Hundreds of hotel guests allegedly hit with gastro

Empty toilet paper rolls after a colonoscopy prep or a bout with diarrhea

A swathe of guests at a TUI hotel have reported suffering from gastroenteritis during their stay.

Alleged guests at five-star Hotel Riu Touareg have reported suffering from gastro-like symptoms during their stay. While the hotel – and multinational travel and tourism company TUI Group, which lists it – have been accused of poorly handling the perceived outbreak.

TripAdvisor reviews during October are filled with complaints of poor hygiene at the Cape Verde hotel, with guests reporting suffering from gastro and other intestinal illnesses.

User ‘Carol S’ from the United Kingdom claims seeing uncooked food left in the heat and covered in flies during her stay; another claims they contracted shigella after becoming “very ill” during their stay at Hotel Riu Touareg. Multiple users also claim they had to lock themselves in their rooms after experiencing severe intestinal discomfort, with some guests stuck indoors for more than a week.

One guest has accused TUI, whom they booked their stay at the hotel with, of not taking complaints seriously.

“There is clearly an ongoing health issue at this hotel with many guests including me suffering from an outbreak of a bacterial infection leading to gastroenteritis,” one TripAdvisor user writes.

“Both your company and the hotel appear to be in denial of the size of the problem. Instead of forewarning guests that the hotel has an issue you sit back and wait for guests to report sick.

“They then discover that there is a small notice on the company notice board advising of the problem. TOO LATE you have a duty to tell customers in advance to be vigilante not once they are already sick.

“Clearly the notice is only there to cover yourselves once someone is ill.”

Hotel Riu Touareg

Media reports also claim the outbreak caused “a plane load of passengers” from the resort to be detained on a runway at Manchester Airport, where they awaited doctors’ checks of their health.

One guest, who reportedly had an “amazing time” at the hotel earlier this month, said she was concerned about the number of people falling ill.

“We had to wait for a medical team to check before they gave the ok to leave the plane. ‘The passengers who declared themselves ill were asked to remain behind on the plane to be assessed further,” Seema Thomas told Metro.co.uk.

Guests have also been left scratching their heads over ratings given for the hotel, along with its poor response to complaints of “hundreds” of alleged cases of stomach illnesses.

An online reputation manager from Hotel Riu Touareg responded to one concerned TripAdvisor complaint by an alleged guest by saying the hotel had “no records of mentioned disease” at the property.

“While we have no records of mentioned diseases at our property it is true that during your stay, we perceived an increase in reports in cases of gastric discomfort by our guests for which our specific hygiene protocols were immediately activated,” the online reputation manager said.

The manager advised the guest to reach out to their travel agency or the hotel directly for the case to be followed up.

Travel Weekly has contacted TUI and Hotel Riu Touareg for comment.

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Email the Travel Weekly team at traveldesk@travelweekly.com.au

gastroenteritis Hotel Riu Touareg Tui