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Daily Record
Daily Record
National
Chris Kitching & Kirsty Feerick

'Filthy' chalets at Pontins force horrified cleaner to quit after just two days

Filthy chalets forced a horrified Pontins cleaner to quit her job after just two days.

Mary claims she was instructed to quickly tidy 15 disgusting rooms at the UK holiday resort before new guests arrived.

She insists bosses gave her "20 to 30 minutes max" to do a sweep of each one - far from enough time to do a thorough clean.

Mary claims she instructed to quickly tidy 15 disgusting rooms at the UK holiday resort (The Mirror)

Some of the chalets were reportedly "littered" with urine stains and dirty baby nappies with bathtubs crusted in rust and mould, reports The Mirror.

Just 48-hours after starting her first shift Mary threw in the towel claiming the £5 an hour wasn't worth the work and said she was being paid on a zero-hours contract.

Mary has told what it was like to be a cleaner for Pontins as our sister title The Mirror investigated why no authority has the power to force the budget holiday firm to keep its guest rooms clean to a certain standard or punish it for failing to do so.

Local councils told Mirror Online they have powers when it comes to food hygiene or building safety, but no jurisdiction over the the standard of accommodation offered.

The media frequently shares stories of horrified Pontins guests, who pay as little as a tenner for their stay, claiming they checked in to find their accommodation was filthy and the cleaning insufficient.

Guest Claudia Woods says she found bloodstains on a mattress at Pontins Prestatyn in August ((Image: Liverpool Echo))

In recent months, families claim they have discovered mattresses with blood or faeces stains, ant and maggot infestations, a used condom on the floor, patches of mould, foul-looking toilets, food still in the fridge, a previous guest's underwear, and oven grime that had been there for a long time.

Many are left so disgusted they walk out within minutes or hours of arriving.

It is unclear what, if anything, the budget firm has done to address any problems reported by guests.

Pontins and its owner Britannia Hotels - last year rated the UK's worst large hotel chain for the seventh year in a row in a survey by consumer reviewer Which? - never seem to respond to reporters' requests for comment. They did not respond to a request for comment for this story.

After working only a couple of shifts at the Camber Sands resort, Mary, whose name has been changed to protect her identity, said: "I would never stay at Pontins.

"Most people I know who've worked there lasted only a week because it was so chaotic.

"On my first day I had no training and wasn't told anything.

A guest at Pontins Brean Sands in May 2019 says previous guests' food wasn't cleaned up ((Image: SomersetLive))

"It was a very hands-on job with very low pay."

Cleaners don't have enough time to do a proper job and management "doesn't care", she claims.

Mary said: "On my first day I was paired with someone and we had a list of about 15 chalets that needed to be cleaned.

"We’d have around 20 to 30 minutes max to clean each one. All the cleaning was rushed.

"One of the chalets had been littered with dirty baby nappies and stunk of tobacco."

She added: "There was a big shed where cleaning supplies were and it was not organised at all.

"I was not told what chemicals I would be using and how to keep safe whilst using those chemicals, either.

Guest Leigh Aldred says she found a sanitary pad, rubbish and "months worth of dust" behind a wardrobe at Pontins Prestayn in August (The Mirror)

"The most explaining I was given was an unlabelled bottle and someone telling me, 'this blue one cleans the bathrooms'."

Families arrived to find their rooms in a filthy state and would leave them the way they found them, she said.

Marry added: "The chalets were dirty, but guests only do what they receive. Most of the complaints were about the cleanliness of the bathrooms.

"There was one bath, it was rusted and had black mould.

"Toilets were dusty and had urine on the outside of the toilet bowl. Tables were sticky."

Guests complained about the conditions, but it appeared bosses "didn't care".

Mary said: "All staff were underpaid and had a lack of training. I had no interview process. I was given my zero-hours contract to sign and that's it.

"The cleaning staff had a lack of motivation and weren't trained.

"The first week you are with other cleaners and that gives you an idea, and then from then you are alone.

"There was no teamwork at all."

She decided to quit because she knew she would hate the job, and the cost of travel to and from work ate into her wages.

She said: "I knew I couldn’t do my best there, I had it in me to be able to succeed at my job but everything was so rushed.

"I got told we would do a deep clean every month, but I don’t think that would have ever happened.

"The park is quite big and we had to pull about large, heavy cleaning carts around the park."

Customers shouldn't put the blame on cleaners, Mary said.

"It should be towards management and head office for not ensuring proper measures are in place," she added.

She said nothing will change until the company changes its attitude and invests money into improvements at its resorts.

Mary added: "I think it would take having the managers taking courses. They have a bad reputation right now so it would have to take a lot of changes for people to trust them again.

"I really feel like they need to update the chalets to be more modern.

"If cleaning staff are properly trained and given manageable tasks for the work day I think it could improve."

Angry guests have said the holiday parks should be closed.

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