Sorry this post is so long, but there was a lot to cover, so a lengthy post was inevitable.

We booked a last minute holiday with Haven at Golden Sands holiday park in Mablethorpe and because I have a Chihuahua the highest standard accommodation I could book was bronze, I was under the impression that this was what I had booked until I got the confirmation the morning before we travelled and the caravan we got given was designated a 3 star, but looked more like 2 star at best. There were holes in both of the van floors in the bedrooms, with plastic grills over them. This made the bedrooms very cold indeed, especially since with the lower grade accommodation you have to book with a pet Haven do not guarentee you heating in the bedrooms, so we had none. In early April and with holes in the floor this meant it was even colder in the bedrooms that you'd expect.

The kitchen had a broken light fitting with electrical wires exposed. When we reported it we were told to wait in the van for maintenance, and a maintenance guy came to fix it, he was fairly miserable like we'd really inconvenienced him. He looked at the fitting and said he'd be back in an hour and asked us to wait in to allow him access to the caravan - which we did. After 4 and a half hours we went to reception to see what was happening. We were told to wait back at the van and then an hour later a guy returned to say they couldn't fix it and would come back the following day. My beef was that they could have told us this knowing that they'd asked us to wait in. Admittedly we didn't all have to wait in, but we'd just arrived and wanted to explore the site as a family unit without one being left sitting alone. Eventually the light fitting was replaced entirely the following day.

The bed linen provided was wrong, and we didn't know until late when we tried to make the beds up. My son trawled around the camp trying to find someone who would take responsibility providing us with the stuff we needed for a double bed. The replacement linen was ripped and stained, but we put up with it.

This is what you do if you stay at Golden Sands. The cash machines were empty, when we asked how we might get cash out (since I do not drive and was unable to walk into Mablethorpe) we were told to get cash back from the local shop - who wanted us to spend £10.00 minimum before they would entertain that idea and the standard maximum cash back we could get per £10.00 transaction was £50.00 and believe me this doesn't last very long at Golden Sands as a 2 litre bottle of coke from the shop will cost you £1.85, and a tin of soup 80p. WHY charge these prices when one of the benefits advertised is that you never need to leave the site? I saw most people with cars shopping in Mablethorpe, but it wasn't possible for us to get there, so we ate on site and on our return home need to arrange a second mortgage to cover the costs incurred.

When we wanted to eat when we got in late the first night we were unable to light the cooker to cook anything since the ignition didn't work and there was no ignition starter in the van. We are non smokers so we could not light it with matches, and because we were starving ended up going out to buy a special 360 degree roll encased hot dog from the Falcon Bar, at £2,50 a throw. The girl serving barely understood English (common with many of their food and general staff) and when they delivered us the dogs with the wrong sauce (all 3 were supposed to have mustard and ketchup) we has to wait 10 mins to get ketchup added because the server didn't understand what we wanted and the guy who made them had gone on a break. They split the dogs open (they come already wrapped completely in a roll) and then added sauce as a consequence when we tried to eat them walking back to the van they fell apart and half went on the floor, to be honest we weren't that bothered as they were cold by the time we'd waited for them to add the ketchup-why it wasn't freely available on the side for us to add I have no idea. When we asked for an igniter for the cooker we were refused. I tried using matches, but bending down to light the grill and see with the match meant I looked quite scary with my singed eyebrows - this was a health and safety issue surely.

When our gas bottle ran out early in the morning we waited for reception to open to report it as we had no heating and hot water so couldn't wash or shower and couldn't cook breakfast. We waited in but eventually were so hungry we boiled the kettle for a quick wash and dashed over to The Galleon bar and spent a fiver each on a breakfast and a cup of tea. We'd waited in so long for the man to replace the gas bottle that we never got to get to The Galleon bar until 11.25am and they stop serving breakfast at 11.30am. We checked with the chef it was ok to order breakfast so near to closing, and got the ok, yet when we queued to order the cashier refused to serve us as it was 11.30am. We had to kick up a right fuss to get them to check with the chef - who confirmed they could do us a breakfast. This wouldn't be so farcicle if they hadn't had enough breakfast to feed the three of us already sitting idle on the hot plate - and this would have been thrown away had we not eaten it. It had obviously been sitting there a long while and was in a bit of a sorry state, but after the dodgy hot dogs the night before we'd have ate or own hands by this time!

Later on we caught a man replacing the gas bottle in the van next to us, and when we asked him if he was going to replace ours he said we weren't on his list! We had to beg for a replacement, is this how Golden Sands achieved their energy conservation award a few years running? They had refuse to supply you with any! LOL

I went there on a budget and I found that though there were facilities on site many were chargeable at over inflated prices. The go-karts were £3 each - but great fun. The aqua jets £4 for half an hour but half an hour is not an option (despite being advertised) as the instructor said by the time you're shown how to work it etc you need an hour - so that would have been £8.00 each per session. Ineedn't have worried about the cost however, as when I tried to book Aqua jet sessions for my sons they had all been booked for the week on the day everyone had arrived, so the boys missed ALL of the sessions.

There were basketball courts, but no basket ball hire facility. The light ball we bought blew in the high winds and was no good. We knew it was pointless going in to Mablethorpe to try and get a basketball or heavy duty ball, since it was difficult for us to get to the town, and we couldn't have carried it back with all our other luggage on the buses and trains home, so we'd have had to throw it away.

Evening entertainment - you have to be quick to catch the adult stuff as there's kids stuff going on at the beginning of the evening and also a kids slot at the end of the evening for ages-almost to the exclusion of the adults. If I had younger kids this would please me, but mine are grown up now (11, 14, 16) and we were constantly surrounded by younger children doing silly party dances and no adult time on the dance floor. Incomprehensible that this is still going on at 10pm and 11pm on site - when my parents owned a van in Yarmouth the kids had the early evening slot, and though welcome the entire evening, the entertainment was not geared totally towards them.

I sound like a miserable grumpy old woman, but I am a funky young Mum who is involved in youth and community work in London, so I am not like this at all.

I'm a mature student who hadn't had any kind of holiday for a very long time. I went on a budget, and I was bitterly disappointed on every level. When we vacated the van we'd ordered a cab to take us in to Mablethorpe to catch the bus for Skeggy, we went to get our hire fee back for the linen and they had lost the paperwork, and hadn't organised any funds to be available there. My son was left waiting for nearly 20 mins and as we were going to miss our bus we were about to leave without the money, but it arrived just at the last minute, but we then had to pay the taxi driver waiting time, eating into half of the costs of the hire! In the panic of me leaving my 11 year old at the van to dash over to the linen shop where my son was stuck, I had to rush the final few minutes of packing, and because my son then didn't have enough time to return to the van to check he'd packed everything, he left his mobile phone charger and MP3 charger in the van, which have still not been recovered by the accomodation staff, and if these need to be replaced will incurr a £50 cost to my son, on top of the monies already spent on the holiday. If the linen refund had been as straightforward as it should have been, my son would have had ample time to check he'd packed these things, and we'd never have left them behind.

When I'd arrived at the park another family member and myself were considering going halves on buying an on-site van, and I spoke with the sales team in the owner exclusive area with a serious view to spending £15,000. I was going to put the deposit down there and then, but it was a bit rushed so I deferred. The sales advisor was off the following day so luckily I had some time to really experience the site and all it has to offer, and this reflection saved me a huge wad of cash and a total headache because after my dreadful experience I feel I have had a lucky escape! If I am not willing to stay here, what would be the point, and how could I sell it as a great holiday experience to other holiday makers renting a van from me. The van would have been great and my customer service would have been great but the site would have let me down on every level.

The taxi driver who was kept waiting for ages when we vacated said the site is notorious locally and that there are far better smaller sites around. I would never stay at Golden Sands again. I really am shocked that a company like Haven can have such a low standard in operation at one of their sites.

I forgot to mention also that the TV provided in the caravan was very dark and needed the brightness and contrast altering, something that you need the remote control to facilitate changing. When we requested the remote control, or indeed that someone lighten the picture to make the TV watchable of an evening, we were told there was nothing that could be done. It made watching some prgrammes nearly impossible as the picture was very dark. Seeing as we were pretty skint and not enjoying the evening entertainment as much as we'd hoped we bought a pack of playing cards from the shop and filled our evenings with this. However, I couldn't help thinking that we could have had more fun with satellite TV at home!

I also forgot that once the gas bottle was changed the water would only reach a tepid temperature despite the boiler being turned up full temperature and the tap being barely turned to as low a flow as possible. Showering was impossible and we had full body washes with water heated in the kettle. We didn't report it to reception as we'd had anough by this time and decided that it would probably only get fixed by the time we'd left.

In addition to this I should point out that we would have left the resort early but due to the fact I booked our tickets as a saver advance, we had to travel on the trains booked and our tickets and fares were not amendable. To leave early would have incurred a complete recharge of the tickets for all 3 of us single back to London. This would have cost £121.75 for a saver single for all 3 of us - as this exceeded the cost of the short-break holiday (thank god it wasn't a full week) there was nothing we could do but stay put!

I have contacted Haven and requested a full or partial refund, or a replacement mini break at a better run holiday park (if there are any?)!