A MUM has been left fuming after spending over £3,000 on a dream family holiday to Turkey – only to arrive to allegedly find the resort in disrepair, the amenities closed and the beach empty.
Laura Forrest had booked the ten day holiday for herself, partner Gary Juggins and her children Toby and Finn at the Aria Claros resort in Turkey in April.
The 39-year-old and her family claim they booked the trip through Love Holidays and upon arrival, were immediately concerned after finding they were given just one double bed for the four of them.
Upon further investigation the family from Sudbury, Suffolk claim that the all-inclusive resort they had been promised was a shadow of itself, with no facilities open and no other holidaygoers around.
The family’s dream holiday had a bad start when they walked into their room to find just one double bed – despite saying they had booked a family room of a double with two singles.
The hotel alleged that there was no booking showing a family room of four had been made at the hotel by Love Holidays.
This meant that Laura and Gary had to immediately fight their corner until the hotel agreed to give them another room next door for the children.
The family then decided to take a wander around the facilities to see what was available and were left stunned.
Despite being promised an all-inclusive holiday including six restaurants and activities for the family including mini golf and water sports, they allege that none of this was available.
Indeed, of all the alleged promotions made by Love Holidays about the resort only one bar was allegedly open to customers.
Other areas like the waterpark and the mini golf were in a state of disrepair, and were either cordoned off or dirty and disused.
Laura, Gary, Toby and Finn then decided to pass the time by recording a video of their time in Turkey.
Alongside a selection of images of the shocking facilities at the Aria Claros, the family begin to sing along to Tiffany’s 1987 hit I Think We’re Alone Now.
They sing: “Tourists beware, Love Holidays misleads customers, their website’s not fair.”
In the video, it is clear to see that there is not another soul on the beach which appears to be eerily quiet.
Laura posted about the family’s holiday on social media last week, writing: “Posting this as no job with a refund, total nightmare holiday, made this video because we had nothing to do.
“We paid over £3,000, advertising an all inclusive water park, six restaurants, mini golf, water sports, entertainment, false advertising.
“When we arrived we were told nothing opened for another month then Love Holiday changed their website the day after we complained to state this hotel was seasonal, absolutely disgusting.”
Speaking today, Laura said: “It was supposed to be a ten day all inclusive dream holiday.
“The day we got there, we arrived late and we had booked a two bed family room but we were given a key card and walked into the room and it only had one double bed.
“We went back to reception and they gave us a further key card and said we have two rooms next to each other so basically my two boys had to sleep in a room by themselves.
“We had paid extra for the two bed apartment but we were told that none of the apartments were open yet.
“We were told that the rooms in the main hotel were better.
“When we booked the holiday it stated six restaurants, water park, playground, mini golf, daytime and evening entertainment but we had one restaurant and no entertainment.
“There was no mini golf, the playground didn’t exist and there was no water park so we had nothing to do.
“We emailed Love Holidays and they said it was down to the hotel to sort the rooms, they offered us £50 and we declined as it was an insult.
“The stress of going back and forth was too much, the day after we contacted them I checked the website and they had changed the bottom of the website.
“It now said that this was a seasonal hotel, this was not on there when we booked and they haven’t answered our questions on this.
“We all became very bored, especially the boys, they were bored beyond belief.”
Speaking today, a spokesperson for loveholidays said: “We’re sorry to hear that Mr Juggins’ holiday did not live up to expectations.
“We recognise his experience fell short of our usual high standards and will therefore be providing him with a full refund for the value of the hotel.
“We always endeavour to ensure the content on our website is up to date and will be reviewing our processes with our accommodation providers to avoid instances like this happening again.”
