A couple have claimed their £2,000 holiday was ruined by a noisy building site which meant they were unable to enjoy tea and biscuits on their balcony because they didn’t want to see scaffolding and netting.
Lee Trivett had booked a holiday to the Tasia Maris Hotel in Ayia Napa, Cyprus, with his wife Mandy Trivett as a break after several of his friends passed away during the year.
The 58-year-old shelled out £2,215 in June for a six-night stay where he expected to spend mornings drinking coffee on the balcony and enjoying tea and biscuits there in the evenings.
But the couple were soon disappointed as they said the view from their “luxury” balcony consisted of “scaffolding, netting, as well as workers and their forklifts coming in and out all day long”.
Lee and Mandy, also 58, added they were devastated as they had hoped for a “quiet and relaxing” holiday but instead were greeted with “a view from hell”.
Lee Trivett (left) had booked a holiday to the Tasia Maris Hotel in Ayia Napa, Cyprus, with his wife Mandy Trivett (right) as a break after several of his friends had passed away during the year.
The couple were disappointed, as they said the view from their “luxury” balcony consisted of “scaffolding, netting, as well as workers and their forklifts coming in and out all day” (seen in the photo above).
But their holiday organiser claimed guests had been forced to tick a box saying they “understood” there was “construction work going on nearby” and should therefore have been aware of it.
The company also claimed that they “made multiple attempts to contact Mr. Trevitt” during the holiday but received no response, and the couple said this was only after four days had passed of their seven-day vacation.
Lee, a care worker from Hull, Yorkshire, said: “When we got to the hotel at about 1am we thought it looked beautiful. We were exhausted so we just dropped our bags off, brushed our teeth and went to bed.
‘In the morning we got up and opened the curtains to go out onto the balcony. There was a construction site in sight. I was totally in shock.
“There were forklifts going up and down, workers coming in and a generator running all day and all night, which you could hear through the double glazing. It got worse as more and more workers eventually arrived on site.
“We had not been informed that this work was taking place. We couldn’t even sit on the balcony. That was the last thing we wanted to see.
“When I spoke to the people at the hotel, they initially told us that no one was working on the construction site during the summer, but that wasn’t entirely true.”
The couple said they had hoped to enjoy a relaxing holiday where they could enjoy their morning coffee on the balcony as well as a cup of tea and biscuits in the evenings, but said they were unable to because of the noise.
Lee and Mandy, who works as a seamstress, felt like they had “wasted their money” as no one had mentioned the building work to them before booking and it was not visible in the photos online.
Lee said: ‘My wife and I had booked it relatively late because a couple of friends had passed away earlier in the year so we felt we needed to get away and have a relaxing holiday to unwind.
“We just wanted to sit on the balcony after a night out and have a cup of tea and a biscuit. We didn’t bother.
‘Seeing scaffolding and nets and men walking around and security guards making noise at two in the morning was not our idea of relaxation.
Lee and Mandy, also 58, added they were devastated as they had hoped for a “quiet, relaxing” holiday but instead were left with “the view from hell”.
Lee and Mandy were staying at the Tasia Maris Hotel in Ayia Napa, Cyprus (pictured above)
Lee (pictured) said: “Seeing scaffolding and nets and men walking around and security guards making noise at two in the morning was not our idea of relaxation.”
‘My wife told me, “I don’t want to look out there.” The balcony was a waste of time and the upgrade was a total waste of money.’
In the morning, the couple got up and immediately left their room because they “did not want to hear the noise” of the construction.
Despite speaking to a representative of their holiday organiser at the time, they were told their location was due to the rooms having been upgraded and while they were given another room, they were already more than halfway through their holiday.
Lee said: ‘I mentioned (the noise and view) to our representative and she said ‘those are the upgraded rooms, that’s where they’re located’. How can you say it’s an upgrade? It overlooks a construction site and is as far away from the pool, bar and restaurant as you can get.
“They gave me a view from hell. It took them a day to get back to me and then they told me there were no rooms available and the next day they told me we might have a room for you.
‘To be honest, we were only there for a week and we had already been here for four days. If we had been informed in advance that the superior rooms had that view, I would have said “I don’t want a superior room.”
“They just didn’t tell us. We just wanted a nice, quiet vacation, but we didn’t get that.”
A spokesperson for the organiser said: ‘We believe it is very important to provide all relevant information to customers before their well-deserved holiday, and at the time of this booking we made it very clear to customers that construction work was taking place nearby.
‘Customers were required to tick a box to show they had read and understood this, and the information was also highlighted in the booking documentation.
‘However, once we were made aware of Mr Trevitt’s comments whilst he was on holiday, we immediately contacted the hotel to seek an alternative room and made multiple attempts to contact Mr Trevitt by mobile phone, text message and by leaving a letter in his room, but received no response.
“As an award-winning company, we do our best to help customers in the unlikely event that everything isn’t perfect. However, we were unable to provide that support on this occasion because we received no response from the customer.”