Palace Farm Campsite

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Lovely site with good welfare facilities.

Good location

Very quite and a perfect place to stay away from noise and air pollution. Toilets are clean. Highly recommended if you want peace!

Bad experience

Booked the glamping tent for a heavily pregnant mother with toddler in tow, while the rest of our family booked tent pitches. The glamping tent was covered in mould and absolutely unsuitable for stay. When this was brought to the attention of the Palace farm campsite managers, they suggested they were aware it was a problem but wanted us to understand and adjust with the situation instead of acknowledging it was a serious health and safety issue. Unfortunately, they didn't even think it was much of a problem as apparently "no one else had complained". They eventually provided a tent, which we had to set up ourselves. Furthermore, they refused to refund the glamping tent booking until we requested and presented a suitable argument that as our party had pitched up, they should be paying the same amount and not double the price of staying in a glamping tent. Eventually, they repaid a small amount. I found the attitude of the owners quite appalling as they didn't think there was anything wrong with mould, to begin with and even suggested that as the tent only had bird poo and dirt, this was absolutely fine and normal to stay in. While we appreciate that they are an older couple managing this large hostel and campsite, their lack of customer service and serious health and safety oversights could not be left unaddressed. Perhaps getting a small team of volunteers or hiring a couple of people to help with the maintenance of facilities along with a basic understanding of customer service might help improve future campers' experiences.

Site's response

Thank you for booking to stay with us in one of our Bell Tents, they are definitely not Glamping Tents! We quite agree that there is mould on the tent, it is the worst one we have had for that. Our tents go up in May, although it has not been rainy, the weather has been humid and the dew has been particularly heavy and this does encourage mould growth. You didn't inform us that tent would be occupied by allergy sufferers and we have not had a complaint before or since your stay. When you arrived, you had only paid the deposit, and we didn't ask for you to pay the balance due to your complaint. We offered you the use of our tent as our only alternative, all of the rooms in our accommodation were fully booked. On your last night, you asked us to refund the difference between the deposit you paid and the camping fee for two adults a child and a toddler, I said that I would phone Campsites.co.uk because I was not familiar with their process of refunding, you informed me that their office was closed as it was by then 17:30. You also said that as you were leaving very early in the morning, the office would still be closed. I offered to phone on the Thursday morning when the office opened, unfortunately you couldn't wait. I tried Google and found a way to refund, which I did. Liz spoke you and you received an email to inform you. We may not be in youth any longer, but we do have a vast amount of experience in dealing with people and running a campsite. Like most people, we prefer to be approached in a friendly non aggressive manner. We do employ cleaners, groundsmen and occasional maintenance staff to help us with our small campsite and 10 room accommodation.