Center Parcs will order holidaymakers to leave its sites for Queen’s funeral
Center Parcs has announced it will order holidaymakers to leave its UK sites on the day of the Queen’s funeral.
The company is being inundated with complaints after it revealed that its five parks will close for 24 hours from 10am on Monday.
Guests partway through seven-day holidays – which generally cost more than £1,000 for a family-of-four at this time of year – will be forced to spend the night elsewhere or go home early.
Those due to arrive on Monday for shorter stays are being given the opportunity to begin their breaks a day later.
Center Parcs said in a statement that it made the decision “as a mark of respect and to allow as many of our colleagues as possible to be part of this historic moment”.
It added: “We hope our guests will understand our decision to support our Queen on her final journey.
“All guests impacted by the closure will receive an email today explaining the options available.”
Refund
Customers who want to cancel their holidays are being offered a full refund, with partial refunds for those whose breaks will be shorter than booked.
Many affected people expressed their anger on Center Parcs’ Facebook page.
One wrote: “We were five related families getting together for our annual family holiday – with two small children and two dogs, three hours from home!
“Where the hell are we supposed to go for one night?! It’s that or cancel some or all of the much-anticipated holiday!
“Sorry, but this is an awful, awful decision that has left us devastated.
“By all means close the restaurants and activities, but let us stay on the park!!”
Another wrote: “Center Parcs have left us in a right mess.
“Party of six – including one toddler and one adult with special needs. Driving four hours for a Friday to Friday break in (a) four-bedroomed cabin.
“Get kicked out of our accommodation at 10am Monday and can’t return until the same time on Tuesday. What the hell are we supposed to do???!!!”
Mourning guidance from the Cabinet Office states: “Depending on the nature and location of their business and the tone of planned events, some businesses may wish to consider closing or postponing events, especially on the day of the state funeral, however this is at the discretion of individual businesses.”
Center Parcs’ five UK sites are: Elveden Forest, Suffolk; Longleat Forest, Wiltshire; Sherwood Forest, Nottinghamshire; Woburn Forest, Bedfordshire; and Whinfell Forest, Cumbria.
Holidays at the villages start on Fridays or Mondays and last three, four or seven nights.
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Pure overkill. Do these idiots think that the customers they are screwing over will ever want to go back again? All because one human has died. Ridiculous over saturation of plastic mourning.
Center Parcs is clearly a two-bit company, who think more about a dead billionaire than their customers. Leave and don’t ever go back. Support local businesses instead.
This is an example of why a bank holiday at very short notice is a bad idea. They should have had the funeral on the weekend and given everyone a bank holiday at some later date to show their respects if they want to, or have a day off if they don’t.
Forcing holidaymakers to vacate their accommodation for 24 hours is a terrible way to treat customers and totally disproportionate.
A “Mark of respect” while showing zero ‘respect’ for customers actually holidaying with them.
Sue.
For all the extra costs plus the distress.
Surely this is a breach of contract? If one party to a contract unilaterally chooses to break it, exemplary damages are in order. Crowd-fund the legal costs for one case to set a precedent then let everyone else who is inconvenienced refer to it.
This is all getting beyond stupid.
It is embarrassing the “UK” on the world stage.
Great job.
I guess that’s the problem when you are so eager to lick boots; you invariably show your ass.
Ask guests to leave?! Dear God! They talk of respect but they have no respect for their customers!
Who is pressurising large companies to cancel en masse?
In any normal world, they would be loathe to lose money!
Groupthink, the Sword of Damacles of the British gutter press and its smear campaign tendencies (cf. The Poppy Police every November), and maybe a bit of good old fashioned cap doffing.
Scraping after a pat on the head or a patronage most likely. Hopefully the market corrects itself and they go bust for the hassle they’ve inflicted on families enjoying an (expensive) break. If it is indeed an attempt to avoid bad PR from the gutter press, why don’t they simply invoke Her Maj’s renowned devotion to duty cooed over by myriad serfs and forelock tuggers as their excuse for carrying on?
Much like with covid, where government(s) leave it up to businesses or individual to decide best course of action you end up with some weird and wonderful (or not) interpretations. Absolutely no need for Center Parcs to do this as there was no need for football to be cancelled last week. Queen Elizabeth II is either a) her majesty who embodies all things good in the UK or b) someone who wants to see large number of people already worried about cost-of-living crisis lose out on sources of income and others lose out on things to enjoy before the winter… Read more »
The E.A in England were asked today about a serious pollution incident in a Yorkshire river that killed hundreds of fish.
Their response was,
” That it was unable to comment on what, if any, action it had taken because it was not responding to media inquiries about non life-threatening incidents during the Queen’s mourning period.”