A family holiday in Tunisia turned into a nightmare for Tracy Haslam after she discovered that the hotel she booked through Loveholidays was also a residential care home for the elderly. The 52-year-old from Bolton, Greater Manchester, spent £4,000 on an all-inclusive trip for herself, her two daughters, and six grandchildren, but was appalled to find pensioners in wheelchairs being pushed past her sun lounger every few minutes.
A Holiday of Bizarre Encounters
Tracy arrived at the four-star hotel on April 12 and immediately noticed a large number of elderly people in wheelchairs. When she asked at reception about her luggage, she mentioned the many elderly residents with carers she had seen. The hotel manager then admitted that the hotel was part of a residential care facility. Tracy recorded footage of elderly patients, some of whom she claimed had dementia, being wheeled inches past her lounger regularly.
"We went to reception to speak about my case and they were quite rude so that already got my back up," Tracy said. "The manager was walking past and there were these wheelchairs and I said 'excuse me, is this residential?' He said 'yeah there are just three' and I went 'you're having a laugh, there's about ten just gone past me'. So part of it has a residential care home attached to it."
Feeling Misled and Disappointed
Tracy stated she would never have booked the hotel if she had known about the care home. "My biggest complaint is about the care home because I would never ever have booked that hotel if I had known that. I'm not discriminating against old people, but a couple of them were verbal so they were going past us verbally moaning. It's not appropriate for kids," she added.
She described the experience as "bizarre" and "not appropriate for children." Initially, Loveholidays told her that hotels "operate under their own policies and discretion regarding who they accommodate and this is outside of our control" and that her evidence was "not sufficient to support a claim for compensation." However, after the press contacted the company, Loveholidays issued an apology and provided a full refund.
Loveholidays Responds
A Loveholidays spokesperson said: "We're very sorry that Ms Haslam and her family's experience at their hotel in Tunisia fell short of our usual high standards. We are investigating the issues raised with the accommodation provider as a priority, and have removed the hotel from sale whilst this investigation is underway. We have been in touch with Ms Haslam to offer our apologies and a full refund of the cost of her accommodation."
Tracy remains unhappy, stating: "There were nine of us that went and it's a holiday we're not going to get back. It's just been very blasé that the hotel doesn't need to state what clientele they have and I just think that's disgusting."
