Dear sir or madam,
I am writing to you today to complain about my recent holiday to the Iberotel Dahabeya, Dahab, in Egypt. We departed on May 17th 2010 and returned June 1st 2010. Our booking reference number was 0521/016111, it was booked in the Amersham branch. The party included me and my partner.
According to your website and brochures, the hotel is rated a 4+ and having stayed there before on a previous Thompson holiday just last year, I was inclined to agree. However I no longer believe this to be the case and I strongly disagree with the Thompson rating. In the next few paragraphs I intend to outline and explain all the problems my partner and I encountered on our first holiday away together as a couple.
I shall start with our departure, we were due to fly at 13.45pm from Gatwick, however the flight was delayed due to the ash cloud, which is understandable and acceptable, and we were informed that there would be a 2hour delay. However after the third hour we were told again there had been some ‘technical issues’ with the plane and we would soon be boarding. We finally took off at 4.45pm after everything was resolved with the aeroplane. My next concern was the seats, it was extremely clear that Thompson airways have done everything they can to maximise seating capacity on the plane, as there was barely enough room for me, a 5ft 7 gentleman, to move my legs. This was a noted problem with many fellow passengers around me. I was seated in seat 8D, apparently one of the chairs on the plane with a broken tray, which meant I couldn’t hold anything steady on it, when I asked to be moved and explained the situation the hostess couldn’t help me as all seats, including the extras were taken to accommodate the other passengers delayed from other flights. I believe this is unacceptable.
On landing, we were glad to just get off the plane and get to the hotel, but this couldn’t happen as Thompson neglected to inform the minibus driver of the delay and we had to wait an extra 45minutes at Sharm airport for another minibus driver to arrive! This made us even later getting to our hotel, missing out completely on our first night as we arrived at 2.30AM. We couldn’t get and food or drinks after our nightmare journey and just had to go to sleep desperate for breakfast. This was also completely unacceptable.
My next issue with my holiday was the food. Now, I know that food is considered a big issue in Egypt and there are many factors in play, but I have been to Egypt 3times before, twice with Thompson to the same hotel, once with another tour operator, and my partner has been twice. On all occasions we have never been ill and have always taken every precaution when food is at hand. Especially for me, having stayed at the Dahabeya just 12months before, I was deeply shocked and saddened at the quality, variety and taste of the food.
Eating is a big part in anyone’s holiday as it is going to provide you with the energy you need to have a really good time. Unfortunately this was not the case this time, as me and my partner found, after eating in the hotel we were always violently ill with diarrhoea and vomiting. This was completely unacceptable and not to mention extremely embarrassing for everyone. At first we were willing to accept that it is a common thing with Egyptian cuisine, even though we had never had problems, but after consulting the doctor and having brought antibiotics at a ridiculous price and finding they didn’t solve the problem we knew there was more to it. After a second visit to the doctor he informed us that within the last month he had approx. 75%of guests staying at the Dahabeya, who visited him, all complaining of the same problem, coincidence? Also from before I had made many friends there and 3 of the bar staff all had bad stomach problems one afternoon after eating in the staff canteen! Also there was an extremely limited variety and poor choice of foods in the hotel and it rarely changed. On a number of mornings we had the choice of meatballs, chocolate pancakes, stale cereal or steamed vegetables!!!
For our weekly review we complained about the food and so did many others, the hotel knew there was a big problem and that is why they sacked their chef’s and bought in new ones, but too little too late, as we were stuck with the illness now. This is blatant proof that this is a big problem that most definitely needs to be looked into and improved on. Being on Antibiotics for our holiday was also a major problem as we had paid for the all-inclusive package, we could not take advantage of any of it as we could not drink alcohol for the 7day course, and we could not drink very sweet or acidic drinks either. This meant the first week was immensely unsatisfactory.
Due to the problems with the food and our new distrust in the hotels cooking abilities, we were forced very much to eat elsewhere. We found a nice restaurant from our Thomas cook guide book, called Ali Baba, which was the only restaurant with a recognised health and safety award and basic hygiene award. This was lovely as we could eat anything and were always fine after, we even had sanitising gel on the table for before and after our meals. But, with these standards came higher prices, and having no other choice for safe, good food, we ended up spending a large amount of our spending money on food to keep us surviving for the two weeks we were away, this unfortunately meant we had no spare money to go on the excursion to Cairo to see the pyramids, our first holiday together and we had our hearts set on seeing one of the 7 wonders of the world, and they were dashed by atrocious food standards in our ‘4+ star hotel.’ This is unforgiveable and something that cannot be compensated for. Needless to say we were not enamoured at our now limited options of quad biking and glass bottom boat experience, something we have both done before. Limited financially and also in fear in case another violent bout of illness struck.
Back to the hotel itself and what it had to offer. One of the main reasons we picked the Iberotel Dahabaya was because I had been there before and had glowing reviews for it after my visit, I very much trusted my decision. A few things had changed and it was lovely to be back there and imagining the previous year’s memories. For example, one of the things that made the holiday stand out was the staff, all very friendly and extremely hospitable and caring, it was a pleasure to return and find staff members from the previous year. But obviously there were new staff and needless to say they did not meet my expectations, some of them. The ‘animation’ team last year were superb, 5*, they were very active, always doing activities with guests and overall friendly enjoyable people that you liked to be around to give your holiday that extra bit of fun. This year was not so similar, the team had changed, there were now four ‘ogling’ young men, who just sat in their little booth staring at all the women and talking to virtually just the female guests. It is very hard to imagine families feel comfortable leaving their children etc in the company of these men, I most certainly would not. During the day the activities now were, ‘morning stretches,’ aqua gym and beach boles, that was all, no water polo, no football, no volleyball etc. This was quite sad as I would have loved to do some of these activities like before. On a number of times we happened to spot the animation team all lying in the sea on a giant water Lillo! Next was the evening entertainment, abysmal doesn’t sum up the entertainment, one night of the two weeks we were entertained for 5minutes by a belly-dancer the rest was the 4 animation guys, all stinking of hash and red-eyed, dancing to disco music. It was an utter disgrace.
Other problems with the staff were, the beach towel boys, they had been paid-off by other guests, which I witnessed, to reserve the best spaces for them. This meant that we were forced to resign to the back of the swimming pool to try and relax and sunbathe a little.
I personally do not believe the hotel could manage with the amount of guest in the hotel at any given time during the two weeks and I think they seriously need to rethink their intake and capacity. At reception we were told they were only operating at 85% capacity so I would love to see how they coped at 100%. There was probably two occasions that we got to eat at the time we wanted, when we had to eat at the hotel anyway, it was always so busy and it was so hard to find a table that we ended up walking back to the room to eat our food. At night time the two main bars got really busy and we had to wait ages for a drink, unless we tipped the waiter to get some for us. Another example of how we could not put the all-inclusive package to good use.
Throughout our stay, the hotel had a number of other issues. The broken fire alarms were a painful problem as they would go off randomly at all hours for quite long periods of time, whether it was waking us up, disrupting conversations, or interfering with our sunbathing and relaxation. One of my main concerns here was the fact that nobody paid attention and no one offered an excuse as to why they kept going off, had any one of the situations been a real fire what would have happened? Another issue, and most probably one of the worst, was the maintenance of the hotel, I completely understand that the hotel must be properly maintained and that it must be very difficult with guests there at all times, but I think it is ludicrous that from 10pm to about 2am on about 5occasions, we were kept awake by maintenance workers using power drills, saws, diamond cutters etc, this is not something we go away on holiday for, it is something I find every day at work, I was utterly appalled at this and had I known there would be any of this during my stay I would most certainly not have booked. Lastly, our room, there were two occasions in two days where the bathroom had flooded, from the toilet and soaked everything on the floor and it was out of bounds for a lengthy amount of time while engineers had to fix it, not a good thing when you consider our illness.
There were obviously some good things about the holiday, when we could get drinks they were lovely. Speaking with old friends and relaxing with them when we could was great fun and bought a bit of happiness to our trip, the cleaning standards were excellent and most people were friendly and enjoyable. A few relaxed nights out in town, walking by the sea and relaxing in a Bedouin tent were very pleasurable and great for the soul. We both love Egypt and the Egyptian people and we think it’s such a shame that this one holiday has jaded our opinions and disinclined us from wanting to return again. Egypt is a place I would recommend to anyone and until now Thompson has always been the first choice operator for ourselves and many of our friends we have recommended to go.
So, in conclusion to my letter, I would like to say whilst there were a few enjoyable times on this holiday I cannot credit much of them to Thompson. The holiday seemed quite a catastrophe and it is extremely upsetting to think that it was so bad that we are forced to take the time to write to you expressing so. I believe all of the points I have raised in my letter are quite convincing and compelling and all though it is quite difficult to physically prove many of the problems we would hope that you would have the decorum and graciousness to respect and have faith in what we are saying. I hope that all of the matters would be looked into not only for our sake but for yours too, as it would be a crying shame to imagine these complaints go unheard and many other people waste their hard earned money on such a tragic holiday experience. I would also like to take this opportunity to request from Thompson, some kind of refund or ‘goodwill’ amount to be returned to us out of the £1500 we paid for the holiday and combined £450 in spending money wasted on food and tablets. Whilst I understand I would not get a full refund I believe that 50% of our total, at minimum, would be a fair and extremely appropriate amount to ask to be returned to us when you consider all the factors I have explained. It would be such a shame to stop going on holiday with Thompson as up till now all experiences throughout my life have been wonderful and I would not like to tell people of my problems, many of my family members and friends all book with Thompson every year, It would be a shame to have to change now when we have so much trust in Thompson as holidaymakers! I look forward to a full response to my letter within 21days of receipt. Many thanks.
Yours sincerely and respectfully
