Center Parcs and royal mourning etiquette

The holiday firm Center Parcs has been forced into a U-turn after prompting uproar by initially asking guests to leave its sites on Monday as it was closing for the day to mark the Queen’s funeral.

At first, the company said it would ask guests to leave its five UK sites at 10am on the day of the state funeral and seek alternative accommodation to allow staff to “be part of this historic moment" before returning on Tuesday. It also said those guests due to arrive on Monday should delay their visit until Tuesday in a decision taken “as a mark of respect” to the Royal Family.

Center Parcs announced on Tuesday morning it was going to close its sites, but by Tuesday evening it had altered its position in an “embarrassing u-turn”, said City AM. The decision followed a backlash on social media and widespread negative press. The company then said it would allow guests to stay on site but facilities would remain closed, offering a discount to those affected.

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‘Very little respect for your customers’

Center Parcs was “inundated with complaints” after “guests were left in confusion” about the decision to close, said ITV. That was made worse as disgruntled guests were hit with “waiting times of up to an hour” to reach the Center Parcs customer service team by phone, said The Guardian.

Many guests took to social media to voice their displeasure at the decision. One wrote on the Center Parcs Facebook page that the decision to close “sites at very short notice as a mark of respect” showed “very little respect for your customers”.

Center Parcs are not the only company to decide to close on the recently announced bank holiday, despite the government outlining that there is no obligation to close shops or postpone events.

‘Bathetic to a comical degree’

Most major UK supermarkets have decided to close for all or some of the day, while some sporting fixtures continue to be postponed during the period of mourning. Even with banks and shops closed, most pubs across the UK will remain open, The Telegraph reported.

Elsewhere, the Met Office’s decision to reduce its forecast output on social media “​​sparked a backlash”, said the Evening Standard, while British Cycling also attracted unwanted attention for its recommendations on the day of the funeral. The governing body for cycling was “widely mocked”, wrote The Guardian, after it recommended that “anybody out riding their bike on the day of the state funeral does so outside of the timings of the funeral”. British Cycling later removed that section from its guidance.

While some of the acts of respect since the Queen’s death have been “magnificent”, some have been “bathetic to a comical degree”, wrote Carol Midgley in The Times, who labelled Center Parcs’ decision “slightly mad”.

“Understandably, many institutions are worried about giving offence,” wrote Mark Wallace on the i news site, adding that they believe the “safest route is simply to cancel everything”. But this is a “mistake”, he added. The “chance to commemorate together” is a “powerful part of navigating a national loss”.