Dad and daughter ‘scared to sleep’ in Turkish hotel room with bedbugs and cockroaches

A father and daughter claim to have found bed bugs and cockroaches in their hotel room during a holiday in Turkey.

Joe and Sara Palmer from Blackheath, London, had flown to Turkey from London Gatwick with TUI in October for a two-week holiday.

The pair allege that they were bitten by bed bugs during their stay, with bites so severe that Sara had to be placed on a drip in hospital for an hour and given four types of drugs to combat the swelling.

Ms Palmer also claimed to have found a large cockroach on the floor. She told the Mirror: “It was terrible. We were scared to sleep because we were being bitten constantly.”

She added that she and her father were “constantly itching and uncomfortable” during their stay, and that they “continued to get bitten for the rest of the holiday”. She described the trip as a “nightmare”.

“We contacted head of guest relations who said they would clean and disinfect the whole room,” Ms Palmer added. They later arrived with cleaner and a bottle of bug killer, sprayed the pillow and curtains, and reportedly said they would come back to do the rest.

“We contacted guest relations and asked if it was OK to return to our rooms,” she said. “They said ‘yes, all done.’”

But the Palmers allege that the room looked almost the same as it had before, with a “dirty dust cover” still in place on the bed.

Ms Palmer claimed that, at one point, she and her father trapped another large cockroach under a glass, which a TUI rep collected for them.

A spokesperson for TUI told The Independent: “We’re really sorry to hear about Ms Palmer’s experience. Our customer care team has contacted her to apologise and offered her a holiday voucher as compensation.

“We’re not aware of any complaints regarding cleanliness at this hotel so we thank Ms Palmer for bringing this to our attention. We’ll conduct an investigation directly with the hotel.

“We’d like to reassure customers that instances like this are rare.”