TUI offers couple £200 in vouchers and therapy over £3k Dominican Republic holiday from hell after they see ‘body under a sheet, guests vomiting in the hotel pool and people having sex in public’
- Alan Stevens and his wife claim to have had a ‘truly horrific’ holiday
- The couple spent £3,000 on the TUI package trip to the Dominican Republic
- Mr Stevens has branded the company’s compensation offer a ‘joke’
A couple who claimed to have seen a dead body and guests defecating in the swimming pool during a ‘truly horrific’ holiday have been offered just £200 of vouchers and therapy sessions as compensation by their tour operator.
Alan Stevens spent £3,000 on the dream getaway to the Dominican Republic as a birthday treat for his wife, 49.
NHS healthcare assistant Mr Stevens booked the trip through package holiday firm TUI and the couple arrived at the Riu Republica Hotel in Punta Cana, on the eastern point of the Caribbean island, in late June.
But the couple claims the accommodation – billed as having a ‘first-class pool scene’ on the operator’s website – was rife with guests smoking cannabis and having sex in the pool.
Security was allegedly so lax that the couple claimed to have been offered drugs several times by other guests.
And at one point Mr Stevens, 50, said he and his wife saw a body underneath a sheet after a guest fell from a balcony and died during their stay.
Alan Stevens claims guests were having sex in the swimming pool at the Riu Republica Hotel in the Dominican Republic. Others reportedly threw up and defecated in the water
The floors of the hotel were allegedly strewn with rubbish and food, the Stevens claim. They say that attempts to raise the issues with TUI at the time were dismissed
The couple have since claimed that the holiday giant was indifferent when they sought to raise their concerns with holiday reps on site. TUI has since admitted it did not meet its ‘usually high standards’.
But when they made a formal complaint after returning home to Hull, TUI offered them £200 in vouchers and therapy by way of compensation – a response Mr Stevens branded a ‘joke’.
He told Hull Live: ‘I’ve spent tens of thousands on holidays with TUI in the past, so to be offered only £200 and some counselling for what was truly a horrific holiday is a joke. It’s really disheartening, because this was the first time with TUI that we’ve been treated like this.
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‘This was 100 per cent the worst holiday we’ve ever been on. My wife and I have been travelling together for 21 years and we have never known anything like it – the only good thing about the holiday was the room.’
Mr Stevens recalled that the first time he and his wife went out to the pool, they saw guests appearing to smoke cannabis and having sex in the water.
He continued: ‘It all felt really seedy. 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.
‘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.’
Matters came to a head when the couple saw a body under a sheet after a woman fell from a balcony. Local media Dominican Today reported that a woman fell from the fourth floor on June 30, suffering unsurvivable injuries.
Mr Stevens added: ‘We walked past and saw her body hidden under a sheet. It was really eerie as we had no idea what was going on.
‘When we were out one day, I saw a man knocked clean off his motorbike. I just burst out crying because on top of everything else that had happened it was such a shock.
‘The only time we felt safe on our holiday was at the quiet pool. We didn’t risk venturing out anywhere else, we just ate at the restaurant near us so we weren’t exposed to any more chaos.’
The Riu Republia Hotel, located in Punta Cana, is labelled as having a ‘first-class pool scene’ on TUI’s website. Mr Stevens says it was more like a ‘party hotel’
TUI later admitted that the Stevens’ experience had not met its ‘usually high standards’. It offered the couple a £200 voucher as a ‘gesture of goodwill’, as well as the option of therapy
Mr Stevens said the experience had ruined his wife’s birthday celebrations.
He concluded: ‘She got really upset. I had to tell her I’d make it up to her on her 50th next year.’
A TUI spokesperson said: ‘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.’
The Stevens’ allegedly dismal experience with TUI comes after a woman with autism was banned from flying with the operator after walking through the galley kitchen of an airplane to reach the toilet.
The Riu Republica hotel touts itself on TripAdvisor as an ‘adults-only, all-inclusive’ hotel, and has a rating of four out of five on the reviews website.
MailOnline has contacted the Riu Group, which operates the Riu Republia Hotel, for comment.
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