I’m in holiday hell is it even worth complaining to TUI?

[Thisisnotaholiday]

We are currently on holiday at a H10 hotel in Spain booked via TUI. It has been the holiday from hell and we are counting down the days until we can go home. We paid 5.5k for a weeks all inclusive at a 4 star hotel for me, DH, and DC who are 14 and 16. We saved up
for this holiday, read all the trip advisor reviews (rated 4.5 out of 5) and were looking forward to it after an incredibly stressful few months but it’s been the worst holiday ever.

We booked it as a family of 4 under one booking but when we arrived were told we’d be in 2 separate rooms, both on opposite sides of the hotel. We explained at reception we needed adjoining rooms or rooms at least near each other. We were told no. We did consider one adult sharing with 1 of the DC but both rooms only had double beds and what teenager wants to sleep with their parent. And why should they? Eventually reception said if we paid 200 euros we could have 2 rooms on the same corridor which we felt forced to do. I was not comfortable leaving my 14 and 16 year old in a foreign hotel room miles away from me.

DH and I were given a room overlooking the service entrance which means we are woken at 5am every morning by delivery trucks. At 7 am the sewage truck arrives and they spend hours pumping shit into the truck. The noise is horrendous and obviously from 5am we get no sleep. Can’t sit on balcony as view is of delivery trucks all day. Complained at reception and told TUIs contract with the hotel is for the worst located rooms and people booking through TUI are put in the non refurbished rooms. A reminder this is meant to be a 4 star beach hotel and we paid thousands to stay there.

The hotel is about 50% German and 50% Italian. We are the only Brits here it seems who booked via TUI. As a result there is no TUI rep here and we were told the rep is at another hotel about 30 minutes away. We walked there to find the German rep who was horrified and said she’d talk to the hotel. The outcome was that they could move our DC next to us but we said no as their room is on the opposite side of the hotel away from the service entrance we face and I didn’t want them being woke up from 5am too.

I could go on with the other horrendous things that have happened but would be here all day. Is it even worth complaining to TUI, will they even care? It seems like TUI have a shit contract with this hotel where the very few guests they send there way have the worst rooms but still paying expensive prices.

@SugarPlumRoar please can you say which hotel in Mexico or pm me? We’re thinking of going there with Tui!

My hotel set on fire which was booked in a tui store and recommended by them there was no fire alarms go off and we got moved over an hour away which took till 10pm at night to a half board apartment with no kids facilities and we was given £340 compensation this took me a year to get and it didn’t even cover the cost of the food / drink we had to buy as we was all inclusive. So no it’s not worth it cause they actually don’t give a shit

I echo what many have said here. Company going to be much more responsive to social media complaints. Start taking photos of the 5 am sewage trucks - hashtag it all with their #Tuitraveller tag and then #tuiloudandsmellytosleep #tuinightmares etc. ideally across Instagram and Twitter.

@ClairDeLaLune It was the Sandos Caracol Eco resort. TUI had it at the time as 5, now dropped to 4 I , it would be lucky if it was a 3*.

Lots of the reviews on TripAdvisor are from their timeshare customers deemed Royal Elite or the other trick they did was get a member of staff say barman or entertainment team to ask you to leave a good review so they get a bonus. They would get you to scan a QR code to leave a revie2, it was only when I looked closer I realised it was actually TripAdvisor the review was on.

Every now and then I check the reviews and the complaints are still as bad as what I experienced last year.

I've been to Mexico several times and that's the first issues I've ever had and the only hotel I wouldn't go back to and I won't travel with TUI again because of our experience and how they handled it or rather didn't handle it to the point they lied to our face and claimed they had no other guests complain, they didn't count on me finding a whole host of people who did complain and put it on record, some who were even moved resort.

We arrived at a hotel in Barcelona booked through TUI, we realised immediately it was a hostel not a hotel which the receptionist agreed. Room was disgusting, tatty iron beds, dirty walls and shower absolutely gross, view from.window was a run down apartment block. We took photos, informed reception we weren't staying and found a lovely hotel.elsewhere. When we got home we wrote a full report which Tui travel agent submitted for us with photos, we received a full refund. Apparently there are ways to submit a formal complaint that travel.agents can do for you.

Whatever anyone says, take advice from the former Tui rep on here. Lodge a claim in resort with the rep. If you don't do that everything else is meaningless. I work in travel and it's very unlikely that contractually you were entitled to rooms together. Very few hotels will guarantee that. But the sewage pumping is an issue. Contact the rep again asap.

@Thisisnotaholiday you do need to listen to @jenbj having gone through complaints and then onto court with TUI if you don't complain to the rep and go through them to push for a resolution, then you don't have a leg to stand on when you get home either with TUI or through other avenues.

I don’t have time to read whole thread . But email , Twitter Facebook record everything . Trust me please Tui are the worst when coming to claims . But I took them to court and won .

Definitely complain

When a child turns 12 they are classed as an adult by most tour operators. My DC are 7 and 4 and I was told a couple of years ago, at our favourite TUI owned hotel that when our youngest turns 12 we would need to two rooms as an "adult" cannot sleep on the extra beds that they currently put into the room for a child. It would not have been a surprise to me to have gotten two rooms in your situation. You need to read through your booking paperwork and look for confirmation that you were definitely going to get one room that sleeps four people in order to get compensation for that. Check that the hotel offers this option on their website as well. Your T&C's might say that they can give you two rooms if they want and that they may not be next to each other.

Unless you paid extra for a superior room or a room with a pool or sea view they can give you a room overlooking anything.

You can't complain that all the other guests were different nationalities. Just because they don't speak your language it doesn't mean there's anything wrong with them. It's not TUI's fault that hardly any English people booked your hotel for this week. The hotel will take bookings from the whole of Europe.

Film the rubbish collection, film the trucks, film the walk from your room to your sons, film your husband complaining and then post all these onto social media. It the only way TUI will do anything. They won't do anything when your back. I know it's not the way you want to spend your holiday BUT you may get some money back. xx

Take photos, send them to TUI, put everything you've put here into a letter. If it's not up to standard it needs to be investigated by TUI.

You must complain to the rep and make a record of what you said and what they said. We had a disappointing experience with Tui last year and I had to take it to ABTA to even get Tui to respond. We'd not complained vociferously enough to the Rep according to Tui. I eventually got back £750 which is what I'd paid for the upgraded rooms which we didn't actually get. I would never travel with Tui again as their customer service after the holiday is dreadful.

Hello, yes definitely complain. We had the same with a TUI holiday years ago..
when back home send in a complaint along with pictures of your rooms and what they were supposed to look like.
plus inform them about the money you paid extra. When TUI refuse to pay any compensation, go through a resolver - we got back extra money we paid plus a bit more as compensation. Hope you can enjoy what’s left of your holiday

I feel for you and 5,000 is a lot.
However I can't believe the rep was horrified hearing your room was above the loading bay. Some people have to be. Are you sure those rooms aren't cheaper? Definitely asked to be moved.

I don't think OP was complaining about the nationality of the other guests - they were making the point that because they were the only brits there, there was no TUI rep at the hotel.

This thread is scary! What I'm hearing is don't book with TUI 😳

That's miserable OP but tbh I don't know that you'll get anywhere. A lot of hotels would separate a group with multiple adult rooms as people often prefer that for privacy. If your room is as described (i.e. you didn't pay a supplement for a beach or pool view) you might not get anywhere there either. Presumably the £200 extra you paid for your sons' room reflected that, would you consider upgrading your room?

Genuine question - you must be a few days in and you're only there for a week. What would be the least worst outcome, accept it and make the most of it, or keep complaining? If you're not likely to change anything is the complaining just making it even worse, if that makes any sense?

Next time check the rooms you are being moved to

You didn't do that so this is why you're in such an awkward situation

You asked to be moved so they moved you

Ask them who is checking out soon ie today or tomorrow and that they can then give you those rooms instead

Forget about being near your DC just get a decent room

Your DC are way old enough to be Miles away from you at the hotel so forget that now as an issue. Just get a nice room

Sorry not read the full thread but yes complain everywhere. All social media you can think of and also email. Take photos, video - document it all. I attach the Twitter handle and number for the TUI CEO.

That's just a ridiculous way to think in life

You kind of created your own hell by complaining in the first place

Your DC are teens so perfectly capable of being in another part of the hotel

So sorry your holiday is shit but I'm surprised you didn't know there would be no rep at your hotel as I've booked with tui several times and their website would always inform you if the hotel you were looking at had a rep or not, also not excusing tui in any way but I've always had an enjoyable holiday with them, maybe I was just lucky

We just came back from a H10 hotel in lanzarote, bad experience. After 3 days we changed hotels, it cost a bit more but wasn’t worth been miserable for the remainder of the holiday.

Ha! Do you work for TUI?

This thread has definitely made me think twice about booking with them.

People work hard for relaxing holidays, not exactly easy with 5am wake up calls and the smell of excrement!