more customer interaction. After all that is part of the hospitality experience. Other issues were:
No information pack in room.
No instructions for coffee machine. Took ages to work out how to do it and had to go online in the end to look up instructions.
Table tennis - No net to stop ball going into people playing on the arcade games or balls getting trapped under arcade games.

Positives:
Staff responded brilliantly to complaint about dirty room and gave us a small refund. They were friendly and courteous, hence we would not be put off coming again.
Great Tropical swim space.
Grounds well maintained.
Escape room (Parallax) was excellent and would highly recommend. Wished we'd booked the other escape room too.

My daughter booked this break as a treat for us, and her husband + 2 young children and herself. We stayed from Easter Monday until the Friday. The major complaint was the Changing Places toilet facilites. My rising 8 y.o. grandson is mentally handicapped, in a wheelchair, and in nappies. *They weren't allowed to take him to use the facility as we weren't in an adapted lodge* - we didn't need to be as he doesn't need lowered worktops, an electric bed etc. APPALLING !!!! The other comments are small by comparison: in an Executive Lodge, you'd expect soft-closing kitchen cupboards, especially as they are so near the bedrooms; the sofa was not comfortable; the sign-posting on the site is often inadequate and misleading eg we found a shorter route from the shop to our (Oaks) lodge than the signposted one we had followed on our first evening whilst carrying bags of shopping. I also think they need to look at the arrival procedure: we were directed to a car park and were told that the gate would be open to let us through to our lodges at 4 pm. At about 4.20 I rang the C.S. to ask why nothing had happened

Dont go it expensive and there are alot of other places to book make it last on tour list.

I’ll start by saying that overall we had a great time at Centerparcs Sherwood Forest. We were a large group staying in 2 adjacent lodges and thoroughly enjoying all the activities, the pool, the cycling, the environment. The staff were all lovely, especially on the activities, they were brilliant with the kids. We tried a number of activities including aqua jetting, laser tag, fencing, badminton, kids segways and street karts and enjoyed them all. We booked the street karts for an hour for our group and had the best time racing round the track, we all had a good leg workout. We also took part in the Big Quiz on the first night which was really good fun.
The main thing that has resulted in the 4 rather than 5 star review is the comfort of the beds and the bedding. We were really active for our 3 night stay and needed a good nights sleep but our party of 11 all felt the beds were really uncomfortable and slept poorly over the weekend. They were very hard and the duvets and pillows the same and poor quality. The other item which was poor quality was the TV, which had dreadful sound quality, this is a minor point but not what you expect from Center parcs. Like others have commented we had a very poor takeaway curry which we found out is not made in the Center parcs Indian restaurant and is delivered by an external company who are clearly ripping off Center parcs customers, definitely avoid!! I’ve seen a number of reviews commenting on how uncomfortable the beds are. Such a shame as we had a brilliant time and would like to go back but not sure I can manage another sleepless weekend!!

Well done again Carole and Emily at Centerparcs Woburn.

We visited in October 2021 and visited the Aquasana spa. We were very concerned about COVID but Carole and the staff made us so very welcome.

We had absolutely no hesitation to book again and were delighted to meet Carole again. She welcomed us like old friends and even remembered our son by name. Absolutely stunning memory Carole and thank you so much for making today’s stay at the spa so perfect.

Centerparcs still delivers great value and a safe and homely welcome for all. The staff are wonderful and the lodges are excellent.

Very well done.

Ed

We had a blast ,we didn't stop laughing the whole weekend,all the staff we spoke to were friendly and helpful expecially Sharon Day at the Grill restaurant she went out of her way to help us with the app that you now need to use for ordering all food and drink at cp which is OK for the young of today that don't like the personal touch.She was professional and lovely and needs a shout out. I found the sauna lovely (would like a pair of slippers or flip flops to use) lots to do and prices were good for lunch in the restaurant there. We didn't know cp was a cash free site ,they lost out on a lot of spending from us 4 ladies as we had cash. The indoor pool and rapids were really good clean and warm Accommodation was really good ,and the land train was a blessing.

We DID NOT recevie any emails or text messages informing us that the Woburn village was closed. We DID recevied a text on Thursday "your booking number for tomorrow is 2975042. Feel free to arrive from 10am and your lodge is ready at 4pm. The busiest arrival time is between 2 & 4pm" I am sure you can see how we were led to believe from your communication with us that the village was still open and running as per normal. That is quite frankly a massive error on your behalf and one that cost us a day packing and travelling, lost income and travelling expenses which I would like compensation for. Had you have informed us that village was closed we would obviously not have travelled, but you failed to do so! If you cannot offer me a satisfactory compensaiton package I will be seeking legal advice and will take things further. I believe an article was published in the Telegraph only yesterday about the failings of Centre Parcs to deal with the storm and look after it's customers to a satiusfactory level. I have filled in the form and will wait to hear back from you direclty as to how Centre Parcs are to settle my case. Matt

We stayed at Windfell forests 18-20 February. We got to Windfell to be met by a member of the SS or maybe a very rude guard at a POW Camp, but it turn out to a gate guard! to welcome people. REALLY NEED TO RETRAIN THEM. They are not the SAS !! It’s meant to be a holiday not a prison!!!We could get into accommodation until 4pm. We check out our lodge at 2pm it was FULLY ready but we just can’t get in until 4pm. Like many families that cold wet day we walk around looking for somewhere warm and dry until 4pm!
MAKES NO SENSE CENTER PARKS!!!!
All you hugs did on that first day was mess people around. Sad when people work hard to pay for there trip away!

We did come to Windfell two earlier and had a bad time due to the guards who think that it’s boot camp! Two years on nothing has changed. We did write to CP and told them two years ago about the SS style guards!!

Untrustworthy company. They cancelled our weekend for 16 people the night before check-in. Offered a full refund (er, yeah, obviously, thanks for that) but did not even have the courtesy to cancel the booked activities to refund us for them. They left that to us, no doubt hoping we wouldn't bother, or forget, or not be able to get through to the department's on the phone. Centerparcs company and management has no shame.

For a company that used to be excellent at customer service Centerparcs has become one of the worst now.
They do not answer the phone and just leave you on hold for an hour of more (probably in the hope you will give up).
They do not respond to formal complaints - it is now mid February and I have heard nothing other than an acknowledgement to a complaint I made early December.
The online chat is slow and ineffective from staff who seem to have little desire to actually assist.
Whilst you might have a great holiday when you get to Centerparcs, if you have any reason to contact customer services then you will be left tired, frustrated and in need of a holiday.
Having been a regular customer for many years I would not book with them again.

My mother who is a pensioner booked a trip for the whole family and paid the deposit. Didn't look at her emails and ran over the payment deadline by a few days and was told her holiday has been cancelled. But she can rebook the same holiday in the same lodges but has to pay an extra £420.
ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTING.
Won't be going back with customer care like this

"Hasn't replied to negative reviews for the past 12 months." Says it all.

Since I'm on a roll writing views I thought I'd write one where I'm sat!

This is my first booking with Centerparcs and everything has gone perfectly so far. Only one issue was the room was not ready on time which is why I have given 4 stars.

Staff - friendly and welcoming, Jessica has looked after us well.

Accommodation - nice, clean and cosy

Activies - great! Probably the main feature, getting to socialise with other families and getting some time away from the kids.

Looking forward to coming back and checking out other destinations they have across England.

This a review for Center Parcs EU!

AVOID AVOID AVOID At all costs! Even tho we cant travel as borders shut they have tried to charge us £1500 to move our booking!! Then to cancel they want 30% - they are abusing customers in a world pandemic for profit. Phone line doesn't work and emails are generic repsonse which you can tell they haven't even read. Literally they will take your money and leave you dry. I cant tell you how awful it feels being in this situation with a company we usually love in the UK

I have to say Center Parcs have certainly improved on their refund service. Unfortunately we had to cancel again. Money back in my account in a couple of days. Fantastic service. Thank you.