'Our first family holiday was taken over by cockroaches, dirty water, raw food and bed bugs — it was hell'

A family from Devon was due to have an amazing first holiday away together – but instead they were greeted with a series of unfortunate events including bed bugs, cockroaches, raw food, dirty water and poorly organised events

A family of four on their first holiday away together claim they were greeted with raw food, bed bugs, cockroaches, dirty facilities and unhelpful staff.

Martin Day, from Devon, recently travelled to Chatur Playa Real Resort in Tenerife, Spain, for what was supposed to be an amazing first family holiday together. However, upon arrival, the Jet2 vacation sold to them by Hays Travel soon unravelled.

The 35-year-old and his wife, Amanda, 40, and their two children, Marnie and Chloe, aged six and four respectively, found their room unclean. “Amanda noticed there were hairs in the bathroom — around the toilet and in the sink,” the wholesaler branch manager told the Mirror. Trying not to let the seemingly small issue impact their holiday, the family decided to clean it themselves, they said.

Not long after that, the family claim they endured a disappointing dinner. “It was lukewarm,” said Martin. “Then we found out the entertainment they had on the board, had actually been cancelled but we were not entirely sure why. We were then told there would be a kids mini disco at 9.30pm, which seemed a bit late for kids. We were not exactly happy with that and it turned out it wasn’t a kid’s mini disco; it was someone plugging music into a laptop for half-an-hour."

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The ‘make do’ entertainment turned out to be the chef stepping in for the entertainment team, who Martin was told “had walked out due to not being paid”. Tired and fed-up, the family returned to their room. “We took the kids back to the room and ran them a bath, and the water ran yellow,” he said.

According to Martin, the next day the horrors continued. “Breakfast again was lukewarm, and some other people were saying the sausages were raw on the inside."

Giving up on breakfast, the family claim they headed for the pool to find the water “ice cold”, despite being told the resort had heated pools. They claim only one of the pools had heat, and that was limited to the deep end of an adult’s pool — which was not suitable for small children. As it was the only part with warm water, it was also extremely busy.

Martin claims: “Our room also didn’t get cleaned until Wednesday, but prior to that, we noticed it smelt strongly of pesticide. After it had been cleaned, a note was left for us in our room, telling us to go to reception urgently. My wife went down to reception and she was told we needed to be moved because they found bed bugs in the bed.

“We had to wait a few hours for a new room to be cleaned and then I had to spend the next two days washing and drying clothes. We are still washing clothes now, because we were unsure whether the new room [we were given] also had bed bugs.”

Eventually, Martin and Amanda spoke to other couples staying at the resort. They claim they spoke to one family that was booked in at the hotel for 14 days who were planning to leave after seven. They claim another family left on the fourth day of their five day break, because of similar issues with the state of the resort.

Martin also claims during their stay he learned that the cleaning staff were on strike, and that perhaps this was the reason their room was not cleaned prior to them arriving. “We were told [by a member of staff] that the staff were running at a bare minimum and some were working for free."

Prior to booking their holiday, Martin claims: “We had a couple of options for hotels [we could stay at], but we were informed this one [Chatur Playa Real Resort] was the best one, because they would have entertainment — even out of season.” However, no entertainment took place.

“The Jet2 rep was barely there. She was there for two days, for about an hour each time. I saw another couple speak to her, and she said ‘what do you want me to do about it’, so we didn’t see a point in talking to her, if she had that attitude,” Martin said.

Martin claims that his six-year-old, Marnie, was sick after eating on the third night of their stay. No longer comfortable eating at the resort, they decided to eat out every night, making them spend more money than planned.

Amanda claims she has found several bites on her body that match with bed bug bites, and more are emerging by the day.

A spokesperson from Jet2 said: “We can confirm that we are investigating this complaint, having received direct contact from Mr Day. We did not actually receive any correspondence from the customer whilst they were in resort, and we always advise customers to contact our teams as soon as possible so that they can assist. As an award-winning company, we want our customers to have the best experience with us, so we are investigating fully and will respond to Mr Day directly once this investigation is complete.”

Hays Travel declined to comment.

Chatur Playa Real Resort has been contacted for comment.