Couple pay £2,000 for 5* ‘platinum’ Thomson holiday but arrive to find hotel is a ‘construction site’ with ‘POO in the pool’ – and they get food poisoning from dodgy buffet
Hollie Yeomans and her partner James chose to go to the Riu Touareg Boa Vista in Cape Verde as a luxury trip away but ended up longing to get home
A COUPLE shelled out £2,000 for a five-star "platinum" beach break which turned out to be a "holiday from hell" when they arrived to find the hotel was a "construction site" where poo was fished out of the pool.
Hollie Yeomans and her partner James chose to go to the Riu Touareg Boa Vista in Cape Verde as a luxury trip away but ended up longing to get home.
The 30-year-old IT technician said they saw faeces being scooped out of the pool with a net, and raw meat on the hotel buffet.
Hollie, from Derby, said James was struck down with food poisoning for five days due to this.
The pair had hoped to have a relaxing break on the island but their trip, booked through Thomson, was marred by noisy construction work which they were not warned about.
She also said they booked the getaway specifically for a beach break, but when they arrived they were told they could not enter the water as the waves were too dangerous.
She said: "When we got there the reception area looked really nice, until we were given the key to our room.
"It looked like a cupboard you would keep a mop in."
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Of the buffet she said: "They had rows of cooked chicken next to raw food.
"We were very disappointed that it had advertised it as a luxury beach holiday, we couldn't go in the sea as the waves were that high."
Hollie said the holiday was a letdown but the response from Thomson disappointed her further, after she complained to the company.
She added: ";It was just more of the poor service that we received.
"I wrote the complaint to Thomson and they just passed it on as feedback, and I thought this is not feedback it was a formal complaint.
"We just had hell from start to finish with it."
In a response to Hollie a Thomson spokeswoman said: "I can fully appreciate that you have felt disappointment on this occasion, and would like to reassure you that we take customer feedback very seriously, so that we do out utmost to rectify and prevent any further problems for future customers.
"We will therefore make your comments known to the relevant members of staff so that remedial action may be taken."
A spokeswoman from Thomson said: "We’re sorry to hear that Ms Yeomans was unhappy with her holiday experience.
"The customer was made aware of building work at the hotel prior to travel, however we do take all customer feedback seriously and are in direct contact with Ms Yeomans to further investigate the issues and resolve the situation.
"We’d like to reassure customers that the hotel in question continues to perform well and scores highly on our customer satisfaction questionnaires."
Riu Touareg Boa Vista has been approached for comment.
A holidaymaker at the same resort was left horrified after chomping down on glass in his buffet meal, and accused a travel company of leaving his beach getaway in ruins.
And a couple desperate to celebrate their engagement with family, became stuck on the tropical island of Boa Vista, Cape Verde, after a dust cloud made it impossible for them to fly home.
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