History of Pontinental Holidays

Fred Pontin didn’t invent the package holiday craze but he was one of the key pioneers. During the early-1960s overseas holidays were mostly reserved for the wealthy or adventurous but Pontin believed it could become a mass market product if he could make it cheaper and less foreign. Or as Pontin himself used to say “Blackpool with sun”. This meant British food and drink, British entertainers and lots of British staff at the airports and hotels.

The Pontins board did not share his enthusiasm and refused to get involved. So he went it alone, forming a company called Pontinental and forging a partnership with a Spanish company. American Express invested £50,000 for a million shares. In 1963 they built their first resort, the 150-room Pineta Beach Hotel in Sardinia.  

Unfortunately everything went wrong including theft of equipment, strikes, shady contractors and frequent power outages. The first guests arrived to find the hotel unfinished, much to the delight of the British media back home.

The following year (1964) he built the Cala Mesquida resort in Majorca which featured brick chalets in a pine forest next to an attractive beach. The chalets had no bathrooms so communal blocks were dotted around the site. It suffered from many of the same teething problems and no less than 3 British managers had come and gone during the first season. Also that year an existing hotel had been acquired in Ibiza.

Losses were mounting and on more than one occasion the Pontins board were persuaded to invest funds for which Fred Pontin personally guaranteed. The operational issues were slowly resolved but Pontinental was still losing money, said to be £250,000 in the first 2 years. In 1966 the Pontins company formally acquired Pontinental for £500,000 which represented a substantial loss for the original investors. The partnership with the Spanish company was dissolved with them taking the hotel in Ibiza.

The hotels gradually started making a profit and the British customers were enjoying this new foreign experience with many calling their hotel rooms “chalets”. In 1970 the company went ahead with construction of the new Hotel Pontinental in Torremolinos, Spain. It was so popular that five years later they built a second hotel next door. The buildings were known as Pontinental I and II. The older hotel had an outdoor pool and tennis courts while the newer hotel had an indoor pool and conference facilities. Guests were free to roam between the two.

Cala Mesquida was also improved with new ‘luxury’ apartments featuring private bathrooms and in 1971 it was expanded further with the addition of a 180-bed hotel.

Always looking for publicity Fred Pontin had a race horse named Cala Mesquida which won the 1970/71 Schweppes Gold Trophy. He had another horse named Go Pontinental. He told his trainers and jockeys that they must always finish in the first three or four so that the race commentator would keep on mentioning their names.

In 1973 Pontins acquired a majority stake in SA Holiday Club of Luxembourg for £1.2 million. This company owned or leased 6 resorts in Majorca, Spain, Greece and Morocco. These hotels weren’t listed under the Pontinental name as they were considered too foreign – the food and entertainment was much more local and authentic. As stated in the 1976 Pontins brochure “if you like only English habits, like bingo, and chips with everything, then Holiday Club is probably not for you”. By the early-1980s the resorts had all been grouped together under the name Holiday Club Pontinental.

Only a small number of the overseas hotels were actually owned by Pontins, some were rented or leased, and in others they were acting purely as booking agents. 

By the late-1970s Pontinental had become very successful and was generating 20% of Pontins annual profits. In 1978 the Pontins company was acquired by Coral who in turn were acquired by Bass. Bass transferred the Pontinental resorts into their Horizon Holidays division where they were marketed under the HCI name (Holiday Club International). The Pontinental name was retired.

What happened to the old Pontinental resorts?

Club Tropicana, Majorca – 356 rooms scattered over 25 acres. Some rooms in hotel, others in chalets in the grounds. Still open as Club Hotel Riu Tropicana

Club M’Diq, Morocco – demolished 2011

Poseidon, Greece – Still open but extensively enlarged and rebuilt, looks totally different today. Now the Wyndham Loutraki Poseidon Resort

Pontinental Torremolinos, Spain – the two buildings were split up and are now run as separate hotels. The original 1970 hotel is known as the Ibersol Torremolinos Beach Hotel while the 1975 building is known as the Hotel Puente Real. The road that runs down beside the complex is still named Calle Hotel Pontinental

Cala Mesquida, Majorca –  sold and demolished in the 1990s. In 1999 a new resort opened with not much remaining from the old Pontins era. Fred Pontin used to own a villa in the village.

Pineta Beach Resort, Sardinia – the first Pontinental site. Still open today and still looking much the same, now known as the Villaggio Dei Pini Hotel.

Eldorado Resort, El Arenal, Majorca – still open today as Sun Club El Dorado

Club Del Sol, Malaga – buildings still standing, still looks much the same but at the time of writing it appears to be closed. Click here to see it on Google Maps

Hotel Zorna, Yugoslaivia – (known in the early days as Hotel Lotos II). Still open today as Hotel Zorna Plava Laguna. 

Romantica Resort, Majorca – still open as Cala Romantica