A mum was left feeling "sick" after claiming she discovered dirty bath water, rubbish and unclean dishes in her family’s chalet in Pontins, in scenes she described as similar to the set of TV’s ‘Shameless’.
Gaynor Kingston planned to spend five days in the holiday resort in Southport with her partner and their three young children, but found the "filthy" chalet so unbearable they left the next morning.
The family of five, who spent £138 on the trip and travelled for three hours from East Yorkshire, say they discovered dirty bathwater, a bin full of rubbish, dirty dishes, stained mattresses and a pungent smell of cigarette smoke when they arrived at their holiday home.
The 30-year-old told the Liverpool Echo : "On the table there was a half drunk coffee, in the bathroom there was a bathtub filled with someone else’s dirty bath water.
"The floors were sticky. The mattresses looked like they had never been washed.
"The quilts had rips in and we didn’t have enough pillows.
"The fridge had the previous tenants food in and the kitchen work tops had not been cleaned.
"My daughter was even bitten a few times in the room. It was literally like walking around the set of Shameless."
Despite paying for two rooms, the family say they were only given the "filthy" one-bed apartment.
Gaynor, who has two-year-old twins and a five-year-old daughter, said she went to reception to complain.
But instead of receiving an apology she claims she was told she would have to pay an extra £52 for a room upgrade.
She added: "They said they had no two bedroom rooms available to move us to, of the same category and to move to a two bed, I had to pay an extra £52.
"I asked a cleaner on my way to the reception if it was my responsibility to clean the chalet and she confirmed it wasn’t.
"Reception staff told me the cleaners were running late and hadn’t I been informed?
"I said I had checked in and nobody had mentioned a thing to me."
Gaynor said the family had to wait until 6.30pm until the cleaners arrived.
She said: "I was ready to go home at that point but stuck it out for the sake of the kids.
"We went to the main hall and couldn’t get a chair or table.
"Eventually we managed to get a couple of chairs to sit beside the dance floor and were told to move."
In order to sleep that night, Gaynor had to scrub the leather-look "breeze block" sofa bed, which she found covered in dirt and push two beds together for her three children to sleep on.
However the following day, after just "45 minutes sleep", she and her partner decided to leave the resort – just two days into their holiday.
She said: "We were supposed to be there another three nights and four days but I couldn’t let my children stay a minute longer."
And on check-out, despite having complained three times and filled in two guest solution forms, Gaynor said no-one asked why the family were cutting their holiday short and instead were wished a "safe journey".
She said: "It almost sounds comical now. Up to now I have had a half-hearted apology.
"Ideally I want a full refund, but I am not hopeful for anything though to be honest."
A spokesperson for Pontins said: “We take comments like Ms Kingston’s very seriously.
"We were disappointed to hear of her experience at our Southport site.
"She has contacted our guest solutions department at 22.19pm on the 7 August and we are in touch with her direct to try to resolve this.”
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