Hi-di-what?! Butlins gets funky with £20m spa hotel
You might naturally associate Butlins with knobbly-knee contests and desperate-to-please Redcoats. However, with the perilous economic situation prompting more of us to holiday in the UK, the company has jumped firmly into the 21st century by opening a stylish contemporary £20m spa hotel – in Bognor Regis.
The Ocean Hotel’s 200 rooms are billed as the company’s most stylish ever, with ambient colour-change lighting, rainfall showers and most rooms having private balconies overlooking either the sea or the South Downs. And it seems Butlins has struck a chord with the public: advance bookings worth more than £1.5m have already been made, surpassing the company’s target for the year.
The spa offers the usual facilities, such as a relaxation lounge, sauna and steam room, but also adds a few funky extras. The disco shower, complete with flashing lights and samples of classic tracks, aims to get you tapping your foot as you work up a lather, while the low-temperature snow cave offers a new way to cool down if your therapies have left you hot and bothered.
The hotel’s 10 treatment rooms include soothing projections of stars and clouds, and the company is making an effort to lure traditionally reluctant men into the strange world of spa treatments by offering a “Premier League Male Massage”, during which the recipient can enjoy footage of great sporting moments as he has his aches and pains rubbed away.
For all the fancy trappings, though, the seven-storey hotel still targets the company’s core family market. Ideas suggested by parents have been incorporated into the design, such as colour-coded floors to make it easier for kids to find their room. Family suites include a separate children’s den with full-size beds and a glowing nightlight; the company has issued the world’s first “no-monsters-under-the-bed guarantee”.
However, there’s nothing old-fashioned about the pricing either. A four-night School’s Out break for two adults and two children, including breakfast and dinner, tots up to £800 in peak season (although discounts are available for online booking). For a seven-night stay, that rises to £1,466.
