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Ruined holidays

(106 Posts)
Celeste21 Wed 28-Aug-19 16:17:21

Some friends are in Spain at the moment but have texted their disappointment with the hotel, but the children are happy so they’re putting up with it. But it got me wondering, have you ever arrived at your holiday accommodation and it’s been utterly intolerable. Home or abroad? What did you do?

Mealybug Sun 01-Sep-19 03:51:17

Yes we rented a detached bungalow in Wales for a week when my daughter was small. It was dark when we got there but it looked ok with some land around it. During the night it poured down and the rain came in and soaked my dtrs bed, there was no central heating just a three bar electric fire with two bars taken out. The place was freezing so as we got electricity for free I put the one bar on and the electric oven on full blast, hob and oven just to warm the place up.

Summerfly Sun 01-Sep-19 13:30:50

Had one or two nightmare hotels abroad but one year we booked a “luxury” caravan in the Lakes. Ideal location for walking. The children were so excited on the journey and couldn’t wait to reach or holiday destination. On arrival we were met by a woman with dirty blonde hair who was quick to take our payment. We were shown to our caravan and could only look in shock at what we saw. It was filthy outside and covered in overgrown brambles. Inside was worse. We immediately said no thanks and asked for our money back. She looked at us in surprise and said she had slept in there herself the night before! We did get a refund but had to forfeit the deposit.
We looked all over the Lake District but everything was booked up. We ended up in a B‘nB in Morecambe. We can laugh now but at the time!

Magrithea Sun 01-Sep-19 14:55:34

Not a booked holiday but many years ago when we went for a holiday in Malaysia (we were not long married and living in Hong Kong) we checked into a hotel on the east coast. When we were shown the room there was a cockroach on the bed! We pointed this out to the receptionist who'd taken us there and he just whacked it with his flip flop! In the middle of the night I woke to feel something (another cockroach??) crawling in my hair!!! We moved rooms after that!

Elrel Sun 01-Sep-19 15:33:29

Late night on a Spanish campsite we stumbled out to the ladies’ loo and found two members of the Guardia Civil having a crafty nap.
Kent, a sunny weekend. I booked a two bedroom ‘family suite’ for DS, his daughters, 6 and 12, and myself. The hotel was a cluttered museum, fascinating, and the reception friendly. Our suite had a double bedroom dominated by a large high double bed with a dark satin eiderdown. The girls loved it and felt very grand and grown up. DS and I were in a narrow room off, just big enough for two single beds placed end to end. He was horrified to have to share a room with me but we managed the two nights.
The food was fine, the girls loved the huge doityourself toaster and met the chickens who produced the eggs. The flower covered verandah had a view of the best sunsets in Kent and the beach was lovely. However the suite was far from my expectation of two twin bedrooms, I had stressed on booking that the adults were mother and son!
Alex Polizzi later visited as the Hotel Inspector! I would certainly go again.

Jue1 Tue 03-Sep-19 15:15:42

Yes, we were supposed to be in a ‘luxury mobile home’.. in the South of France.
Dirty shower, cooker not working properly etc etc. I spent the first day cleaning and complaining to various people in charge. None-the-less we had a fabulous, memorable holiday.
On leaving, we met families waiting to move into the grotty caravans (haha). One lady asked “what are they were like?” I proceeded to describe the quality of the mobile home most of us holiday makers had moved into, she commented, “oh we’re ok, we’ve booked a ‘luxury’ mobile home. I wished her good luck. ?