A couple claim their £2,000 holiday was ruined by a noisy building site, which left them unable to enjoy tea and biscuits on their balcony because they didn’t want to look at scaffolding and netting.
Lee Trivett had booked a holiday at the Tasia Maris Hotel in Ayia Napa, Cyprus, with his wife Mandy Trivett. This was a getaway after a number of their friends had passed away during the year.
The 58-year-old paid £2,215 for a six-night stay in June, hoping to sip coffee on the balcony in the morning and enjoy tea and biscuits in the evening.
But the couple soon became disappointed, as their ‘luxury’ balcony with a view consisted, they said, of ‘scaffolding, netting and workmen and their forklifts coming and going all day long’.
Lee and Mandy, also 58, added that they were feeling dejected as they had hoped for a “peaceful, relaxing” holiday but instead were given “the view from hell”.
Lee Trivett (left) had booked a holiday at the Tasia Maris Hotel in Ayia Napa, Cyprus, with his wife Mandy Trivett (right) as a break after several of their friends had died during the year.
The couple were disappointed, as they said their ‘luxury’ balcony view consisted of ‘scaffolding, netting and workmen and their forklifts coming in and out all day long’ (image above)
However, the organiser of their holiday claimed that guests were required to tick a box stating that they ‘understood’ that there was construction work taking place ‘nearby’ and so should have been aware of it.
The company also claimed that they had made ‘several attempts to contact Mr Trevitt’ during the holiday but had received no response. The couple said this was only after four of their seven-day holiday had passed.
Home care worker Lee, from Hull, Yorkshire, said: ‘When we got to the hotel at around 1am we thought it looked lovely. We were exhausted so we just dumped the suitcases, brushed our teeth and went to bed.
In the morning we got up and opened the curtains to go out to the balcony. It was just a view of a construction site. I was completely shocked.
‘There were forklifts going up and down and workers going in and there was a generator running all day and night, which you could hear through the double glazing. It got worse towards the end as more and more workers came onto the site.
“We weren’t informed that this work was going on. We couldn’t even sit on the balcony. The last thing you wanted to look at was that.
‘When I spoke to people at the hotel, we were initially told that no one worked on the site during the summer. But that wasn’t entirely true.’
The couple said they had hoped for a relaxing holiday, enjoying a cup of coffee on the balcony in the morning and a cup of tea and a biscuit in the evening, but they said they could not do this because of the noise.
Lee and Mandy, who works as a seamstress, felt they had wasted their money. No one had informed them of the building work prior to booking and the photos online did not show it either.
Lee said: ‘My wife and I booked it quite late as a couple of friends of ours had passed away early in the year so we needed a relaxing break to recover.
‘We just wanted to sit on the balcony after a night out and have a cup of tea and a biscuit. We didn’t do it.
‘Looking at scaffolding, nets, men walking around and guards making noise at two in the morning was not exactly relaxing for us.
Lee and Mandy, also 58, added that they were feeling dejected as they had hoped for a ‘peaceful, relaxing’ holiday but instead were faced with ‘the view from hell’
Lee and Mandy stayed at the Tasia Maris Hotel in Ayia Napa, Cyprus (pictured above)
Lee (pictured) said: ‘Looking at scaffolding and nets at 2am, men walking around and guards making noise was not our idea of relaxing.’
“My wife said, ‘I don’t want to look at that.’ The balcony was a waste of time and the upgrade was a complete waste of money.”
The next morning, the couple immediately got up and left their room, because they “didn’t want to listen to the noise” from the construction site.
Despite speaking to a representative of the tour operator at the time, they were told that their location was due to a room upgrade. They were given a different room, but they were already more than halfway through their holiday.
Lee said: ‘I mentioned (the noise and the view) to our rep and she said “they’re the upgraded rooms, that’s where they’re located”. How is that an upgrade? Looking at a building site and as far away from the pool, bar and restaurant as possible.
‘They gave me the view from hell. It took them a day to respond and then they told me there were no rooms available and the next day they said we might have a room for you.
‘To be honest, we were only there for a week and we were there for four days. If we had heard ahead of time that the upgraded rooms had that view, I would have said, “I don’t want an upgraded room.”
‘We just weren’t told. We just wanted a nice, quiet holiday and we didn’t get it.’
A spokesperson for the organiser said: ‘We believe it is very important to provide customers with all the relevant information before their well-deserved holiday. At the time of booking, we made it clear to customers that construction work was taking place nearby.
Customers were required to tick a box to indicate that they had read and understood this. This information was also highlighted in the booking documentation.
‘However, when we heard about Mr Trevitt’s feedback whilst he was on holiday, we immediately contacted the hotel to arrange an alternative room. We attempted to contact Mr Trevitt several times via his mobile, text message and by leaving a note in his room but we never heard back.
‘As an award-winning company, we do everything we can to help customers in the rare event that things aren’t perfect. However, we were unable to provide this support as we had not heard from the customer.’