Paul Bell and wife Ellie say they’ve “washed their hands of” TUI after booking a week-long half-board holiday at the Terezas Hotel in Sidari, Corfu with the company
A British couple were kicked out of their hotel in Corfu and denied boarding on their flight back to the UK.
Paul Bell and wife Ellie booked a package deal with TUI but their trip was cut short – and they were barred from flying home – after TUI said they used “aggressive and disrespectful language” in the restaurant. Paul, 64, and 65-year-old Ellie spent several hundreds pounds to continue their holiday in a different hotel in Corfu, a new flight home and their own transfers.
Now the couple, from North Shields, Tyne and Wear, say they will never use TUI again, as they deny shouting in the restaurant of the Terezas Hotel in Sidari, where they had enjoyed a stay before. The exchange is said to have happened after Ellie had complained to the manager about the quality of the food, which Paul described as “tepid” and “not very nice”.
“Some of the things you would get were rice with sprouts, or another time you’d have rice with a slice of beetroot in it. My wife spoke to the manager twice, she complained about the food being inedible and he didn’t seem interested. She asked him to join us for breakfast the next day so we could show him what we meant, but he never turned up,” Paul said.
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Paul and Ellie were handed a letter the next day informing them they were unable to stay at the hotel for the remainder of their holiday. The letter, dated May 20, said: “You caused a serious disturbance by shouting inside the hotel restaurant in front of other guests, resulting in significant distress and disruption to the peaceful environment of the hotel,” and “you directed aggressive and disrespectful language towards both hotel staff, the hotel owners, and TUI representatives on site.”
But Paul told Chronicle Live this was not the case and TUI did not ask him or Ellie for their versions of events. He continued: “I don’t remember anybody shouting. We only spoke to the rep on the day she was at the hotel and there was nothing disrespectful shown to her. They’ve never come and spoke to us to find out what happened, they’ve decided off what the manager has told them. But surely there are always two sides to a story? I was furious, because it spoiled the day we had planned.”
Rather than given a right to respond or appeal, Paul and Ellie were told to contact the UK consulate if they required any further assistance. Then, on May 21 at 22.28, the couple then received another letter saying Ellie was barred from flying home on the TOM1531 for Newcastle on Friday, May 23.
Just over 12 hours later, yet another email stated that both Paul and Ellie would be blocked from boarding the flight. TUI said that this decision had been made in accordance with their terms and conditions, and that the decision was “due to your conduct and behaviour”.
Paul booked flights home from Corfu with Jet2 on Thursday, May 22, for later that day at a cost of €328.56 (£280). But after arriving back in North Shields, the couple received another email from TUI saying that “the refusal of carriage for Paul Bell and Eleanor Bell has now been revoked, and you will now be allowed travel on your inbound flight”.
“That doesn’t help us now, because we were told we have to make our own travel arrangements and we came home. We had to pay €60 for a taxi to the airport as well, because we weren’t allowed on the transfers,” Paul added.
“When we go on holiday, we try to go somewhere nice and quiet, sit and chill, try the local stuff, go to the towns and see the scenery and to have food like we did (in the hotel) was really disappointing. We got no back-up whatsoever from TUI.
“They took whatever the manager said as gospel and came to a decision just like that. Had we been drunk and disorderly, fine, but we weren’t – we’ve never had any bother on any holidays before, until this time with TUI.”
ChronicleLive understands that TUI plan to refund the couple’s flights home with Jet2.com and their travel to the airport. TUI declined to comment to the publication further. The Mirror has approached TUI for more detail.