Hobbledown Reviews 43

DISGRACEFUL response of Hobbledown management. It was cold and stormy weather outside, and despite it not being busy inside ,( plenty of empty seating space available) a staff member insisted we still eat outside with our small children! The staff member was cold and unfriendly, and was obviously excersing some type of racism/prejudice. I was even more shocked at the response of management to my complaint, as they actually tried to justify such treatment of small children under the guise of " following policy" and "allergy management". For context, I have been a member at Hobbledown for over 2 years and have witnessed many parents eat outside food inside the barn without being disturbed. So, if you are brown or not British, beware that 'some' staff are racist and management will defend their poor actions.

Went there for about an hour kids didnt like it at all was a waste of money and our time ridiclous ques for certain things absoloutley shocking nothing justifies the price they charge for this!

It was a waste of money kids didn't enjoy it at all nothing to do there for an hour and then left beacuse of how bad it was what a disgraceful place kids were queuing for 20 mins for a swing 😡

Hobledown heat amazing purpose of the place, but Hobledown heat team please change the way you clean. Gaming tablets, so dirty, provide sanitizer or wipes. Clean all dusty are that has not been in use. In a sunny day, with a close door and no ventilation or air purifier this is an astmathic incubator for children. Do some changes, and really make a change in kids health.

I rarely write reviews, but today’s experience compelled me to do so.

We hosted our son’s 5th birthday party on 4th January 2026 at Hobbledown Heath, Hounslow. I want to start by saying that the venue itself is absolutely lovely and highly recommended to visit. It’s a fantastic place for children — spacious, fun, and full of activities. The kids genuinely had a great time.

Unfortunately, the party hosting was far below expectations, especially considering this was a pre-ordered premium party package.

From the start, I constantly had to ask staff to refill the children’s juice. The pre-ordered food turned into a disappointment. Pizza was brought out in the pizza boxes and placed directly onto the children’s table. As you can imagine, the open box lids were blocking children’s plates — a complete mess. Only after I asked did the staff move the pizza onto proper plates for the children to share. This left me questioning the purpose of paying extra for a premium party package if basic hosting still needs to be requested.

I even had to clean the children’s table myself. I don’t mind helping at all — but not when I’ve paid for an organised, hosted party and wasn’t informed that this would be expected.

Now, the cake situation was the most confusing and disappointing part.

The cake was brought out nicely with candles, which we appreciated. After my son blew out the candles, no staff member returned for about 10 minutes. I had to go and find a host myself to ask them to take the cake, cut it into around 30 pieces (for children and parents), and bring it back to the table.

While grabbing plastic cups for the parents’ drinks, I noticed foil-wrapped cake pieces sitting on another table, while the children had no cake at all. When I asked what was going on, I was told the cake had already been cut — but instead of being served properly to the children, it had been randomly packed in foil. We were nearly put in the position of having to unwrap and distribute the cake ourselves.

This was absolutely not what I expected for the amount of money paid. I was extremely disappointed.

That said, I would like to give special thanks to the manager, who handled the situation professionally and responded appropriately once informed. Her response made a real difference, and she deserves recognition.

In summary: amazing venue, happy kids — but very poor party hosting experience, which needs serious improvement to match the quality and price of the packages offered.

I don't usually bother writing reviews on bad experiences, but this park needs some serious attention for the welfare of the animals.

I don't know who is running the zoo but they desperately need more staff. I only saw one zoo keeper the whole day and she looked like she was absolutely swept off her feet bless her. The only other zoo staff my group saw was (I assume) a more senior member of staff zooming about on a golf cart ON HER PHONE in a pedestrianized area shouting at guests to get out of the way (so parents, keep a close eye on your kids!).

While we were there we noticed unlocked animal enclosures (padlocks left unlocked on gates) and animals with no heating in their enclosures and no bedding. This wasn't the zoo keepers fault as like I say she was so busy trying to look after every single animal by herself that mistakes are bound to be made.

There was an electric fence that had fallen from it's mountings into an enclosure and we saw 2 capybaras, one of which was pregnant, get shocked in the 5 minutes we waited while one of our party notified the zoo. In the same enclosure was a baby Mara that luckily didn't get shocked, but who knows if this would have been noticed by staff before they left for the night as this was quite close to the end of the day.

Also we were told that all zookeeper and animal experiences were unavailable (over Christmas... god knows how much money they're losing!) due to lack of trained zoo staff. The management seriously need to look at how this place is run because it's not fair on the few staff that do work there, and it's especially not fair on the poor animals.

We used to love Hobbledown Heath and even returned several times, despite one incident when our kids felt unwell after eating their fish fingers.

Unfortunately, our experience last weekend for my son's birthday party was extremely disappointing.

When we arrived, the manager informed me they had run out of the party bags we had ordered. These were supposed to include a cotton canvas bag and a Hobbledown water bottle, and we had placed the order 5 days in advance as required. Instead, we were given bottles stuffed into plastic sacks along with plastic cups full of jelly sweets. The manager told me this was the only option, and I had no choice since I had not brought anything else to make my own party bags.

Later, staff told my husband that the cake would be brought out at 11:45, only for the “Happy Birthday” song and not for the children to eat. My husband asked if it could be served earlier at 10:35 so the kids would have time to enjoy it. This request was ignored. The children, aged between 1 and 5, sat waiting at the table for 10 minutes. When the cake, which we had purchased from Hobbledown, finally arrived, we were told there was no time to serve it. Instead, slices would be wrapped in aluminum foil for the children to take home. I then had to explain to my son and his friends that they would not get to eat his birthday cake at the party, only foil-wrapped pieces of chocolate and cream cake to take away.

When I tried to raise this with the manager, she became irritated and said they had four other parties to prepare for that day. Yet both party spaces next to us were completely empty and unset. Despite this, staff began clearing our table while we were still packing up, throwing away leftovers in the process.

I cannot recommend hosting a party at Hobbledown Heath. The poor organisation, lack of care, and overcrowded play areas made the whole experience stressful and upsetting. I must also emphasise that it is far too busy for children to play safely.

Took our 2 sons to the Junior Zookeeper Experience on Sunday 6th Sept at 2pm. It was a 2 hour experience and we all loved every minute of it meeting and feeding all the animals. The capybara, tortoises and lemurs being the highlights. Kelsie was our guide and she was brilliant. Had the boys involved and interested from the start and was super knowledgeable about all the animals. Overall well worth the money.
Have been to both Hobbledown sites now and think they are both exceptional in the amount and variety of the play areas they offer. The bird shows are always worth seeing and are free. Always a brilliant day out.
Only change would be to offer better coffee and make the booking process for the vouchers easier!

Terrible and waste of money. The only good thing about this place is free parking . Staff do not control the amount of children doing an activity which means children under 5 are unable to join in on activities without a high chance of getting hurt. During the summer time this place is not a ride in the park, the woodland theme means no soft areas for young children and a hot metal slide which has been in the sun all day. There are not many animals , you get the ordinary sheep but otherwise the rest of the animals are quite far away from the gates which made it hard to see.£20+ for adults and the same for kids ,I spent around 37 mins walking around and my 4years olds did not get to do one activity .

Went to Hobbledown Heath for my niece's birthday. What an absolute joke of a party. The "hosts" could not have been less interested in making it fun for the kids. There were no decorations to show it was a party. The food was dire. They didn't cater for food allergies despite being advised well in advance. From where I was sitting I also had full view of men urinating in the bathroom! Not something that the kids that I was with needed to see. Terrible communication, absolute rip off artists.

I booked tickets for my daughter’s birthday and paid full price, only to see a significant discount announced yesterday. I contacted customer service kindly asking for the difference or a voucher, but they refused.
It is disappointing and simply not fair to loyal customers who book in advance.!!!

We hosted our son's 5th birthday party at Hobbledown Epsom yesterday, and it exceeded all expectations. Even parents who've been regular visitors discovered new areas they'd never seen before!

The team (special mention to Liv, Ruby on the day, and Louise and Hazel that helped to organise everything) were outstanding -- professional, warm, and brilliant with both children and adults. The entertainers had the kids completely engaged, and the unusual petting animals (lizard, snake, Madagascan cockroach, stick insects) were the absolute highlight.

The decorated teepee created the perfect party atmosphere, adults were well looked after with proper food and drinks, and the marshmallow roasting was a lovely finishing touch. Our boys loved it so much we didn't leave until 5pm!

Couldn't recommend Hobbledown more highly for children's celebrations!

visited and bought tickets the night before when we got there scanned in
no one told us anything on scanning in but
seemed nice to start .
was a sunny day so we skipped the indoor playbarn
went to a show there’s no boards with shows on or signage on about events or leaflets given out about the days schedule so saw no more shows as had no idea when or where they might be .(not that i think there were any )
there was a high trampoline but that was closed
we went to an outdoor play areas part which was lovely stayed ages there but i really needed a drink
walked to a further play area further on and they were nice

but throughout the day the cafe areas in the park were all
closed
shuttered up
there were no water stations for water
and i went the entire day without food or drink as there wasn’t any !!!

really nowhere to buy food or water in the park !

the only place was back at the beginning in the barn (which with a child is difficult to manage once your halfway round the park )

there were absolutely no staff around
and only the play areas and animals outside nothing else

when after 5 hours we went to the soft play area i did find coffee and quite nice food

but this area was rammed
and the soft play was not manned either no staff
i was looking for staff because there were teen boys blocking the slides sat on their phones bullying the small children and i couldn’t find anyone to tell
or get help about this

it was quite a disappointing day out because it could be good but
if you go take loads of food and drinks because there is nothing outside
there was no water play so don’t bother with a swim suit
lots of stuff closed
and lots of extras to pay for
no shade
not the best

odd’s farm is much better ..

Went on Sunday 20th April to the Hounslow tulip event and was disappointed.
The owners need to realise that most visitors want photos among the flowers to post on social media. When we were there several people were sternly told to stay behind the ropes even though they not treading on any flowers. Threatened with be told to leave!
Good pictures equals great publicity and more revenue. I suggest that next year planting banks full of tulips and having taller varieties. Create photo opportunities and let the money roll in.

Visited the tulip patch and thought it was absolutely beautiful. Lots of wonderful photo opportunities, clearly a lot of time and effort had gone into it. Lovely windmill which the little ones loved and just all round lovely experience.

Cowboys that make money off the back of miselling tickets to customers. Sold me trick or treat tickets along with general admission tickets, so two sets of tickets for myself and my daughters last years October time. They cancelled the trick or treat trail which meant there was no interest left for us to visit Hobbledown. Did not refund the general admission tickets to me for the cancellation.

The park itself was really good. So many different themed play areas outside. The were very big, so much so that my children could not find each other once inside the wooden tower. A few animals to have a look at, a falcon display but as it was cold only 5 people watched as we went in January as we had an inset day at school. The indoor area was very big. I wouldn’t take a toddler there personally as I’d be worried I’d lose them in the soft play. The tables were not clean despite it being very quiet and most people had left by 2.30. The parties started coming in from 4pm. The car park was expensive as it is used by several other companies in the same area. The shop only took card so my children couldn’t spend their pocket money which was annoying and pointless so long after covid. I found that from the car park it’s poorly signposted and when I parked I wasn’t sure where I was meant to be going. It does work out an expensive day out but we enjoyed it. My children are 11 and 7. Both had a great day exploring.

Actual party was hit and miss. Little organisation, said they decorate for us and then didn't, teas and coffees we paid for were appalling.
Biggest issue is we booked for a number with balloons and we're told we could change it before the fin date and when we did they said they'd refund us the differenc. Days later no refund, had to chase and then were told they would not give us any money back even though we changed the booking before the finalised date. Feel ripped off.

I am deeply disappointed with the experience we had at Hobbledown for my son's 11th birthday party last Sunday. We had high expectations, but several issues made the event very unpleasant.

We were allowed to join the table 20-30 minutes late, which cut into our reserved time.
The pizzas were undercooked and served one by one with long delays, leaving some kids waiting while others ate.
The most heartbreaking moment was when a staff member took the cake without explanation and cut it in the kitchen. My son didn’t get to cut it himself, and it was wrapped in aluminum foil for kids to take home instead of being served at the party.
Some staff members were rude and even brought in security when we questioned the issues, which was intimidating and unnecessary.

Overall, the event was poorly organized, and we felt rushed and disrespected. I hope this feedback helps you improve future events.

Hounslow branch. Most fun the kids had in ages, afternoon saver is worth every penny. £3.50 for all day parking is a bargin prepaid. We had a group of 28 and everyone had a fab time. Thank you see you again soon. Ps you get 10% of group bookings over 10 and more.
Don't listen to the bad reviews. Kids will love it.