Fuming holidaymakers, backtracks, U-turns and accusations of ruining holidays – it has been quite a few days for Center Parcs.
The forest retreat firm has found itself at the centre of a social media storm and damaging headlines after announcing it would be evicting guests from its sites on the day of the Queen’s funeral as a ‘mark of respect’.
The decision meant guests in the middle of their holiday on Monday would have to leave the park and either go home early or spend the night elsewhere.
And unsurprisingly, to you and I at least, the move did not go down well.
The company said on Tuesday: “We have made the decision to close all our UK villages on Monday 19 September at 10am as a mark of respect and to allow as many of our colleagues as possible to be part of this historic moment.
"Guests who were due to arrive on Monday September 19 should not travel, (and) we will reopen on Tuesday September 20 to welcome guests.”
Those already staying at the parks were told they would have to leave their accommodation for one night.
This led to a furious reaction from customers and the media.
You say "out of respect", but where's the respect for your customers in this?
— Jonathan Phillips 🇺🇦 (@DigitalJonathan) September 13, 2022
Is it really that you're looking to avoid paying your staff a bank holiday rate instead?
So, essentially...you're inconveniencing and disappointing hundreds/thousands of hard-working people (and quite possibly costing them money) so that you can show your 'respect'? People who will have been planning their stays or trips for months. Bonkers. Absurd.
— KevInCornwall (@KevCOYG) September 13, 2022
Center Parcs shuts on Monday - holidaymakers must LEAVE and stay somewhere else Mirror
Center Parcs closes UK sites and kicks out guests for Queen’s funeral ITV News
Families devastated as Center Parcs announces it will close on day of Queen’s funeral Daily Mail
In a subsequent post, the holiday park confirmed that while guests were not allowed to stay in their lodges on Monday, their luggage could. Imagine your suitcase having a better holiday than you.
@Leanne61639007 Hello Leanne, if you are staying with us for 7 nights starting Friday you are welcome to leave your belongings in your lodge and access your accommodation again from 10:00am Tuesday.
— Center Parcs UK (@CenterParcsUK) September 13, 2022
Thanks, Demi
And then came the embarrassing, but seemingly inevitable (partial) U-turn.
The company announced that guests already on holiday would now be able to stay, but people due to arrive on Monday would not be able to start their holidays until the following day.
But the holiday village and amenities would close, and guests would “need to remain in their lodges.”
It said: “We recognise leaving the village for one night is an inconvenience, we have listened and made the decision to allow guests to remain on village on Monday, however, the village will still be closed, so guests will need to remain in their lodges.”
Hi Lys
— Center Parcs UK (@CenterParcsUK) September 14, 2022
We recognise leaving the village for one night is an inconvenience, we have listened and made the decision to allow guests to remain on village on Monday, however, the village will still be closed, so guests will need to remain in their lodges.
Thanks, Amy
That’s quite the U-turn when you consider it meant guests went from not being able to stay in their lodges to being unable to leave them in just a few hours.
Some social media users began to compare the holiday park to prison and a hostage situation.
Center Parcs holding their guests hostage as a mark of respect for the Queen, a sentence I did not have on my 2022 bingo card https://t.co/ciomWynPhu
— Pete Wisher (@pete_wisher96) September 14, 2022
This led to another update saying guests could leave and walk around the closed holiday villages. I don’t know about you, but spending my time walking around the facilities I’ve paid for but can’t use, sounds like a lovely way to spend a holiday.
Cleary Center Parcs felt it was doing the right thing by its staff in closing to allow them to watch the Queen’s funeral.
But in doing so, it neglected another crucial audience - its customers.
People would have saved up for their holiday and been looking forward to their time away.
Telling them they had to break that holiday up – or start or finish it early – was never going to land well.
The BBC coverage of the story included an interview with a mother on holiday with her husband and three disabled children.
They had spent £1,200 to go on the five-night trip. And have now had to spend an extra £300 to stay in a hotel for the first night.
"We need a family room for the equipment because I've got three disabled children," she explained.
"Feeding tubes, suction machines, specialist beds, we've had to organise and hire.”
That’s a lot of extra money to find. And, of course, there is the emotional and human side of having their holiday plans altered.
The Metro focused on how the decision meant a triple birthday celebration had been ruined for another family.
Center Parcs ruins family’s triple birthday plans by closing for Queen’s funeral Metro
Again, not the sort of coverage you would want to be associated with your brand. And it’s not hard to see where the sympathies of readers would lie.
What strikes me about this story is how no one at Center Parcs appears to have anticipated how its decisions would play out like this and damage its reputation.
The death of Queen Elizabeth is a huge story. And the bank holiday for her funeral was announced at short notice.
But people have been talking about and planning for what would happen when the monarch dies for years. I worked on comms plans around Operation London Bridge more than a decade ago.
So, organisations have had time to consider and rehearse how they would respond when the inevitable happened.
Good crisis media management involves working through different scenarios and understanding how best to respond. And how best to communicate that response, what messages work and which ones could cause more problems.
There shouldn’t have been any need for rash calls and announcements.
We don’t know how Center Parcs reached its decisions and came up with the messages it put out.
But this is one of those crisis media management incidents where you question whether the comms team had any involvement in the decision-making process.
We strongly believe that comms teams should be represented on senior leadership teams and should be treated as trusted advisers. And not just the people who will communicate the decision.
Comms teams need a seat at the top table and must be represented by a comms expert.
They will pick up on things the people without that background won’t see.
They are the ones that sit there and consider how these decisions will play out with the public and how they will make your customers and the wider public feel.
Were the Center Parcs comms team involved in this decision? Was their advice ignored?
We don’t know. But they are the ones now having to deal with a considerable backlash.
And what is clear is that Center Parcs has taken an entirely avoidable reputational hit.
Would you book a holiday there now?
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