A couple were left reeling after being offered £200 and some counselling sessions in response to their complaints about what should have been a luxury five-star getaway in the Dominican Republic
A furious couple blasted their travel company for offering them counselling after their dream trip turned into the holiday from hell.
Alan Stevens had booked a luxury five-star getaway to the Dominican Republic through TUI as a special birthday present for his wife Sarah, but their 17-day stay in the beachside resort of Punta Cana was marred by a litany of disasters.
The couple were horrified to see guests vomiting and defecating in the pool, others having public sex, and even a dead body covered in a sheet.
After complaining to TUI following their 2023 trip, Alan was flabbergasted to be offered just £200 in vouchers and counselling sessions for his £3,000 holiday, while TUI claimed the issues were largely “outside of our control”.
NHS healthcare assistant Alan from Hull said the five-star Riu Republica Hotel in Punta Cana – pitched as boasting an “on-the-beach location and a first-class pool scene” on TUI’s website – was “seedy” and “unsafe”, and claimed he and his wife were offered drugs multiple times.
And despite complaining to their holiday rep, Alan claimed they were met with complete indifference. “When we went out to the pool for the first time, we saw guests smoking weed in the pool, people having sex in the pool, and it all felt really seedy,” he told HullLive.
“We saw one woman being sick all over herself in the pool, and another guest actually defecate in the pool – it was disgusting. We were approached by people offering us drugs about 10 times in the 17 days we were there. There were no security guards either, which made it all feel very unsafe.”
Alan added: “It stank of weed, there was food and sick scattered about everywhere. I can’t stress how dirty and seedy it was. No one told us that this was a ‘party hotel’, and I’m shocked that TUI would ever think this would be an appropriate place for my wife and I to stay.”
While they were there, a 35-year-old woman fell from a fourth-floor balcony and died. Her body was covered with a sheet, which Alan and Sarah saw as they walked past.
He later told the BBC that he’d been told two other guests had died from drug overdoses at the hotel while he was there, but when he’d spoken to the hotel manager about the body she’d seen, she reportedly answered: “People die every day.”
He added that the pool had to be emptied twice a day “because the water was so murky”. “People were chucking their drugs in the pool and there was absolutely no security,” he said. “When doing our research, no holiday provider described it as a ‘party hotel’ – but it was.”
Alan and Sarah ended up staying at a quiet pool with older guests and confined themselves to the restaurant nearest their room, “so we weren’t exposed to any more chaos”.
He said TUI had offered to move the couple to another hotel, but they declined after hearing from other guests that the alternative hotel “was just as bad”.
Mr Stevens said the offer of £200 in compensation was “a joke”, while the offer of counselling sessions “due to the events that you witnessed” was “really disheartening” after spending “tens of thousands of pounds” with TUI in the past.
A TUI spokesperson said at the time: “We are sorry to hear of Mr Stevens’s experience during his stay at the Riu Republica Hotel. At TUI, we strive to make travelling with us a smooth experience from start to finish, but unfortunately on this occasion, and largely due to factors outside of our control, we did not meet our usually high standards.
“Our team has been in contact with Mr Stevens and he was offered a gift voucher as a gesture of goodwill, as well as counselling from CCP (Centre for Crisis Psychology), but unfortunately this was declined.”
TUI added to the BBC that the Riu Republica Hotel “is not exclusively available for TUI guests”.