A SEVEN-year-old was left “traumitised” after TUI allegedly left his family stranded in Morocco with no accommodation.
Dad-of-two Manjit Hear said their £3200 trip was soured last week when staff from the Be Live hotel in Marrakesh revealed that TUI had not confirmed their booking.
The 55-year-old freight manager desperately tried to contact the holiday company alongside staff from the fully booked hotel, but they heard nothing for almost six hours.
Manjit, from Berkshire, watched on as his two sons Jo, 7, and Gyan, 13, were forced to sleep on the floor of the hotel lobby whilst he attempted to save their holiday.
The freight manager was particularly concerned about Jo, who has ADHD who becomes stressed over unexpected change.
After finally reaching the holiday agents, who said they would find alternative accommodation, hotel staff informed Manjit that TUI were no longer answering their calls and there was nothing they could do for the family.
Along with another family left in the same situation by TUI, the family managed to find a space in a nearby hotel at 3am, costing them £650 for one night’s stay.
However, with check out at 10am the family had little time to rest and were still uncertain of where they would be staying for the remainder of their holiday.
Eventually, after dozens of calls from the Hear family, TUI finally contacted Manjit in the late afternoon of the following day to say they could return to their original hotel .
However, TUI did not follow up with the family after their ordeal, leaving them unsure if they will be compensated for the hundreds of pounds spent on a hotel.
Speaking today, Manjit said: “We were worried about the flights with all the stories you hear, but that all went great.
“We arrived at the hotel exhausted and hungry, but it was at the desk where it all started.
“We were told TUI hadn’t confirmed our booking so we quickly started phoning them but we had no luck.
“We took a seat and there was another family there in the exact same position as us, which really worried me.
“We were sitting around for hours, it dragged on and on and on. It was beyond a joke. The children were tired and hungry and we had to do something.
“It was two in the morning, the hotel staff shrugged and said it wasn’t their problem.
“My youngest has ADHD and it’s just unacceptable for him to be left in that position. He was my main concern.
“He was so distressed, the poor child. He was traumitised. He gets stressed over the smallest change, so all this uncertainty was so hard for him.
“He kept asking where we would be sleeping that night. He was pacing up and down the lobby.
“You don’t expect that sort of stress on holiday. I’m thinking ‘what are we going to do? Where are we going to sleep?’
“It’s the most stressful thing I’ve ever experienced. TUI just didn’t give us any reassurance at all.
“I have no doubt in my mind that if we didn’t find our own accommodation, we would have been sleeping in the lobby that whole night.
“It was a nightmare. We lost the whole of the first night trying to sort out somewhere to stay.
“Then we lost the second day because the check-out times meant we barely slept, they didn’t sort our original hotel until later in the day and we were absolutely exhausted.
“We’ve been told to contact another department who deals with post-holiday issues now.”
