The horrifying discovery at the hotel: “A nightmare”

A dream trip to Italy quickly took a turn for the worse for Arlen Lopez Riquelme, 33, and her partner – their room was infested with bugs.

But they haven’t received any help from the travel agency they booked with, she says.

– It’s truly a nightmare.

Arlen Lopez Riquelme, 33, and her partner arrived in southern Italy on Thursday evening. A week on the Italian coast was expected. But things quickly took a turn.

At the hotel, they discovered that the room, which smelled of mold, was already inhabited – by insects, which they thought looked like bedbugs.

– We walked around and checked. We always do that when we come to a hotel to make sure there are no bedbugs. And then it turned out that there were bugs all over the wall.

Arlen took photos and showed them to the hotel staff who went and inspected the room. At the same time, they contacted TUI, with whom they had booked the package holiday, to explain the situation.

Were offered a new room

They were offered to change rooms, just a door away from the first room, but it was the same story there, according to Arlen. They also found bugs in the room across the yard, she says.

– They also had bedbugs. You can clearly see that they are bedbugs.

The hotel had no more rooms available and the staff didn’t know how to solve it and recommended that they contact TUI again.

– TUI said that’s the solution they have at two o’clock in the morning. And then they said that they can’t do anything now on site, but we have to check into another hotel overnight so that we can rest and sleep, then we’ll do it the next day.

No hotels had rooms so the night was spent in the hotel lobby. The next day they met with a representative from TUI.

– She said that of course we should be compensated for the fact that “this is not okay”. Or if we could possibly consider changing hotels. And then we said of course. She said she would look into it but she just wanted to check the room first and see what it looked like.

Once back, they were told that their first room had been cleaned and sanitized and that the bugs could not be identified. They were shown back to their room, but they themselves did not think that the problems had been solved.

– It looked exactly the same.

TUI’s response

The hotel offered to upgrade them to a room that Arlen said was also not good. The couple called TUI again, who were unable to resolve the issues remotely.

In the end, they chose to leave the hotel to pay and check into another one. This without compensation from TUI, says Arlen.

Expressen has been in contact with TUI’s press service, which has responded with a written comment:

“Unfortunately, we cannot go into individual cases, but we are sorry that guests are not satisfied with their trip. We always do our best to find a good solution in such cases. We recommend that you contact our staff at the destination, as they are there to help. If you are still not satisfied with the options offered, we recommend that you contact our After Travel department after returning home. They will then make a careful assessment of whether you are entitled to compensation.”

“Unfortunately, we cannot go into individual cases, but we are sorry that guests are not satisfied with their trip. We always do our best to find a good solution in such cases. We recommend that you contact our staff at the destination, as they are there to help. If you are still not satisfied with the options offered, we recommend that you contact our After Travel department after returning home. They will then make a careful assessment of whether you are entitled to compensation.”