Furious tourists who were struck with severe illness that left them confined to their Ibiza hotel room ‘like prisoners’ for the majority of their holiday have expressed concern for other holidaymakers who may stay at the four star resort having seen large numbers of tourists become ill there.
Melvyn Beadling, 58, and his wife Helen, 51 from Newcastle listed a range of hygiene failings at the Hotel Presidente in Portinax, which they believe led to the symptoms they suffered there, including severe diarrhoea, stomach cramps and fever. During their holiday in September, the couple recall being served raw and undercooked food at fly-infested serving stations in the hotel’s restaurant.
The couple say they were left with no option but to take legal action against tour operator Thomson and instructed travel experts Irwin Mitchell to help following the week-long ordeal that left them traumatised. Similar experiences have been echoed by postings on holiday review website Trip Advisor, with comments from other holidaymakers who travelled during September, reporting ‘food poisoning’ and ‘a lot of people falling ill’.
Jatinder Paul from Irwin Mitchell, who is representing the couple said this was not the first incident they have investigated relating to the Hotel Presidente. Travel lawyers at Irwin Mitchell previously secured a payout in the region of £1.2 million for a group of 232 holidaymakers who became seriously ill after exposure several dangerous bacteria including Salmonella. Guests with severe symptoms received compensation over £25,000 - with the average payout being over £5,000 per holidaymaker.
He said: “It is a tour operator’s responsibility to take all reasonable steps to ensure the safety of their customers and yet the conditions Melvyn and Helen were subjected to appear to have been substandard in a number of respects, especially on a well-established and popular holiday island such as Ibiza.
“This was a four-star resort where guests expect very good standards of accommodation, service and food, not be confined to their rooms in need of a doctor’s visit when they get home.
“It is imperative that tour operators, when alerted to such problems, ensure that swift action is taken to ensure that the hotel not only lives up to guests’ expectations but is safe. There was a very large outbreak of serious gastric illness in this hotel several years ago and we had hoped that after that the hotel management and the tour operators that use the hotel would have learned important lessons about the need for good health and hygiene standards and that the safety of guests should always be the priority
“I would urge TUI UK Limited, the parent company of Thomson Holidays to work with us to resolve this issue quickly for our clients so they can begin to try and put this ordeal behind them.”
Commenting on his experience, Melvyn said: “Both my wife and I were horrendously ill on this so-called holiday, it was by far the worst trip I’ve ever been on. You work hard for a break and all you’ve got on your mind is getting away from it all – b”ut we fell ill very early into the holiday and have yet to recover. I wish we’d stayed at home.
“We were happy to pay premium rates to stay in a four-star hotel as we mistakenly thought this would help guarantee us the quality of the service, the venue and the food. Instead we both ended up confined to our rooms for the entire week – we felt like prisoners rather than guests at a hotel.”
“We are still both experiencing symptoms to this day, and saw other people who were ill, I imagine there are many more. I only hope that TUI UK Limited/Thomson Holidays Limited will sit up and pay attention to our horrific experience and do something to improve the standards at this hotel fast for the benefit of anyone else going to stay there.”
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