Very unsuitable hotel, WWYD?

[GlamGiraffe]

WWYD. please tell, it's a longish one

Booked a holiday, DH, DS(17), DD(2) and myself✈.
Explained to the travel agent i needed somewhere a suitable for both kid, in particular where DS could wander off and entertain himself alone some of the time whilst I could stay and relax with DD by a pool in a toddler friendly environment.

Committed a fair amount of money to having a nice holiday having had a dire stressful time health and work wise.
Arrived at hotel, over 100 steps, wound higledy pigbledy over cliff wihout bannisters, from property entrance to front door, virtually impossible with a buggy. No open spaces where a toddler can safely safely walk as everything is on a clifft top with no barriers or railings and sheer drops to rocks below.⛰🏞 The pool is small, is only deep, has no space around it in which to walk as it is stiffed full of loungers. A hotel with capacity for 950 has approx 200 loungers. And the poll is pretty packed with the poll from that many in. The suggested shingle beach is in fact a small concrete platform over more rock with ladders to the water. The "playground" is only suitable for kids aged maybe 8 years and is also surrounded by cliff edge drops.
Making matters worse, DD has serious dairy allergy, i checked in advance hotel had oat milk which was confirmed. The hotel have yried twice to pass hrt off with soya milk yo ehich she is also evtremely allergic- she could die. Despite this they ate oblivious. Despite caiming to stock the ost milk on the phone, on arrival they didn't even know what it was and I have to travel I hr to get it-i had space to bring it had I known.
We are totally restricted on what to do, we are at a loss. There is nothing resembling a beach nearby. We trekked to the nearest rocky scrap which is hopeless and without an inch even to swing a cat in.
Have contacted the agent explained the problem. She contacted the hotel who (surprise surprise said their hotel was totally child appropriate). There is even a hole the width of my toddler through the balcony wall-on the 9th floor.
Family is awfully stressull, I'm not in best health to be trekking in a sightseeg mission is really not what I need and that really unfair on a child who is only just 2.
There are 2, maybe 3 children we have seen here. The whole hotel, definitely the resort is catered towards the more eldery guest.
I know this is rambling. Sorry.

But WWYD?
We,re/I'm going a bit nuts; the stress is starts to show already😫😫.

I’m a bit confused - did you not google the hotel, check the website or view a brochure before booking to check suitability, proximity to beach etc?

How can you not have realised the hotel was on a cliff top - surely you looked at pictures before you booked?

Sounds like a case of having to improvise, adapt and overcome unfortunately

Contact the agent again and include pictures of what you've said on here(about it being unsafe for children)and make sure you tell them that they tried to pass of milk that could have killed your child because of allergies and ask to be moved somewhere suitable asap.

Tell them your more than happy to share your story to any and all forms of social media and tag them in it if they don't get it sorted within the next day!

Never trust a travel agent to do the full booking. They could suggest a few but do your own research before you book.

The images available weren't clear. Itcesd obvious they come part off The hotel was a no- no but a gentle walk down to a fine shingle bech wsd adveristed, in reality there is nothing but here rocks, the agent assured us it was fine, it transpires they had actually no idea of the access arrangemts and thought there was an easy route in. Ive stayed at many cliff top hotels and never been to on like this. It really is diabolical.
To make matters worse the promised local town for my DS comprises about 10 shops. I think as supposed experts in thecsres they have made a huge error.

Always always do your own research in future. Never go completely off the recommendations of a travel agent, particulary the mass market ones like Tui and Thomas Cook. They haven’t been to all the hotels and have no real control of standards.

Next time use tripadvisor first. Most large hotels will have hundreds of reviews and you can filter for family visitors only or key words like toddler.

In the meantime throw yourself at the mercy of the agent now and beg to be moved. Can you afford to pay for another hotel if they don’t move you? Seems a shame to ruin the holiday. It sounds like an absolute nightmare with such a young child!

Where is the hotel?

That sounds horrible OP. I’m so sorry your holiday is not what you wanted. I would find that a nightmare with either a toddler or a teen, let alone both.

You don’t have many options at this point. You can try and pressure the agent to find you another hotel (but check it out yourself on trip advisor) relying on the goodwill of the hotel to them to make this cost free. You can try and find another hotel of your own, spend your own cash on it and then see if you can recover that when you get back. You can make the best of it then rubbish the travel agents in a review - are there any day trips you can do that would take you to somewhere at least one child might enjoy? If it’s really so bad you’d rather not stay then maybe the agent can swap your flights and get you back early.

I would start with pressuring the agent to try and get you a different hotel. They are more likely to have more pull than you do and it’s them that have screwed up from your perspective.

Where are you? Maybe a MNer local to the hotel could suggest a nice beach nearby.

Is there a rep at the hotel?
I agree with pp, contact the agency/rep with safety photos and ask to be moved to another hotel. It sounds extremely stressful, particularly with your dd's dietary requirements.

I would take a lot of photos of the access, the beach, etc. Then send them to the travel agents. They will be able to then stop recommending it to families.

If all else fails, review it on Trip Advisor together with photos.

As a fellow tourist I’d want to know how unsafe the whole place is, and I’m sure it will get the manager to sort stuff out for you

Caveat emptor.

Did you not check Trip Advisor?

Take lots of photos. You can also photograph the pool depth using your ds as a prop. Apparently going onto twitter, naming and shaming can be very helpful. You can also email the ceo by searching “ceo mail company name”. Badger the agent to get you moved.

I’m always amazed that people don’t check reviews, photos, etc on TripAdvisor before booking things. I would never book anywhere without seeing plenty of photos and reading some reviews. I don’t even book a restaurant without reading reviews and seeing some photos of the meals!

Sorry.... but I struggle to see how someone internet savvy enough to use MN can't Google a hotel before booking.

Take photos and email to estate agent showing proof of points and ask to be immediately moved. Next time do more research!

That sucks, OP.

Can you get transport to somewhere nicer, afford a more suitable hotel & campaign to get your money back for unsuitable hotel after you're back home?

I’d never assume that a travel agent would even know what ‘child appropriate’ was. I’d check they’d either had kids, or give them a full list of what is and isn’t good for kids.

The hoteliers seem to be plain dishonest, not naive.

The age gap with your kids means it’s a tall order to find a place to satisfy both their needs. And being a bit of an usual family, it will always be up to you to take the reigns of choosing a place rather than outsourcing it. I’d have probably involved the older child and partner too. But that’s advice for next time.

Make it clear to everyone that you expect to be moved immediately, and be involved in where (before agreeing). Offer to rain down holy hell on social media if they don’t budge. Concentrate on the mortal risk of the milk, not the million other ‘kid friendly’ bits.

Hope you get it sorted, and if not, find some fun. You seem a very optimistic type in the way you’ve organised the holiday, time to put it to good use!

*an unusual family

I agree with the above pp that recommends to focus on the milk. After the recent and incredibly tragic news stories on the death of young people with allergies this is a hot topic, and one that any company will take very seriously. Don’t muddle the waters by complaining about only 6 shops in the local town.

Sorry 10 shops, but you know what I mean!

And take pictures of all the shear drops and the hole on the 9th floor!

Photograph everything. I had a friend who worked in travel and people whose holidays weren't up to what they expected would claim money back for the tiniest things (folded towel on the bed wasn't right, toilet roll wasn't on the right way - paper came against the wall not at the front - around causing someone to hurt their wrist...).

And I'd put them on trip advisor and booking.com so nobody else falls prey to their promotional images.

But the milk situation is unacceptable. You're going to need to kick up an almighty stink. The hotel MUST get the milk in.

I want to know where/what this hotel is so I never go!!