Couple left ‘wanting to go home’ after spending £3,700 on hotel that ‘looks nothing like the picture’
Essex couple Robbie and Dawn Bennett said their 11th wedding anniversary was the £3,700 'holiday from hell'.
The holidaymakers flew out to Safaga, Egypt, with two friends to the four-star Paradise Abu Soma Resort in September.
Robbie, a 42-year-old former civil servant, complained about his 'shabby, 1980s-style' room, which was 'dirty', claiming there were hairs in his bed.
But that was only the start.
Advert
He said that the 'sports facilities' were unusable and the hotel suffered an alleged power cut.
"It's an annual trip that me, my wife and our friends take to celebrate our anniversaries. We got married in the same month, in different years, to our respective partners," the Colchester resident said.
"I've been to Egypt eight or nine times over the course of the last 13 years. We've never had any issues in the past.
"My wife booked the hotel online and all the pictures and reviews looked really good. It looked really picturesque.
"When we got to the hotel, we thought this can't be right. My wife was practically in tears.
"We were supposed to be staying in one of the beachside, ocean-view chalets, which was just a double bedroom with 1980s decor in really poor condition.
"I think we had one plug socket in the whole room that we could use. It was really dirty - there were hairs in the bed. Just very poor quality.
"This was supposed to be a four-star hotel. We didn't even have a duvet, each bed just had a single sheet on it. There was no additional bedding in the room. We just froze the whole time."
The pair who booked their holiday with On the Beach said they were in touch with the travel agent to change hotels.
Allegedly, Paradise Abu Soma Resort offered them a different room, but Robbie says it 'looked terrible' - and it had been nicknamed the 'prison block'.
"The hotel offered us a different hotel room in what the guests call the 'prison block'," he said.
"They advertised basketball courts, tennis courts, crazy golf, sports facilities and it looked more like Syria or Beirut. You couldn't use them.
"It looked and felt like a warzone. If we'd taken them up on their offer and stayed in the 'prison block', that would've been our view when we opened the curtains.
"My wife was so disappointed because she'd booked the whole thing. She thought she'd ruined it for everybody. She wanted to go home.
"We were going out there to celebrate our anniversary and have a relaxing time, but we just thought thank god that's over. It was a relief leaving.
"We'd like some compensation for the experience we had. It was the one holiday we save up for every year that we spend our hard-earned cash on."
A spokesperson for On the Beach has told LADbible: "We're sorry that Mr and Mrs Bennett's hotel did not meet our expected quality standards.
"We always want our customers to have a great holiday and have offered a cash refund to reflect their experience.
"We have also implemented new processes and additional training to quickly and proportionately manage, resolve and support customers who contact us with issues while on holiday."
LADbible Group has contacted Paradise Abu Soma Resort for comment.
Anish Vij