The Old Stables Campsite

Liked Nearly everything, very good big pitch, clean toilet and shower, very nice people help with everything what we need🙂 one of the best thing they cooking food, very tasty and good price🙂 so if you don't like cook you can buy from them🙂👍 ice cream van coming in site, that's made kids happy 👍🙂 you can buy logs if needed 🙂 good space for dish wash. Have couple of place where you can fill drinking water 🙂 we should stay for 3 night but or car broke before holiday so we come one day later on late evening but we call inform them and they safe space for us, we had just one full day in that site but its was amazing 😍 on evening we can saw so much stars in sky😍 all nice place is near the site🙂 highly recommend👍❤️

Disliked Shower are nice just very tiny sink, and one thing which I not like water in shower come for some time than stop and you need press again, but its not a big problem because everything else is perfect 🙂

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From the manager: Thank you for taking the time to write a review and for your lovely compliments, they are much appreciated and makes all the long hours and hard work worth it .

I will pass on your kind words to Sue and Tony from the catering van. We love that with the exception of the small sinks and the press button in the showers, which I agree can be annoying, you found everything else perfect. However, these are a necessity for saving space in a small area and water which is a precious commodity. 💦🚿 as we only have a bore hole to supply the whole site.

It’s great that you enjoyed your short stay with us and will recommend us to your friends. We are always happy to help out guests wherever possible and it’s a pleasure to have guests like yourselves on site and we hope that you will visit us again in the future.
Jayne and Mike. 😊

Liked The whole campsite suited us and we loved our pitch. I liked the rows of individual loos and showers.

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From the manager: Many thanks for your review. We are glad that you found that the campsite suited you and you loved your pitch. We also love that the toilets and showers are individual, as this makes it so much easier for cleaning.

We hope you will stay with us again in the future.
Jayne and Mike

Liked Good facilities, nice range of food available - although we’re a family of coeliacs so couldn’t test that out.
Good wetsuit cleaning facilities.

Disliked Attitude of the gent running it. When our children lost their ball in the hedge behind the tent he angrily told us they had been climbing all over them. Children generally respond better to explanation why they can’t do something rather than being shamed. Our children have been taught not to leave litter so are uncomfortable that there is now forever plastics in amongst the banks.
I also informed him one evening that the women’s toilets were blocked and he just humphed at me twice. No “thanks for informing me”, just hunched twice and walked off. His wife was lovely.
There was also dog poo on the grass, would benefit from greater rules for dog owners, lots of blind eyes to keeping dogs on leads and lots of barking through the night.

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From the manager: Many thanks for taking the time to write a review. It’s great that you found the facilities clean and the wet suit cleaning wash down area good.

It’s such a shame you did not try the food van, as she does offer food that is suitable for coeliacs and would have gladly catered for you.

I am sorry that you felt that Mike was temperamental, but he witnessed your children from 1/2 way across the field walking along the hedge stamping down the growth. Yes, he did ask your children to get off hedge, but most definitely didn’t shame them. I totally agree with you that children respond better to an explanation and as they are your responsibility, Mike came to find you to explain that the hedge is a Natural Habitat Corridor and crucial for maintaining biodiversity.

The responsibility of parents to supervise their children at all times includes escorting younger family members to the toilet, which doesn’t always happen and then the toilets get blocked, because they are not being flushed. This then leaves them in a state that renders them unusable by anybody else. So when you came to Mike and told him about the blocked toilet, yes he did shrug his shoulders but would like to point out that he also Thanked you and commented that it’d was that time of year.

Also like children, any animals on site are the owners responsibility, not ours and If we see or are made aware of dogs off leads or barking, we most definitely do not turn a blind eye, we ask their owners to put them on a lead, as we are not keen on having to pick up dog mess. During your stay, we had no reports any dog mess, dogs off the lead, or barking and with all the best will in the world when the site is busy, its almost impossible to always be able to see everything thats going on. We have to rely that our T’s and C’s have been read and are respected by our guests.

Please reassure your children, that when the hedges die back at the end of the season, we dutifully remove all the plastic and litter that has been left on them. We realise that our site is not for everyone and we really hope that you find a site in the future that better suits your needs.
Jayne and Mike

Liked The area, Cornwall was amazing 😍

Disliked We were really looking forward to this trip and had paid in full in advance. Unfortunately, our experience was overshadowed by how we were treated upon arrival.
Due to unexpected car trouble and traffic delays (we travelled from Blackpool), I emailed the camp site regularly with the updated arrival times as our journey progressed. I initially received a reply acknowledging this and saying "see you when you get here" which gave us no indication that we'd be refused entry. Our final arrival was around 9:30pm - just 30 minutes past an imaginary cut-off time that, to my knowledge, was not clearly stated in the confirmation emails or the advertising site.
When we phoned on arrival, the owner (Mike) said we couldn't pitch and abruptly hung up. He later arrived in person and accused us of lying about our journey, saying that " Liverpool is only 20 minutes from Blackpool" - which is both factually incorrect and inappropriate. He made us feel incredibly uncomfortable, issued warnings about our dog barking once while we pitched and he would kick us off the site, and offered no guidance about the facilities. No concern was shown for our welfare after a hellish 11 hour journey, and the tone was aggressive and intimidating.
We were eventually allowed to stay, but the unwelcoming attitude completely ruined the atmosphere for the rest of the trip. We avoided using the shop or the eatery (as planned) due to feeling unwelcome. Meanwhile, other guests' children were playing noisily past 9:30pm - so the enforcement of "quiet time" seemed very selective.
A bit of flexibility, courtesy, or basic empathy would have gone a long way. This could have been a great stay - the area is lovely - but we left feeling shaken and disappointed. I have reached out to the campsite for an apology, but they have ignored it- hence why I am warning others if you stay at this site there is an imaginary cut off at 9pm that is not advertised on pitch up and they won't tell you, so don't be late or you may receive the same nasty treatment we did!

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From the manager: In response to your formal complaint and 1/10 rating

Thank you for having read the T’s and C’s, in doing this you will have read that:
In the event of a complaint, please speak to reception immediately. Complaints which are not brought to the management's attention during your stay cannot be dealt with once you have left the site

You had 3 days to come to office and raise a complaint. I (Jayne) was present in the office on each of the 3 days and would have willingly allowed you to reach out.

Office hours on Pitchup:
Reception is closed from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m.. No arrivals are permitted between these times.
Reception is open from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. and from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.

The following statement is also visible when you made the booking for an electric grass tent pitch.

We'll never take bookings on the arrival day after your last arrival time which is 6 p.m. for this pitch type.

However, we apologise if this is not clear enough and I have already spoken to Pitchup and requested again that they add something to the arrivals and departures which makes it even clearer. I also send out a personal confirmation email to all of our guests, which was sent to you on the 31st of May with our T’s and C’s again and a contact number to ring/text if you are running late. I will be ensuring that this is updated and makes arrival times clearer. However when you book with Pitchup you are asked your estimated time of arrival, which then gives us a rough indication of when our guests will arrive and an indication if I need to flag the cut off time for the pitching of tents. You choose to leave this blank.

Your texts gave me no reason to believe that your arrival would be two hours after the ETA you had given me of 7.30pm. Although the time of 7.30 pm would have been 90 minutes after our last arrival time (6pm), this would have been acceptable and meant you would have had your tent pitched well before quiet time. Therefore I waited in the office for you to arrive until around 8.30pm. We fully appreciate at this time of the year that arrivals can be later and often keep the office open or stay on site to wait for late arrivals. To keep prices reasonable we are unable to extend the opening hours of the office, to accommodate a later opening on a regular basis.

With regard to your regular contact: after a really busy day of numerous arrivals, by 20.10, just over 9 hours after your morning text and no update, I tried to ring you using the office phone and the call went unanswered. The only email that I received from yourself during the day arrived at 21.15, after I has finished for the day, so wasn’t seen by myself (Jayne) until much later and I have no evidence of any texts after the one around 11.00am. I apologise if this is not the case and I have missed further text’s and emails from you. Also your screen shot of my reply doesn’t specifically say ‘see you when I see you’”, it says see you later. At the very least, I would have expected some sort of update on your ETA at 7.30pm when you were still 2 hours away.

Your words:
“I have reached out to the campsite for an apology, but they have ignored it”

Your comment to us not replying to your formal complaint email and ignoring you is very unfair. You had 3 days plus to raise your complaint in the office in line with the T’s and C’s for this site. You sent the email at 16.48pm on the 30th of July and by 11.04 am on the 31st of July you had put a rating of 1/10 review on Pitch Up. You gave me less than 24 hours to respond.

You also said that quiet time is selective as there were guests’ children playing noisily past 9.30 pm. I had no complaints of any noise that evening and in all fairness you were allowed to pitch your tent after quiet time and had there been a lot of noise, it would have been difficult to tell other people not to do something when we have allowed the pitching of a tent past quiet time.

We fully appreciate that our trading hours will not suit everyone, but in order to keep our prices affordable, we are not able to have the office open 24/7, keep the site well maintained and the facilities clean, as Mike and myself apart from some very welcome help 12 hours per week do everything, which may I add are very happy to do so, as it ensures a high standard of cleanliness and a budget friendly campsite.

We completely understand that our site will not suit everyone and wish you the very best for your future camping adventures 🏕️ .

Jayne and Mike

Liked I really liked this campsite and would 100% stay again. Super easy to find, super friendly and small campsite which meant it was really peaceful and comfortable to stay as a solo traveller. Super close drive to Godrevy and some lovely walks/cafes/pubs nearby.

Disliked The only downside as a solo traveller was having nowhere to tie my dog near the shower/toilet block apart from a plank of wood that moved/came away from the block very easily. This is only for solo travellers awareness and recommendation. This would definitely not put me off staying again as I loved the campsite.

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From the manager: Many thanks for taking the time to write a review. We are so glad that you enjoyed your stay with us and found the campsite a peaceful and comfortable place to be for a solo traveller.

We will 100% put the place to tie a dog on our list to do, it’s a great recommendation and one that is easily remedied. We had hoped by now to have rails by the toilets which would have been ideal.

We hope that you will visit us again in the future 😁
Jayne and Mike

Liked Lovely Stuff, beautiful place, Shower and toilets it’s very clean,

Disliked N/A

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From the manager: Many thanks for your great review. We are glad that you enjoyed your stay with us and found the facilities clean. We hope you will stay with us again in the future.
Jayne and Mike

Liked Very friendly hosts. Very clean . Spacious with all the essentials

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From the manager: Thank you for taking the time to write a review and for your lovely comments. We are glad that you found the site very clean and spacious with all the essentials.

We hope you will visit us again in the future.
Jayne and Mike

Liked Great facilities. Stunning view of the sea.

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From the manager: Thank you for your review. We are so pleased that you describe our facilities great and will recommend us to your friends and would visit again in the future.
Jayne and Mike

Liked Second year here and once again, excellent! Great hosts and a well serviced site.

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From the manager: Thank you for returning to us again this year and for posting some lovely pictures of your ‘excellent ‘ stay. It’s great that your second visit was as enjoyable as your first. We look forward to a 3rd visit.
Jayne and Mike 😁

Liked Fantastic site in a beautiful rural location. Lovely friendly staff … and lovely little cat on site too. Fabulous showers and toilets, little shop and beautiful sunsets. We loved our stay and stayed another night.

Disliked Nothing

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From the manager: Thank you for taking the time to write a review of our site, which you describe as being fantastic, in a great location with lovely staff and a lovely cat. . We are so glad that you enjoyed your stay with us so much that you booked an additional night. We hope that you will return in the future.
Jayne and Mike 🐈