Myself and my family have just returned from the what can only be described as 'the holiday from hell'. We went to Cuba firstly to a hotel called Alantico and below are a list of the events and complaints that took place whilst we were there.....
1) Food was so inadequate that we could not eat anything but rice and bread or burgers.
2) The restaurant was filthy with dead flies everywhere including in the hot and cold food and both fish and raw meat being cooked on the same filthy grill.
3)Cockroaches and spiders the size of the palm of your hand in the rooms.
4) Staff refusing to help us with our luggage for over an hour after arrival at hotel because we were a big family.
5)No entertainment at all despite the hotel advertising to the contrary in the villa section.
6)Only 1 restaurant available as opposed to the 2 that were advertised (however refer to item 2)
7)My four year old son cut his big toe open in one of the childrens pools on broken tiles and the WRONG pool was drained.(photographic evidence of his injury is available if you request it from me)
We ate in one of the so called a la carte retaurants and my 14 year old daughter digested several dead flies from her ice cream before realising that what she thought were chocolate chips were indeed flies.9)The representative was patronising and we complained on a daily basis about all of the above, however, it wasnt until several diferent parties of holiday makers went to him together with our compiants that he treated us seriously and opted to move us all to the Brisas hotel next door to the Atlantico. Things were just as bad there if not worse.
After being assured that the Brisas was far better we found it to be awful. On several occasions thee were dead flies on our table and we were scorned upon when we complained to dining room staff they appeared to find it rather amusing in fact.
My husband and I had to sleep in different rooms with our children as the hotel said it had no connecting rooms available however when we spoke to other holiday makers they told us that they arrived later the same day as us and were put in conecting rooms even though they had NO children with them. My husband is recovering from cancer and recent treatment for Hepatitis C so being in different rooms was an added strain and worry for us. I even offered to pay for this facility and yet again was told no.
The dining room staff were rude to us choosing to serve the Cuban holiday makers in preference to us even if we were in the queue before them we were just ignored and served when the Cubans had got what they wanted.This included the chef serving the best cuts of meat and fish to them and serving us the scraps unless we protested which we had to if the food being served looked edible.
The snack bar staff had the same attitude, however, we avoided the snack bar after seeing cockroaches and dead flies in the food. It was very very dirty. They only had 1 knife and it was used for raw meat, cooked meat, slicing cheese and bread and cutting pizza,s. There was also rat dropings in all the eating establishments and we witnessed 3 rats on our balcony even though we were on the 2nd floor of the hotel.
Again my 4 year old son was injured in this hotel which culminated in the loss of his front tooth 2 days after we returned home(again pictures available if requested) .The injury was caused by the filthy state of the side of the pool was kept in. There were plastic cups in the pool due to the use of swimming pool bar. Food stuffs in the pool and indeed on the side of pool, which is how my son slipped and banged his nose and mouth which left him unable to eat for a day or so as it made his tooth loose and he was upset by this. He was given inadequate first aid by the hotel staff and in fact we used the contents of a first aid kit we took with us to clean him up but no no one would give me an accident form to complete stating they didint have them in Cuba.
The pool also smelled very strongly of urine and the water always had a slight film over the top of it. There were lights positioned round the edge of pool that appeared to have exposed wires that anyone could have messed with. again when this was mentioned to the hotel staff nothing was done.There were also many exposed filters in the pool with the blargest being at least 36 inches in diameter, this is an accident waiting to happen. We also all had stomach upsets if we used the pool and ear infections ( which we had to seek medical attention from a doctor for)and 3 of the party have sores on our lips and in our mouths which I am sure the pool has contributed to. There were also cigarette ends in the pool on a daily basis. The area was skimmed over by 2 bar men every evening but no 'cleaning ' of the area was done.
The air conditioning in all 3 rooms was inadequate and was cold by day but didnt work in the evenings for some reason, again nothing was done by the hotel staff. Overall this has been the worst holiday we have ever had and we all very let down by Thomas Cook. We have holidayed with Thomas Cook in the past and have always had enjoyable holidays and quite frankly I am both shocked and disappointed that Thomas Cook continues to send people to these hotels at all. They are cetainly not worthy of the stars you appear to think they are. It is with sadness that the best meal I ate in the 2 weeks we were away was the in flight meal on the way home.
I am willing to negotiate a compensation package that is satisfactory for both myself and my family and Thomas Cook without the need for me to instruct a solicitor to litigate on my behalf. This I believe will save yourselves the cost of legal services and time on both sides. I trust you to consider my complaints seriously and offer an adequate settlement at the first instance. I would ask that you respond within 28 days to my compiants as per se the same time scale you give customers to register a complaint.
yours sincerely
A copy of the letter my friend sent to Thomas Cook on returning from her holiday.
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