Dad’s TUI holiday from hell as he lands £8,000 hotel in Mexico for ‘no booking’

A dad’s dream vacation to Mexico turned into a nightmare after he was told he had “no reservation” when he arrived at the hotel. Gerard Brodrick and his wife Natalie paid £8,000 for a two-week luxury stay at the Moon Palace in Cancun.

Having missed a previous family holiday due to the pandemic, the couple took their 11-year-old son Lennon on the expensive trip. On their arrival on June 5, however, the family were told they would not be accommodated on the grounds that TUI had “not paid” for their stay at the resort.

After this, they were moved to another hotel nearby, costing half the price of the original booking, the Mirror reports.

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Speaking to The Daily Record, Gerard, 35, expressed his displeasure: “It ruined our whole holiday and left us in tatters. When we arrived and were told there was no reservation for us, I honestly thought my friends had paid Jeremy Beadle. to lock me up and show up with a video camera – that’s how bad that was.

“The staff were extremely rude and seemed to smile at us and our situation. They told us that TUI had not paid for our booking and that if we wanted to stay we would have to pay in full – again.

“I couldn’t believe it, I saved 18 months for this. If we wanted to stay overnight they would charge us $600 (£472).”

For three grueling hours, the family tried to discuss the incident with hotel staff before being moved to alternative accommodation by TUI. However, before their taxi arrived, Gerard claims security threatened to force them off the premises, leaving little Lennon terrified.

He stated: “At one point, they had three security guards stand behind me and threatened to kick us out if I continued to speak. My son was horrified, not exactly the safest place to dump a family on the street. The whole Ordeal was awful, we are heartbroken. It was meant to be the trip of a lifetime.”

The devoted father had spent a lot of time looking for the perfect hotel for this special getaway. The family now face the prospect of staying in their newly allocated accommodation for the rest of their holiday.

“It might be the last vacation our kid wants to come with us before he turns into a teenager, so we wanted to go all out,” he commented. “We really booked this Moon Palace vacation – it’s the place to be in Cancun, it offers a premium family vacation and that’s exactly what we wanted.”

Gerard added: “It’s had amazing reviews and is very reputable so it felt like the perfect holiday for us. The hotel we were moved to is ok but not a patch on what we paid and expected to get.

“The quality and prestige that Moon Palace offers is just not here, it’s really inferior in comparison. We paid for a hot tub in our room at the Moon Palace and they obviously don’t have that here. It’s the detail we wanted.

“We are gutted and upset about the whole situation and it has left us thinking about what we can do to save this holiday.” Reports suggest a handful of customers have been turned away from Moon Palace due to a contractual disagreement with TUI.

A TUI spokesperson said: “We are very sorry to hear about our customers’ experience in Cancun. We’re all about making sure our customers have the best possible experience, so that’s not how we wanted the holiday to start. Our destination team is working. to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.”