Brit family turn up to £4,000 holiday and soon realise it has an unexpected side business
On 12 April, Tracy Haslam flew out to Tunisia for a big family holiday with her two daughters and six grandkids in tow.
The gran had booked a four-star all inclusive hotel on loveholidays for their travels, hoping for somewhere suitable for the kids while they enjoyed the sun.
But the last thing the 52-year-old expected was for several elderly people being wheeled around by carers. And that’s not suggesting she’s ageist and doesn’t want to be holidaying somewhere loved by old people.
It’s actually that it turned out the hotel they’d booked into was also part of a residential care home. Yeah, imagine the shock.
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The family had splashed out £4,000 on the holiday but Tracy says she’d ‘never have’ booked the hotel if she’d known this would be the reality.
The Bolton woman recalled: “We went to reception to speak about [my] case and they were quite rude so that already got my back up.
"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' [elderly residents] 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.”
Tracy took videos of elderly residents, some she claimed had dementia, being wheeled inches past her sunbed ‘every five minutes’ and complained to loveholidays for not disclosing it was part of a care home.
"My biggest complaint is about the care home because I would never ever have booked that hotel if I had known that,” she added.
"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."
Initially Tracy claims a loveholidays rep told her hotels 'operate under their own policies and discretion regarding who they accommodate and this is outside of our control'.
However, since further contact was made, she was issued a full refund and apology with the hotel removed from the site whilst investigations take place.
"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,” Tracy added.
"It's just a weird experience to go on holiday and have wheelchairs coming past you all day. I just feel I was misled because I would never have booked it if I had known.
"Some people might not be bothered but it bothered me, I just would never have booked it. I am a bit of a holiday princess, I go away quite a lot and I do like a nice hotel.”
She added that it was a ‘shocking’ experience after booking a four star hotel.
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.”
Jess Battison