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A family said their vacation became a nightmare when they arrived and found out their hotel was a construction site.
Scott Edward, 36, was set to go on a sunny family vacation with his wife Katie and children Freddy and Alexandra — but the trip turned traumatic, complete with food poisoning and electric shock.
“No one enjoyed it,” Edward, from Newport, South Wales, told NeedToKnow. “It’s created a huge stress for us all and created financial issues, having to pay back the extra costs on the credit cards. We were all really ill as well, which has made the kids nervous of traveling”
On Jan. 16, the family took an easyJet flight to Egypt, where they arrived at the Eagles Downtown Zahabia resort and aqua park in Hurghada after a long 18 hours of travel due to delays and transfers.
The trip was immediately off to a bad start when they checked into a filthy room without working Wi-Fi. They switched rooms immediately, but it didn’t get better, reported NeedToKnow.
“That night we had children’s music like ‘Baby Shark’ and other obnoxious music playing outside our hotel room because the entertainment stage was being refurbished,” Edward said.
He said that the rooms were “dirty and broken” — with feces and urine all around a toilet that hadn’t been cleaned.
The air conditioning was full of mold and dust, which he claimed caused the whole family “to have severely bad coughs,” so they resorted to cooling themselves down with cold water.
“Everything was run down, damp and moldy, and plaster and paint flaking off the walls,” he added. “There was also an exposed, live fuse box outside our door.”
The entire family was also sick throughout the trip, which they believe was caused by the food. Edward was bedridden for the majority of the time — and the illness lasted long after the vacation was over.
“The food caused everyone to become violently sick, and we were not able to eat at any of the restaurants,” he said. “I had sore kidneys for two weeks after the holiday because of dehydration from the sickness.”
They also ended up spending a lot of extra money on transportation and other food due to the “extremely dangerous food standards at the hotel.”
Their illnesses left them not being able to attend most of the excursions they planned, and the kids weren’t able to enjoy some play areas.
When Edward took his children to a kids’ club, he said he got an electric shock from a live wire, and there were debris on the floor from the hotel construction that the family claims was dangerous for children.
“All the playground equipment was broken and hazardous,” he said. “The kids’ club was run down, dirty, and full of dangerous items, such as trampolines with broken, sharp metal springs sticking out, and random pieces of wood with nails in them on the floor of the kids’ club, and very low attendance from staff.”
He also mentioned that the construction areas were “completely accessible to the public” and had no safety precautions.
“There were huge areas of the hotel that were in full construction with concrete pouring, jack hammers and drilling all day, and rubbish like doors, windows, toilets and broken bricks, glass and rubble all over the place,” Edward recalled.
“One of our children nearly cut open their foot from broken glass on a path and walkway we needed to use to get to our room,” he added. “Luckily, her Croc took most of the damage, stopping it from slicing through into her foot.”
The Edward family, claiming to be scarred from the experience, has been trying to get a full refund for the trip from hell, which he said cost the family upward of $4,000.
Edward, who discussed the issues with the hotel before taking it to booking company Loveholidays, said he was initially offered a lowly refund of about $140, but Loveholidays has now said they will refund the whole cost of the vacation, including flights and transfers.
The travel company said that if the family had reached out during the trip abroad, they could have helped — but they claimed Edward didn’t contact them until nearly two months later.
“We’re very sorry that Mr. Edward and Ms. Hillman’s recent experience at their hotel in Egypt fell short of our usual high standards,” a spokesperson for Loveholidays said, reported Jam Press.
“We offer 24/7 assistance to our customers via our On Holiday Support team; however, Mr. Edward did not contact us until seven weeks after he returned home. This unfortunately prevented us from assisting the family while they were still on holiday.”
“As Mr Edward has initiated a chargeback, the refund process is now being managed through his bank. We are working closely with our dispute providers to expedite this and will ensure he receives a full refund for his holiday as quickly as possible.
“We have also escalated the specific issues raised with the accommodation provider to ensure they are addressed.”
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