One of the most praised holiday resorts from the world, the Dominican Republic is annually visited by 5 million people. The king of Caribbean tourism has spectacular beaches, caves and natural parks, great sunny weather and offers many entertainment options for holidaymakers. However, it seems like not all tourists have a pleasant experience while spending free time in the popular resort.
A British family from Bury had a nightmare stay at a Dominican hotel in January, as they encountered serious hygiene and safety issues and inefficient customer care. Paul Hawkins paid £4,000 for a 10 days vacation with his wife Katrina and daughters Maisie, 4 and Nieve, 8 in Sirenis Punta Cana Casino and Aquagames resort. The carelessness of the staff and services caused sickness among the four, who could not leave earlier or move to another hotel due to the high cost of these changes. The price of taking an earlier flight was £1,700 for each person and checking into a different hotel would have been charged with £2,300 for the four persons.
The problems started during the arrival flight when cold water flowed from the light socket on the head of his youngest child. The father of two claims he wasn’t even helped with a towel and had to move his daughter on his lap for the remaining travel time. On the night of the arrival, they were displeased with the poor quality of the food from the buffet and this issue continued to exist along the following days. They found the available meals to be undercooked or even raw and observed that kitchen staff was not properly equipped with gloves on both hands. Their daughters accused tummy pain and suffered from diarrhea after consuming the before-mentioned food.
Another botheration was the state of the room, which the couple considered to be extremely dirty and had to clean by themselves, including the bathroom. What is more, they were left with no bed sheets for three days after one of the cleanings. The family was also dissatisfied with the resort’s filthy pool. As the situation wasn’t desperate enough, they spent three hours in a medical facility after the oldest daughter had a nail pierce one of her feet through the flip-flop while heading for the reception.
The tour operator, Thompson, was not responsive during the Hawkings’ stay in the Dominican Republic, even though the father of the two girls complained frequently online and on location to the staff. The four people only offered only a 50 dollar voucher to spend on resort 20 minutes before their departure, which made them even more furious. Holiday claims for compensation will be asked by Paul Hawking from the travel company that ruined the dream vacation he saved for during two years while working for his own garage.
He had to take time off to recover after the vacation and his youngest daughter needed two weeks to get well after a gastric illness. Paul also felt his family was harassed during the return flight, as they had to embark the last and had their passports held by the staff.
Thompson representatives gave just the common statements saying they will carefully analyze the situation and proceed accordingly, while the resort has no comments on the matter so far.