• iconNews
  • videos
  • entertainment
  • Home
  • News
    • UK News
    • US News
    • Australia
    • Ireland
    • World News
    • Weird News
    • Viral News
    • Sport
    • Technology
    • Science
    • True Crime
    • Travel
  • Entertainment
    • Celebrity
    • TV & Film
    • Netflix
    • Music
    • Gaming
    • TikTok
  • LAD Originals
    • Say Maaate to a Mate
    • Daily Ladness
    • Lad Files
    • UOKM8?
    • FreeToBe
    • Extinct
    • Citizen Reef
  • Advertise
  • Terms
  • Privacy & Cookies
  • LADbible Group
  • UNILAD
  • SPORTbible
  • GAMINGbible
  • Tyla
  • UNILAD Tech
  • FOODbible
  • License Our Content
  • About Us & Contact
  • Jobs
  • Latest
  • Topics A-Z
  • Authors
Facebook
Instagram
X
Threads
Snapchat
TikTok
YouTube

LAD Entertainment

YouTube

LAD Stories

Submit Your Content
Annoyed couple forced to abandon £2,700 all inclusive holiday after hotel ‘adopts Benidorm model’

Home> Lifestyle> Travel

Updated 10:07 4 Jun 2024 GMT+1Published 09:58 4 Jun 2024 GMT+1

Annoyed couple forced to abandon £2,700 all inclusive holiday after hotel ‘adopts Benidorm model’

The retirees were hoping for a 'relaxed holiday' but ended up walking in the sun each day to escape

Jess Battison

Jess Battison

Featured Image Credit: PA Real Life

Topics: Holiday, Travel, Money

Jess Battison
Jess Battison

Jess is a Senior Journalist with a love of all things pop culture. Her main interests include asking everyone in the office what they're having for tea, waiting for a new series of The Traitors and losing her voice at a Beyoncé concert. She graduated with a first in Journalism from City, University of London in 2021.

X

@jessbattison_

Advert

Advert

Advert

When you splash out on a holiday, you want it to all go perfectly.

You don’t save up your money all year just for some purposely disappointing travels – you want what you paid for. Or, at least what you thought you’d paid for.

And for this couple, their £2,700 all-inclusive holiday was nothing like they’d hoped.

Advert

Clive and Rose Murray ended up abandoning their three-week five-star beach resort break after the hotel 'adopted a Benidorm model'.

The Macclesfield couple travelled to Hotel Riu Touareg on the island of Boa Vista in Cape Verde in April through Tui for a ‘relaxing holiday’ while they were in the process of moving house.

“We just wanted to relax… if only,” said the 65-year-old bloke. “Almost every day, we would walk 50 minutes up the beach so we could get away.”

It wasn't the holiday the couple hoped for. (PA Real Life)
It wasn't the holiday the couple hoped for. (PA Real Life)

With their double room apparently stinking of sewage and the annoyance of ‘the noise’ of techno music from the hotel’s pool bar, the couple would trek in the heat to get away each day.

Advert

“So, we’d make our sandwiches in the morning at breakfast – remember this is an all-inclusive – and go sit on the beach as far away from the hotel as possible, so we didn’t have to listen to this constant noise,” Clive explained.

“And you could still hear it.”

READ MORE:

COUPLE SELL EVERYTHING TO GO ON 'ENDLESS CRUISE'

BRITS BUYING FAKE DESIGNER GOODS IN SPAIN FACE FINE

Advert

He's more than aware some people will call him ‘an old grouch’, but he says the hotel had a lot of ‘older people there and yet the hotel had adopted a Benidorm or Kavos model with really loud techno music’.

Although, the retirees did say the hotel’s food was excellent and the staff were always very polite and friendly. But they still ended up leaving early for an Airbnb.

It's listed as a five-star hotel.  (PA Real Life)
It's listed as a five-star hotel. (PA Real Life)

The all-inclusive five star Hotel Riu Touareg advertises a range of facilities, including three salt water swimming pools, a jacuzzi and Turkish bath, claims to offer an ‘unforgettable experience’ and promises to make guests’ stay ‘as relaxing as possible’.

That wasn’t the case for the Murrays though as when they opened their room door they immediately thought ‘there’s a bit of a smell of sewage’.

Advert

“So we opened the door and walked out on the balcony and literally, the white plastic furniture, I’ve seen better in skips,” he slammed.

After their six-hour ‘crammed’ flight, they were looking forward to a warm shower, but Clive said the shower head was broken and he ended up using an elastic band to hold it in place.

Then, when he flushed the toilet, the button fell off the wall and he realised where the foul smell was coming from. He explained: “We were on the top floor and of course smells rise,” describing how every bathroom ‘is on top of the other’.

They'd walk each day to get away from the hotel.  (PA Real Life)
They'd walk each day to get away from the hotel. (PA Real Life)

They complained to Tui reps about the smell, and were told grievances would be reported, but said nothing was done to fix it and when Clive brought it up with reception a few days later, it was the first they had heard of it.

Advert

But it was the ‘loud techno music’ that pushed them over the edge. “Some people like that sort of holiday and that’s great for them, I’m not judging,” the bloke said.

“But I went there for a quiet, peaceful, five-star holiday, I didn’t go to replicate Benidorm or Ibiza.” Despite having another five nights paid for, they booked an Airbnb in Sal Rei and left the hotel early.

Clive said the reps ‘just weren’t interested’ in their complaints and he won’t be booking another holiday with Tui anytime soon after spending roughly £3,000 in total for their trip.

TUI UK and RIU Hotels & Resorts have been contacted for comment.

  • Teen suffers major holiday tattoo blunder after artist failed to understand popular Gen Z design
  • Man went to live in all-inclusive resort after claiming it was cheaper than living at home
  • Texts receptionist at Benidorm hotel sent to mum after 'creepy' moment he snuck into room to sniff and steal her thong
  • Couple left ‘wanting to go home’ after spending £3,700 on hotel that ‘looks nothing like the picture’

Choose your content:

a day ago
2 days ago
  • a day ago

    Anyone with an air fryer given warning about cooking specific foods in them

    The prized kitchen possession could suffer serious damage

    Lifestyle
  • a day ago

    Carnival cruise passengers given important update about sleeping with balcony door open

    Leaving the doors open on your balcony has caused quite a stir

    Lifestyle
  • a day ago

    'Bali of Europe' is just hours away from UK with €3 cocktails and golden beaches

    Anyone fancy a holiday?

    Lifestyle
  • 2 days ago

    Jeremy Clarkson issued stern response to food price complaints as people divided over receipt for Sunday lunch at his pub

    Backing British farming comes at a premium

    Lifestyle