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A mum has criticised the state of the room she said was offered to her family at a Pontins resort in Somerset - claiming she found a rusty hob and microwave, overflowing bins and even soiled underwear.

Emma Hobbs travelled with her husband and children from Brierley Hill in the West Midlands for a Easter getaway at Pontins Brean Sands in Burnham-on-Sea.

The mum said she was sent to an "appalling" room before having to wait for hours while cleaners tried to sort out the mess after checking in for a three day stay on Friday, April 19.

Emma said she was told at the resort there had been a communication error and she should not have been offered a room that had not been cleaned.

But she said she had to wait several hours for the room to be tidied up and found it difficult to make a further complaint about the state of her accomodation.

Pontins said it has since spoken to Mrs Hobbs, but did not offer any further commment.

(Image: Emma Hobbs)

In a complaint letter addressed to Pontins Guest Solutions department, seen by Somerset Live, she slammed the "appalling standards of the accommodation" at the holiday resort.

She wrote: "We arrived at around 4.30pm and joined a queue to get our keys.

"There was no staff to assist with this process, however other guests were explaining the system after they had spent up to 40 minutes in the wrong queue.

"Having been given our keys, we drove to the closest car park, unloaded the car and carried our suitcase, bags and belongings over to our room.

(Image: Emma Hobbs)

"The condition we found our room in was unbelievable.

"The room looked as though the previous occupants had just left."

Mrs Hobbs said she saw cups left on the table, half eaten food on the cooker, a sink overflowing with dirty dishes, litter all over the floor and stinking bins "full to the brim".

She said the cooker and microwave was "sticky" and dirty".

She said she refused to stay in the room a moment longer as "there was not a clean inch of the room to wait in".

The mum claimed the two neighbouring rooms were clean and found two cleaners tidying other nearby rooms.

(Image: Emma Hobbs)

She said she then met a member of the Guest Services at the resort's reception and asked her to explain how she was given a room in such a poor state.

Mrs Hobbs said she was told that "there had been a break down in communication" and guest services wouldn't have allowed the room to be ready for guests if it had known it was in such a poor state.

She said believed she was not alone in experiencing problems with accommodation.

She wrote: "I looked around at the other unhappy guests in disbelief.

"Break down in communication? No chance!

She claimed: "No one had checked the rooms since the previous occupants checked out over eight hours before."

(Image: Emma Hobbs)

Mrs Hobbs blasted the resort's organisation, suggesting: "No one had checked that there were enough cleaning staff to work on possibly the busiest weekend of the year!"

She claimed other guests queuing in the reception complained of seeing "vomit in their rooms and an ants nest".

She said her room was then cleaned, but was still not acceptable when she returned.

"The cleaners had by now decided to bump us up the priority list," she said.

"They were so short of time they threw away most of the kitchen items and brought new ones.

"This was when we found soiled underwear in the children's bedroom. The last straw."

She then said she asked a Guest Solutions employee to be moved to another room but was told her family should leave their bags and take her children out for food.

She said: "We eventually got into our room at about 8pm.

(Image: Emma Hobbs)

"The cleaners had done the best they could, but probably another hour's worth of cleaning needed to be done to bring the room up to par with anywhere else we have ever stayed.

"We heard nothing back from any of the management for the rest of our stay.

"When I had time to complain at reception, there was either a long queue or it was closed.

"Guests were told to speak to the security guard at the entry gate."

Emma later posted photos on Facebook which she says show the state of her accommodation.

She said: "Even for free I wouldn't expect to be given a room like this."

(Image: Emma Hobbs)

Despite the state of the room Mrs Hobbs said there were some "great aspects of the holiday", including the children's entertainment and Pontins Bluecoats.

But she said the accommodation was "such a let down".

Emma asked the company for compensation due to the delayed to the start of their holiday and "the complete lack of interest shown to our complaint."

A Pontins representative said: "We can confirm that Guest Solutions have responded directly to the guest."

He was unable to confirm if Emma received a refund and did not comment further.

Have you stayed at Pontin's? Good or bad? Want to talk about your experience?

Get in touch: michael.taylor@reachplc.com, tweet @JournoMikeT or call 01935 709742.

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