Friends’ £3,500 ‘holiday from hell’ after poo found in pool 3 times

Two friends who booked a week long stay at a five star resort instead experienced a ‘holiday from hell’.

Esther Watson and Gemma Bailey along with Gemma’s seven-year-old son Henry jetted off to Cape Verde after saving up for two years to afford to all-inclusive break.

However the pair were left ‘heartbroken’ by the condition of the resort, which they booked through travel agent TUI – even asking to fly home three days early.

Esther and Gemma, both 36, said their rooms were ‘unsanitary’ when they arrived and found cockroaches, broken air conditioning and said there was no hot water.

There were also very few food options available for Henry, who is lactose intolerant, meaning he was unwell multiple times.

Esther said: ‘I’ve been on lots of holidays and can’t say they’ve all been fantastic, some have been disappointing, but this one tops them all.

‘It was a disaster from day one and as the holiday progressed it was obvious TUI had no interest in helping us, just kind of take our money and run.

‘My friend saved up for two years to take her son on a one-week holiday and it was devastating.

‘I’ve never seen her cry and that then got upsetting for me and her son.

‘To spend a week not being able to eat the food as we were getting sick, staying in an unsanitary room and to be sold a holiday which was five-star all inclusive, and to be stuck there is terrible.’

The pair, both from Tunbridge Wells in Kent, booked the trip at the RIU Touareg resort, in the Boa Vista area of Cape Verde, from April 10-17.

Esther said they also found ‘random blotches of blood’ around the hotel – and worse, the swimming pool was cordoned off three times because someone defecated in it.

She added: ‘It was horrendous, we were constantly asking “who pooed in the pool?”.

‘It was diabolical and the problem is when you’re in that situation, an all-inclusive resort, you can’t go anywhere.’

Esther said the TUI representative ignored her repeated messages – and the pair are now considering legal action after they were only offered £200 in compensation.

‘We spent our holiday contacting them throughout the week but nobody responded,’ she said.

‘The reps avoided us and by the time we got hold of one, I got cross and burst into tears.

‘There was definitely language barriers and hotel staff did try to help a little bit, but struggled to understand us. Getting home was the best part of our holiday.

‘We told TUI before we travelled that we had an autistic boy who had a dairy allergy, but that wasn’t communicated. He had to live on chips for a week.

‘It pushed us to the limit. The whole thing was upsetting.

‘I’m glad it’s over and I want others to be warned about it all. We’re struggling now to get any response and we are considering taking legal advice.’

A spokesman for TUI said: ‘We are very sorry to hear about Mrs Watson’s holiday experience in Cape Verde.

‘We recognise that on this occasion some services fell short of our usually high standards.

‘Our customer care team will be in touch with Mrs Watson shortly to further discuss the issues and offer an additional goodwill gesture.

‘We’d like to reassure customers that health and safety is our highest priority and these circumstances are very rare.’

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at [email protected].

For more stories like this, check our news page.