A family has claimed their holiday turned into a nightmare when they discovered their hotel was a construction site.
Scott Edward was left distraught after his sunny family vacation abroad quickly turned into a disaster.
The 36-year-old, accompanied with his wife Katie and his two children Freddy and Alexandra, have now been chasing a full refund for their traumatic trip.
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From getting ill from the food, being electrically shocked by the playground to then dealing with filthy conditions – the family claim they have been left scarred by the experience.
“No one enjoyed it,” Scott, from Newport, South Wales, told Need To Know.
“It’s created a huge stress for us all and created financial issues having to pay back the extra costs on the credit cards.
“We were all really ill as well which has made the kids nervous of travelling.”
The Edward family boarded an easyJet flight to Egypt where they stayed at the Eagles Downtown Zahabia resort and aqua park in Hurghada.
The four of them arrived at the hotel on 16 January after a long 18 hours of travel due to delays and transfers.
The trip got off to a horrific start after they checked into a filthy room where the WiFi didn’t work – which they were moved from immediately.
However, it didn’t get any better from there.
Scott said: “That night we had children’s music like baby shark and other obnoxious music playing outside our hotel room because the entertainment stage was being refurbished.
“The rooms were dirty and broken, there was faeces and urine all around the toilet that had not been cleaned.
“The air conditioning was full of mold and dust and caused us all to have severely bad coughs so we just had to cool ourselves with cold water.
“Everything was run down, damp and mouldy and plaster and paint flaking off the walls.
“There was also an exposed live fuse box outside our door.”
Scott, his wife and his kids all suffered from illness whilst on the holiday which they believe was caused by the food.
The impact of the sickness left the dad bed ridden for the majority of the trip and lasted long after the holiday.
He said: “The food caused everyone to become violently sick and we were not able to eat at any of the restaurants.
“I had sore kidneys for two weeks after the holiday because of dehydration from the sickness.
“We ended up not attending most of our excursions due to the illnesses and we also spent a lot of money on transport and additional food because of the extremely dangerous food standards at the hotel.”
Whilst suffering from illness, the Edward family claim the kids couldn’t even enjoy the play areas or the kids club.
Scott, whilst supervising his children in the play area, claims he suffered an electric shock from a live wire.
The work being done on parts of the hotel also left the area with debris on the floor which they claim was very dangerous for the children.
He said: “All the playground equipment was broken and hazardous and there were exposed wires in the playground that I accidentally touched and received a painful electric shock from.
“The kids club was run down, dirty and full of dangerous items, such trampolines with broken sharp metal springs sticking out and random pieces of wood with nails in them on the floor of the kids club and very low attendance from staff.
“There were huge areas of the hotel that were in full construction with concrete pouring, jack hammers and drilling all day and rubbish like doors, windows, toilets and broken bricks, glass and rubble all over the place.
“These construction areas were completely accessible to the public and one of our children nearly cut open their foot from broken glass on a path and walkway we needed to use to get to our room.
“Luckily her croc took most of the damage stopping it from slicing through into her foot.”
Scott claims that the holiday eventually cost the family upwards of £3,000 – which he is now demanding a full refund for.
After discussing the issues with the hotel, he then approached Loveholidays, the company they booked the trip through.
After initially being offered a refund of just £104, Loveholidays has now confirmed that they will refund him the full cost of the holiday.
The travel company added that if the family had got in touch while abroad, they could have helped but claimed they did not hear from Mr Edward until seven weeks after they returned.
A Loveholidays spokesperson said: “We’re very sorry that Mr Edward and Ms Hillman’s recent experience at their hotel in Egypt fell short of our usual high standards.
“We offer 24/7 assistance to our customers via our On Holiday Support team, however Mr Edward did not contact us until seven weeks after he returned home.
“This unfortunately prevented us from assisting the family while they were still on holiday.
“As Mr Edward has initiated a chargeback, the refund process is now being managed through his bank.
“We are working closely with our dispute providers to expedite this and will ensure he receives a full refund for his holiday as quickly as possible.
“We have also escalated the specific issues raised with the accommodation provider to ensure they are addressed.”
Loveholidays have confirmed he will receive a full refund for his holiday, including the cost of flights and transfers too.
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