Rated 4 of 5

Rated 5 of 5

Peace and tranquility

Rated 5 of 5

Access to local places of interest

Rated 5 of 5

Beauty of surroundings and scenery

Rated 3 of 5

Ease of arrival/welcome

Mixed review.

We originally booked this CL for 2 stays this summer . I booked early in the year and was charged £80 deposit, £40 for each stay. In April I emailed to say we would no longer be able to make the end of June booking and asked if the £40 deposit on that booking could be moved over to the Aug booking providing they could re let our pitch . I had an immediate reply saying absolutely not -- no refund of deposits under any circumstances for any reason as they had already lost too much due to covid ( or words to that effect) and basically we lost £40 even though they immediately re booked the pitch ( i checked ). Had they not been able to re book it we would of course have under stood their rule but its a very popular CL with rarely a vacant pitch ( they also have several holiday cottages on site its quite a big concern) We arrived for our August stay and the positives are the site is lovely and has a great dog walking area. The negatives sadly are the site owner and his attitude. Over our stay we heard him talk down ( and shout ) at 2 different elderly people who dared to park on or almost on his grass even though a dry day and zero damage done . We felt worried all through our stay as his verbal list of do's and don'ts re exercising our dog or parking just made us uncomfortable every time we saw him . He seemed to enjoy the power he had as site owner . The site is however in a lovely area and handy for us but we wont return im afraid.

Comment from the Club: 

Many thanks for you review. The CL owners have been in touch to clear up any misunderstanding as they always do their utmost to ensure guests have the best time with them and help members staying with them. They were sorry to hear that you had cancelled your stay with them in April as you had booked another holiday but hope you had a great time. 

The CL Site asks for non-refundable and non-transferable deposits for all advanced pitch bookings, which they make every guest fully aware of when initially booking and paying deposits. The reason they take deposits is the high number of cancellations and no shows, that they have previously suffered when not taking deposits. When a cancellation occurs, it is not just about selling the pitch again, there is a cost involved for the CL Site to carry out everything required to process your initial booking, then deal with the cancellation, remarketing, and hopefully selling the pitch again. The paperwork and administration involved is quite significant and time consuming. However, please be assured they do consider each cancellation on its individual merits and take account of the circumstance.

With regards to your comment about the CL Site being 'a big concern', they would like to reassure this is not the case. They are a husband and wife team who do everything to maintain, run and clean the holiday cottages, CL Site, the grounds, the website, and all the administration involved. They are also available and on call for guests 24/7 all year round and do their utmost to ensure guests have the best possible time when staying with them. They do not have staff and take great pride in offering a quality product at a reasonable price in a professional manner. 

Please be assured the other guests you mentioned were not threatened and were only being advised on where best to pitch. They had a friendly conversation to help the guests pitch correctly and these guests told the CL owners at the end of their stay that they had a lovely holiday and are arranging to come back again very soon.

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Rob56Nette48 replied on 03/09/2021 13:14

Posted on 03/09/2021 13:14

Thank you, Vicki, for your review, but we feel you have not been totally open and there appears to be some glaring omissions and misunderstandings on your part.

Regarding deposit payments, you sadly did not include in your review the reason for your cancellation.  Which was, that you had decided to book another holiday some 8 weeks after, on the same dates that you booked your pitch on our CL site.   We ask for non-refundable and non-transferable deposits for all advanced pitch bookings, which you were fully aware of when you initially booked and paid your deposits.  The reason we take deposits is the high number of cancellations and no shows, that we have previously suffered when not taking them.  In the last full year before we started taking such deposits, we had a total of 698 pitch nights cancelled or no shows.  As soon as we started taking deposits this reduced to only 50 or 60 nights a year being cancelled.   When a cancellation occurs, it is not just about selling your pitch again, there is a cost involved for us to carry out everything required to process your initial booking, then deal with the cancellation, remarketing, and hopefully selling the pitch again etc. The paperwork and administration involved is quite significant and time consuming. There is no point in taking deposits, if you can change your mind at a whim and cancel, then still get your money back or be credited to another stay.  However, we do consider each cancellation on its individual merits and take account of the circumstance.

You also say we are a big concern, which again is misleading, there are just the two of us, husband and wife team who do everything to maintain, run and clean the holiday cottages, caravan site, the grounds, the website, and all the administration involved. We are also available and on call for guests 24/7 all year round.   We do not have staff and take great pride in offering a quality product at a reasonable price in a professional manner.  Greetham Retreat also provides our sole income and is our livelihood.

The so-called elderly people are guests who have stayed here at Greetham Retreat before and are known to us.  I didn’t shout at them in a threatening manner as you describe but we all had smiles on our faces and took part in some two-way joking banter about them parking on the grass.  They had a fantastic holiday here at Greetham Retreat and are arranging to return and stay again very soon.  In no way where they offended by our conversation which you have completely misrepresented in your review.

Finally, you stayed for two nights on our CL site, and I am told by other guests that you felt unwell and were suffering from Covid like symptoms upon arrival and during your stay on site. We were shocked when you informed us you had tested positive for Covid about 2 hours after leaving the site.  The other guests staying at the same time as you where not happy when I had to inform them of this fact, so that they could take appropriate action, in case they had any contact with you, during your stay.  We really hope that you are starting to feel better now, as the Covid infection is such a dreadful virus to suffer.

Rob Folwell owner of Greetham Retreat CL