Heathside Holidays

Liked No

Disliked Extremely disappointing experience – Unprofessional management and completely family-unfriendly
We booked 7 pods for a weekend getaway (Saturday to Monday) with our families and kids. Unfortunately, our stay was completely ruined by two individuals claiming to be the managers
Around 10:00 PM, they came to our area complaining about noise and abruptly ordered us to "go to sleep." Since we had young children, we politely agreed to quiet down and put the kids to bed. We had already checked with our nearest neighboring campers earlier, who had no issue with us chatting.
By 10:30 PM, the female manager returned—this time with a dog that jumped onto my friend. She aggressively demanded that we shut down our BBQ and go to sleep. We complied and stopped the BBQ by 11:00 PM. However, we politely but firmly explained that while we would keep our voices down, we were paying guests who had gathered to catch up with friends, and they had no right to dictate a strict bedtime for adults in an outdoor campsite.
Instead of handling the situation professionally, they threatened to evict us on the spot or call the police if we didn't go to sleep immediately. Since we had all been drinking alcohol responsibly, driving away was not even a safe or legal option. I told them to go ahead and call the police.
When the police officers arrived 30 minutes later and heard our side of the story, they completely sided with us. The officers confirmed that we had every right to stay awake, chat, and sit outside or inside our pods as long as we kept the noise level reasonable. The police even apologized for having to respond to such an absurd call.
We ended up staying up chatting until 3:00 AM without further issues, but the management’s power trip completely ruined our evening.
Do NOT recommend this place if you are traveling with kids, planning a social gathering, or expecting basic hospitality and respect. They are extremely hostile toward families and have zero customer service skills.

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From the manager: Thank you for your review. We are disappointed by your account of the evening, as it does not accurately reflect the circumstances or the reasons our management team intervened.

Our park has a clear 10:00pm noise rule, which applies equally to every guest. This is not a requirement for guests to “go to sleep”; it is a quiet-hours policy designed to ensure that all guests, including families with young children and those staying in neighbouring pods, can enjoy a peaceful night.

On this occasion, we received complaints from three separate guests regarding the noise coming from your group. Our team therefore approached you and asked that the noise be reduced in accordance with the park rules. This was a reasonable request made in response to multiple complaints from other paying guests.

There was also a significant safety issue regarding the BBQ. From our staff’s observations, the BBQ was being used as a firepit. Firepits are strictly prohibited on our site, regardless of the circumstances. This policy is particularly important given the recent dry conditions and drought, our location within an area of heathland, and the fact that our glamping pods are predominantly wooden structures. The prohibition exists to protect our guests, our accommodation and the surrounding environment from the very serious risk of fire.

We therefore cannot agree with the suggestion that our staff were simply being unreasonable or attempting to impose a “strict bedtime.” We were addressing two separate site rules: quiet hours and a fire-safety requirement, while also responding to complaints from other guests.

We appreciate that your group had booked several pods and wanted to spend time together. We have no objection whatsoever to guests socialising and enjoying their stay. However, booking multiple pods does not exempt a group from the rules that apply to everyone else, particularly where other guests are being disturbed or there is a potential fire-safety risk.

We also strongly disagree with the suggestion that we are “hostile towards families” or “family-unfriendly.” Families are very welcome at our park, and our rules are applied to all guests regardless of age or group size. In fact, maintaining reasonable quiet at night is particularly important for families with young children, as well as for guests who simply wish to enjoy a peaceful night's sleep.

We are sorry that you were unhappy with the situation, but we stand by our staff’s decision to intervene. Our responsibility is to provide a safe and enjoyable environment for all our guests, and enforcing our published rules is an essential part of doing so.

We hope that this clarifies why our team took the action they did that evening.

Liked Size of pitches, games field, lovely site.

Disliked Nothing!

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Liked Space and location. Relaxed atmosphere

Disliked Only one toilet and shower for whole site!

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Liked Fantastic site, I’ve been going for years, that says it all. Warm friendly welcome and great facilities.

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Liked Clean spaces, nice open fields, loads of space for the kids to roam & play, small woodlands at the back. Huts were reasonably facilitated. Good location to a local pub that’s walkable. Great little shop onsite reasonably priced.

Disliked Only 1 shower in each of the toilets & an extra disabled toilet, which isn’t enough for the size of the park. Tried cleaning in between uses but the mop wasn’t clean, really needs to have someone around to keep the toilets clean in the mornings.

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Liked Size pitch great. Well stocked shop. Plenty facilities for children. Lovely setting.
Friendly staff. Clean facilities

Disliked Gents only had 1 toilet and 1 shower as far as I could see.

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Liked Lots of space around the glamping pod to park and sit out.

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Liked We stayed here last year and now this year. Hopefully will book again for next year. If this isn't a recommendation then nothing is!

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Liked Suitable for all my family, old and young. Age range 60 years down to 7 months. Peaceful. Have been using site for past four years and always have the best time. A place where we can all be together.

Disliked Cleaners need to check toilet brushes in pods. Also lots of cobwebs.

Bookings were confused despite 3 separate phone calls.

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Liked I have stayed at this site for over ten years so to have to give a write up seems odd! Of course it’s great or I wouldn’t keep going year after year! It clean, tidy, very friendly both the owner and staff. The shop is perfect and the site couldn’t be in a more beautiful spot.

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