Single mum Keeley Smith, 49, splashed out £4,500 on a swanky hotel in Cape Verde with her daughter Lola, 14, and friend Kate – but arrived to find accommodation “worse than Fawlty Towers”
A single mum claims she was bitten ‘100 times’ on her five-star TUI holiday as her room was infested with mosquitos.
Keeley Smith, 49, spent 11 days at the ‘appalling’ Cape Verde hotel with her 14-year-old daughter Lola and friend Kate earlier this month.
Although the five-star package holiday cost a whopping £4,500 via TUI for the three of them, Keeley said the hotel was worse than Fawlty Towers – branding it “vile” and “dirty”.
She claims there were so many mosquitos in the room that TUI staff promised to fumigate – however she never saw it happen and bugs remained in the room. She was left needing antibiotics and hydrocortisone cream as many of her “100 bites” got infected. TUI confirmed they are in contact with the customer to “resolve the matter directly”.
Keeley, from Leeds, West Yorks, said: “After the first day I was so badly bitten, I looked like I had leprosy. “But when I walked around the complex – I realised all the other guests were covered in bites like me.
“There was a Spanish woman shouting at the reception, ‘I cannot sleep in my room, there are cockroaches crawling over me, there are mosquitos everywhere, I’m complaining every day, why won’t you do something?’
“There was a thick cloud of mosquitos swarming at our door every time we went in and out. As for the room itself – it was filthy. It was a dirty room. Even when we first checked in, there were suncream footprints still on the floor.
“It was vile. You were in the shower and there were mosquitos in the shower with you, it was just awful. The toilet was filthy, the towels were unwashed. On the front bath panel there was a squashed dead mosquito – a big one.
“After I complained, the TUI rep told me they would do a deep clean and a fumigation. But that mosquito was still there when we left.
“But most of the staff were rude, they could not be bothered. Even the food was appalling. My daughter eats for England – I’ve never seen her eat less.
“At breakfast, they had run out of Nutella – the dispenser was empty, so I asked if they had any more. A member of staff came back with a bread knife, cut the plastic bottle in half and handed it to my daughter with a spoon. It was just like Fawlty Towers, honestly, it was awful.”
Since she got home, Keeley has been prescribed a double dose of antibiotics, antihistamines and hydrocortisone cream for serious skin infections.
Keeley said: “We travel a lot. I fully expect to get a few bites in a foreign country. But the level of mosquitos in that room – you needed a hazmat suit. I work really hard. We love going on holiday. But I couldn’t wait to get home.”
Other holidaymakers report experiencing similar in their TripAdvisor review of the hotel – warning about the mosquitos.
One wrote: “Mosquitos… You will get bitten a lot, they water the garden at night and it brings them in. Bring anti mosquito spray, antihistamines and hydrocortisone cream.”
Another said on booking.com : “Mosquitoes. There is so much mosquito. We sustained severe mosquito bites. The hotel may need to consider putting mosquito repellents and coils in the rooms.” A third wrote: “The level of mosquitoes inside toilets and bars were ridiculous.”
TUI confirmed they are in contact with the customer to “resolve the matter directly”.