Dad's TUI holiday from hell as he arrives at £8k Mexico hotel to 'no booking'

A dad's dream holiday to Mexico turned into a nightmare after he was informed he had "no booking" when he arrived at the hotel. Gerard Brodrick and his wife Natalie had splashed out £8,000 for a two-week luxury stay at Cancun's Moon Palace.

In light of missing a previous family holiday due to the pandemic, the couple took their 11-year-old son Lennon on the pricey trip. On their arrival on June 5, however, the family were told they would not be accommodated on the basis that TUI had "failed to pay" for their stay at the resort.

Following this, they were relocated to another nearby hotel costing half the price of their original booking, reports the Mirror.

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In conversation with The Daily Record, Gerard, 35, expressed his dissatisfaction: "It has ruined our whole holiday and left it in tatters. When we arrived and were told there was no booking for us, I honestly thought my pals had paid Jeremy Beadle to wind me up and that he'd appear with a video camera - that is how bad this was.

"The staff were extremely rude and appeared to smirk at us and our situation. They told us that TUI had failed to pay for our booking and that if we wanted to stay, we'd have to pay in full - again.

"I couldn't believe it, we saved up 18 months for this. If we wanted to stay for the night, they were going to charge us $600 (£472)."

For a gruelling three hours, the family attempted to discuss the incident with hotel staff before being moved to alternate accommodation by TUI. However, before their taxi arrived, Gerard alleges that security threatened to forcibly remove them from the premises, leaving little Lennon terrified.

He stated: "At one point, they got three security guards to stand behind me and threatened to chuck us out if I continued to speak. My son was terrified, it's not exactly the safest place to chuck a family onto the street. The whole ordeal was horrific, we are heartbroken. It was meant to be the trip of a lifetime."

The dedicated father had spent considerable time searching for the perfect hotel for this special getaway. Now, the family face the prospect of staying in their newly allocated accommodation for the remainder of their holiday.

"It might be the last holiday that our kid wants to come on with us before he turns into a teenager, so we wanted to go all out," he commented. "We genuinely booked this holiday for Moon Palace - it is the place to be in Cancun, it offers a premium family holiday and that's exactly what we wanted."

Gerard added: "It had amazing reviews and is highly reputable, so it seemed like the perfect holiday for us. The hotel we have been moved to is fine but it isn't a patch on what we paid for and expected to get.

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

"We're gutted and angry about the whole situation and it's left us pondering over what we can do to salvage this holiday." Reports suggest that a handful of customers have been turned away from Moon Palace due to a contractual disagreement with TUI.

A spokesperson for TUI said: "We are so sorry to hear about our customer's experience in Cancun. Our goal is to ensure customers have the best possible experience, so this is not the way we wanted their holiday to start. Our destination team is working to get this resolved as quickly as possible."