A British holidaymaker has rejected a £100 compensation voucher from TUI after a ‘living nightmare’ holiday where she says she was sexually harassed by a hotel worker.
Amber Hunt and her twin brother endured a ‘living nightmare’ in the Dominican Republic as a series of issues left her in tears and forced them to switch resorts.
The siblings, who paid £1,400 each for the package deal to celebrate their 30th birthday, were taken to the hotel in a bus which was struck with bricks before finding their room suffocatingly hot.
Amber, from Edinburgh, told Metro that she was also subjected to unwanted sexual remarks and gestures by a maintenance worker at the start of their two-week trip.
She said she was initially offered a £100 refund by TUI before this was increased to £150 during her correspondence with the holiday giant’s customer services after they returned last month.
The tour operator has launched a full investigation into her complaints.
Amber said: ‘We were both looking forward to celebrating our 30th birthdays while we were out there but the bad experience began when a bus with about 10 of us on was hit with bricks thrown from the side of the motorway. We don’t know why they were thrown but they hit the windscreen with some force and the driver had to pull over.
‘What was meant to be a 30 to 45-minute journey ended up taking about three hours before we got to the hotel.’
The beauty technician said that on arrival at the five-star Riu Republica in Punta Cana they found that their room cards didn’t work and needed re-activating throughout their stay.
‘When we got into our room we found the air conditioning didn’t work and left us in 27-28 degree heat,’ she said.
‘We were told to wait for an hour for it to come back on and go back to reception if it still didn’t work.
‘It didn’t come back on but because we’d travelled from Edinburgh and we were shattered we waited until the following morning to go back and say the room was still too hot.’
Amber said a maintenance worker was sent to rectify the fault but the matter was still not resolved, so they were moved to another room.
She said: ‘After we were eventually moved to the new room we found the floor flooded every time you took a shower.
‘They sent someone to look at it but again the problem wasn’t resolved.
‘We had to go to reception again and they asked us what we wanted and I said we just wanted a room with no issues.’
The hotel guest then went to reception to pick up a pair of trainers transferred from her old room before encountering the maintenance worker in a corridor.
She said: ‘I was walking towards him as we were going in separate directions and he thought it was acceptable to tell me how hot and sexy I was while making kissing noises with his lips.
‘Given the fact it was late at night and I was in the corridor by myself I felt really uncomfortable.
‘From that point on I didn’t feel comfortable walking around by myself.’
Amber immediately raised her concerns with the hotel and with TUI’s customer service team and local rep.
She said: ‘We went for something to eat after all this had happened and got back to the room where I found a couple of items of clothing and a 30th birthday card from my partner, who was supposed to be on the holiday but couldn’t make it, had disappeared.
‘At that point our holiday had turned into a living nightmare and I was in tears contemplating booking a flight home. I got in touch with the TUI rep for the area, who was perfect, he did all he could to help.’
After reviewing CCTV footage with the hotel’s manager the twins were moved hotels to the Riu Palace, also in Punta Cana, where they found it lived up to its five-star rating with no further issues.
Amber told Metro that the move four days into the holiday was handled by the initial hotel at no further expense rather than by TUI, who told her that she would need to pay extra to book a different resort.
‘At first TUI said that I would have to pay out of my own pocket to be moved hotels,’ she said. ‘I felt quite let down and I made extremely clear to them that they had a duty of care to make sure their customers are safe and comfortable on holiday.
‘Since coming home I’ve put everything in writing to TUI and I was first offered a £100 TUI voucher before they took it up to £150 for the inconvenience. I don’t want a TUI voucher because my holiday has been completely and utterly ruined.
‘Even when we tried to check into the new hotel they couldn’t find the reservation that the manager said he’d taken care of so we had to take another taxi back to the old hotel.
‘When you’ve paid around £3,000 between you for a five-star resort you don’t expect all these issues.
‘The only apology I’ve received was from the TUI rep who worked at the resort, who was absolutely disgusted by it all.
‘I told him it wasn’t his fault but I just didn’t want to be there.
‘You would expect TUI to say as a brand “that is not okay” and we want to put things right.
‘If they reach out, happy days, but if not I won’t be booking with TUI again.’
The siblings believe that they are owed a refund by the holiday giant, which confirmed today that it is investigating her complaints.
A spokesperson for the TUI said: ‘We are sorry to hear about the experience Ms Hunt and her brother had during their holiday in the Dominican Republic. We take complaints of this nature very seriously and are working with the hotel to fully investigate.’
Metro has approached the hotel for comment.
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