holiday ruined! what are my rights?

poshhobbit

Hi, totaly new to the whole forum thing so please bere with me, and i hope some one can help.

Ok, so i just got back from 11 days in tunisia with thomas cook all inclusive. I t was my 40th last month so discided to push the boat out ( usually do the #9.50 thing) and took the kids abroad for the first time. The hotel was billed as 3*. It was more 1*, looked clean enough but very very tired! taps on bath fitted on a slant like they were drunk, naff pound shop shower curtain that leaked water over the floor and when it rained the water can through the ceiling in the lobby. these things i could just about live with but then we got sick. really sick. so bad i didn't think i would make it back to the uk and then when thank god we did my eldest son who is 13 had to be put on a drip in hospital. I'm waiting on tests to confirm but think it is safe to say we all got food poisoning. Considering on more than one occasion i saw flies dieing on the deserts in the resurant, and birds swooping around from where the doors were left open all day i think it would be a miricle if it wasn't!
Any how now we are all recovered from my birthday pressie!! i thought i would put in a complaint as it cost a lot of money and my dear old hubby sold his motor bike to treat us all and now feels like he wasted his money.
My question is what are my rights in this, and any tios on how to go about complaining in the first place. I did speek to my rep out there but got fobbed of.

Thanks for reading.

DevCoder

Did you raise complaints when you saw flies on the food? Did you escalate it or complain more than once to the rep?

Voyager2002

Distinguish important issues from trivial ones. The slant of the bathroom taps is not important, so don't mention it, unless you are going to argue that your hotel was not as described.

The food poisoning is obviously the big issue: do you know anyone else who was struck down? Do you have evidence of unsatisfactory hygiene?

starrybee

If the hotel was so awful why did you eat there??

mrcow

It's Africa. There are flies everywhere in Tunisia (although they are beginning to decline now this time of year).

Lots of people get upset stomachs etc as well - the water is not recommended to drink and you have to be very careful as our systems cant handle it.

Have you had any reply to your complaint yet? What have they said?

poshhobbit

No i' m not stupid and did not eat the deserts thank you. As for the birds on the day i spotted them ( it was a big main resturant) we were al ready sat eating)
My husband complained to the rep twice first time was asked to fill in a form, the second time was fobbed off with platatudes and that no one else had been ill or complained. This we beleive to be to be rubish through talking to other guests there, but obviously i cant proove that. I have photo's of the flies that my 10 yr old took on his ds as boys do!.

poshhobbit

yes the flies are to be expected, and i did my homework before going as to safty ect due to the political climate and things as i was taking my kids. It's not the first time i've been abroard i went to india before having my kids and was fine for two weeks. We did all the right things, got our jabs, didn't drink the water. You can use it there for cleaning your teeth but i still made sure they used the bottled water for that too. We were in a location were we could't just walk down the road to eat else where so on days when we did have to eat in we got there early to make sure the food was fresh and had not been sat there. I understand it is easy to say why did you do it? but we choose a beach location as that was what we wanted not built up that obvously had its drawbacks. hindsight is a wonderful thing. But lets not forget i did book this holiday as an all inclusive package with a well known uk travel agent. May be i'm being naive but is'nt safe food to eat within the hotel a basic part on that contact?

Caz3121

have you looked at tripadvisor to see if anyone has posted recent reviews on illness?

poshhobbit

no i havent . guess i coul print some off to back me up maybe? thank you i'll take a look

starrybee

poshhobbit wrote: »

so on days when we did have to eat in

So there were days when you didn't eat in? Aka you ate somewhere else?
In which case you've got no way of knowing if it was the hotel you got the poisoning off, unless you can find other travelers saying the same.

pearl123

You were in Tunisia!