Travel

Furious family slam Tui for putting them up in ‘half-built nightmare hotel that stank of sewage and served raw food’ on £7k holiday


A FAMILY’S dream holiday turned into a total nightmare after they discovered that the Tui hotel they had book wasn’t even finished.

To make matters worse, they said that the place stank of sewage, there were builders everywhere and they were served raw food.

 The Humphreys family said they had a nightmare holiday in Montenegro

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The Humphreys family said they had a nightmare holiday in MontenegroCredit: BPM Media

Hospice volunteer Joanne Humphreys, 53, and her husband, Kevin, 46, spent £6,800 on a ten-night stay at The Holiday Village Montenegro, accompanied by their children, Louis, 21, and Beth, 14, and the kids’ grandparents.

Joanne and Kevin went into their local Tui store in Basildon where they were recommended a brand new, all-inclusive 4-star hotel that boasted four restaurants and spa facilities.

After being wowed by the artist impressions of the hotel, the couple parted with their money in exchange for a deluxe family suite at a complex that was being built as they booked.

Joanne said: “It looked amazing and the Tui store staff spoke so highly of the hotel.

“We were all really looking forward to it, especially our children.

“It had everything we’d want in a holiday; bars, restaurants, a spa, gym and adult only pool areas.

“We thought Tui was a reputable company so we trusted everything would be as they described. To say it was a nightmare would be an understatement.”

The hotel was due to open at the end of May this year and the family were arriving on June 17.

 The family said they saw builders everywhere

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The family said they saw builders everywhereCredit: BPM Media

After researching online, Joanne became concerned that the hotel would not be finished in time for their arrival.

She visited the Tui shop and called the customer care phone line numerous times to discuss her worries but was assured everything would be complete.

Joanne said: “Our fears subsided until a couple of weeks before we were due to arrive, when I was informed that while the hotel would be completed, some of the facilities originally on offer were no longer going to be available, such as the spa, hairdressers, the gym and the waterslides.

“This led me to look on social media. There was a Facebook page full of people complaining how bad it actually was and that the resort wasn’t anywhere near finished.

“People were cancelling their holidays left, right and centre. We made our way back to the Tui shop to bring this to their attention but they insisted everything was on schedule and it would be fine when we got there.”

 Construction hadn't finished at the hotel

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Construction hadn’t finished at the hotelCredit: BPM Media

The couple knew that the children and their grandparents were really looking forward to the trip, so they hoped for the best.

The family arrived in Montenegro, only to be met by their worst fears, they say.

Joanne said: “We stepped off the transfer bus to be greeted by the stench of sewage and building noise. The closer we got to the resort reception, the more we saw construction workers walking around with wheelbarrows.

“Tui reps met us at reception and we were taken to what was supposed to be a deluxe suite. On the way, we came across half complete stairs, loose paving slabs and dust everywhere.

“The first thing we saw when they opened the door was half eaten toast on the side and a bed that hadn’t been made. It was a sight for sore eyes.

 There were limited food options

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There were limited food optionsCredit: BPM Media

“We went back to reception to explain the situation to the manager. We were tired from travelling all day and the whole thing was a mess. We were taken to various other rooms, which were not at all suitable for us or what we had paid for.

“In the end, we were told to wait while they cleaned the room we were first taken to.”
And things continued to get worse, according to the family.

The room conditions were not satisfactory throughout the family’s stay, and Joanne described how things were either incomplete or not working at all.

At one point, the shower head fell off while Joanne was in the shower, hitting her foot and injuring her toe.

She said: “Everything kept falling apart.

Gran’s Tui holiday turns into a nightmare because of wobbly 10th floor balcony and non-stop drilling

“The soap dispenser in the shower was not fully secured and kept coming off and the shower floor tiles were uneven. It was a disaster waiting to happen.

“We got to the point where there wasn’t a single day where something hadn’t gone wrong. The bedroom door didn’t close properly and on a few occasions, the safe would not open before we were due to go out.

“The key cards to our room were faulty and almost every night we had to go to reception to get this rectified.”

The door handle to their room came off one evening, bruising and cutting Joanne’s leg.

This was reported to the Tui rep but nothing was ever followed up or logged properly.

And it wasn’t just the room that was a disaster area, as the family saw the rest of the resort was full of hazardous conditions.

 The shower had several problems with it

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The shower had several problems with itCredit: BPM Media

The Basildon natives recall loose wires lining the pools where the lights had become detached and the umbrellas around the pool were already falling apart. There were also digging tools and building materials left lying around.

Joanne said: “It was very messy and noisy and not only ruined the ambience of a relaxing holiday with lots of dust, but it was a health and safety hazard, especially for holiday makers walking around barefoot.

“We witnessed several people fall, breaking bones and injuring themselves.”

Tui told Joanne and Kevin that there would be a buffet restaurant and three a la carte restaurants available for unlimited visits, but they were told by their rep that only the buffet restaurant was available as the other restaurants weren’t fully functioning.

The Italian restaurant opened halfway through their holiday but the family were unable to ever get a table.

Joanne explained: “Again, it was not what was promised but we had no choice but to just put up with it.

 There was exposed wiring on the ceiling

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There was exposed wiring on the ceilingCredit: BPM Media
 One of the umbrellas was broken at the base

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One of the umbrellas was broken at the baseCredit: BPM Media
 Another umbrella was completely destroyed

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Another umbrella was completely destroyedCredit: BPM Media

“In actual fact, the buffet was extremely poor with very limited choice.

“There was raw food being served, which made both myself and my daughter poorly.”

After a number of complaints were made about the food hygiene, microwaves were put out for holiday makers to warm up their own food if it wasn’t fully cooked or had gone cold, claims Joanne.

She added: “None of the staff seemed to know what they were doing or appeared to have the necessary training. At one point, we were told that they had to get a chef from another hotel to teach the chefs how to cook certain dishes.

“Beth even found a big piece of glass in her chocolate mousse, which I personally gave to the head chef.”

“In 35 years of going on adult holidays, I’ve never complained but we were at reception every single day complaining to the Tui reps. The maintenance worker must’ve been run off his feet with the amount of problems there were.”

Despite constantly speaking to their allocated Tui representative during the holiday and on one occasion, spending a whole hour going through all the problems, upon arriving home they were not contacted by Tui to discuss their experience.

This led to Joanne making a formal complaint to the company directly.

 The family spotted lots of issues around the hotel

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The family spotted lots of issues around the hotelCredit: BPM Media
 One of the steps was tapped up

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One of the steps was tapped upCredit: BPM Media

The family were offered a holiday voucher to spend with Tui for the sum of £1025, less than a quarter of what they paid for the whole holiday.

Joanne said: “We couldn’t believe it and so we contacted head office but the staff were rude and had no customer care.

“They weren’t willing to listen and even put the phone down on Kevin at one point.

“We had a catastrophic holiday experience. On top of this, Tui were not willing to address things and didn’t care that we were out of pocket.

“As a result, we have instructed Bott and Co to claim compensation for the awful experience endured. We came home feeling as though we hadn’t even been on holiday and less rested than we were before we went.”

David Bott, Senior Partner at Bott and Co said: “This family were tremendously let down by Tui. They were led to believe the hotel would be finished and were promised so many things that didn’t come to fruition.

 They even claimed the resort stank of sewage

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They even claimed the resort stank of sewageCredit: BPM Media

“What was meant to be a stress-free and enjoyable family holiday turned out to be filled with many blunders. We believe they were faced with substandard amenities and should be compensated for their disappointment.

“It is a great shame that Tui thought this was acceptable. An increasing number of people are contacting us after going through poor holiday experiences. We are fighting for Joanne and her family to secure fair compensation for their disappointment and loss of enjoyment.”

A Tui UK spokesperson said: “We are very sorry to hear of Ms Humphreys and her family’s experience in Montenegro.

“As this is now a legal matter, it would be inappropriate to comment further.”

Just last month, another family had a similar issue with a Tui holiday, where the hotel wasn’t quite complete.

The same thing also happened at a hotel in Santorini.

And this month, a mum claimed that construction noise and abusive staff at a Tui resort left her in tears.





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