When 35-year-old NHS executive David Stacey booked a TUI vacation to Crete, the last thing on his mind was his family of 4 enjoying paradise from inside a shoebox in Elounda. News of a notification from the tour provider 10 days before Stacey, his wife, Ruth, 35, and their two children, they boggle the vacationer mindset.
Stacey is now suing TUI after his “family” apartment in Greece was downgraded to just one bedroom. Furious over an untenable situation he was put into, Stacey is demanding almost £4,000 plus compensation after TUI Family Life wanted to squeeze his family into a single bedroom accommodation. What’s even more amazing than TUI guest lawsuits, is the fact that still more Crete vacationers are miffed at the company for the same goof. Read to the end on this one.
According to the reports, TUI went so far as to claim they’d corrected a website error in room description which they say was the base cause of the muck-up. As of this writing, the room Stacey says he booked is still described as a two-bedroom affair. The Tweet below from the NHS exec shows the beginning of Stacey’s baking of the German tour company on social media. As a travel advisor the fact TUI Family Life partner lists room capacity as “Varies – min 1, max 6” sticks out for me.
If I were billing this stay it would be something like “Come to Crete and Enjoy Being Packed in Like Cretan Sausages.” Sorry, this would be funny if not for this man’s almost ruined vacation. Take a look at the native website of the very nice Elounda Breeze Resort, there’s no mention of a two-bedroom accommodation (oops!).
TUI reportedly notified Stacey that the downgrade was the result of the hotel not having any two-bedroom rooms available for his 10-day break in Elounda. Stacey also says he was not offered any kind of compensation. Fortunately for Stacey and his family, another company, Simpson Travel came to his family’s rescue.
The news from Mirror and Stacey’s Twitter feed tells of a real TUI muck-up of a family vacation and just bad PR in my professional opinion. TUI wrote the Creta vacationer:
“You may already know that the Elounda Breeze is a brand new hotel and with all new hotels, facilities and features can change. Therefore, following a review your chosen room has been amended and is now described as a one bedroom family room with sliding doors and balcony or terrace rather than a two bedroom family room with a balcony or terrace.”
First of all, this is not a new hotel, Elounda Breeze is a popular vacation destination since many years, it was formerly known as the Elounda Aqua Sol. Anyhow, after TUI went on to explain (sort of) that the hotel owner informed them there are no two-bedroom apartments at his hotel? It was after this communique that Stacey notified TUI he was suing for full compensation and a refund. Unfortunately for the owners of this wonderful hotel, Dave is not the only disgruntled traveler miffed at TUI. The company appears to have given only 6 days notice she could not vacation at Elounda Breeze on Crete.
Before going to post, I Tweeted TUI UK to see if anyone in their PR and marketing department wanted to clarify why there is still a two-bedroom accommodation listed on TUI’s site. I have not received anything from company spokespersons yet, but I shall report if they do respond. As for TUI’s Family Life effort on Crete, this last Tweet from Emma Clewes shows the “two-bedroom” situation is apparently a pandemic. It’s a crying shame, this is a very nice hotel and location.
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