We booked a 7-night holiday to Jamaica through TUI costing approximately £3,000, expecting the quality, safety and customer support that comes with booking through one of the UK's largest travel companies. Instead, this became one of the most disappointing, stressful and frustrating holidays we have ever experienced.
The resort suffered multiple power outages, including one lasting approximately 12 hours, leaving guests without air conditioning in Caribbean temperatures, without lighting, repeated water outages, room key failures, unreliable Wi-Fi and cancelled hotel experiences. This wasn't a brief inconvenience—it fundamentally disrupted our holiday and left hundreds of guests trying to cope in extreme heat.
The lack of air conditioning became so severe that many guests remained in the swimming pool well into the evening simply to stay cool. Elderly guests and young families were affected, yet no torches or emergency lighting were provided during the prolonged blackout.
I even injured my knee trying to move around our room in complete darkness, and another couple we spoke to reported suffering a similar injury.
Unfortunately, the power cuts were only one part of a much wider problem.
Throughout our stay, we encountered numerous guests who had become ill. My wife also became ill during the holiday and, at the time of writing this review, she remains unwell.
We spoke to several guests who described experiencing similar symptoms, which caused us significant concern.
One couple showed us photographs of their hotel room covered in human faeces and vomit after the husband became seriously ill.
They told us they repeatedly contacted reception asking for help and for the room to be cleaned, yet said it remained in that condition despite multiple requests while he was extremely unwell and unable to leave the room. Seeing those photographs was shocking and reinforced our concerns about how guest welfare was being handled.
One incident perfectly summed up the standard of management. The advertised pool opening hours were 7:00 am until 8:00 pm. We arrived at approximately 11:00 am, so naturally assumed the pool was open.
I entered the pool and was immediately shouted at by the lifeguard and told to get out because it had not yet been cleaned. I went directly to the resort manager, who acknowledged that the pool should have been cleaned before opening hours, not while guests were trying to use it.
When I returned, the lifeguard was openly pointing at me and complaining to the bar staff because I had raised the issue with management. There was no apology whatsoever.
Instead, he angrily cleaned the pool while guests waited. The whole situation was unprofessional and made us feel uncomfortable for the remainder of our stay.
Air conditioning regularly failed throughout the holiday and, even on the morning of our departure, our room experienced yet another power outage.
On one evening there was no bottled drinking water available anywhere on the resort, despite the temperatures. For an all-inclusive resort, we found this completely unacceptable.
Another extremely disturbing aspect of our stay was what my wife and I personally witnessed.
During our holiday, we were approached and offered what were described to us as illegal drugs, including cocaine and MDMA, by individuals we understood to be beach bar staff and hotel-affiliated taxi drivers operating around the resort.
This happened openly and appeared to target tourists.
Regardless of local laws relating to cannabis, being approached with offers of harder drugs at a resort used by families fundamentally changed how safe we felt during our holiday.
While walking along the public beach opposite our resort, we also observed a neighbouring adults-only nudist and swingers resort.
Activities taking place within that resort were clearly visible from the public beach. During the daytime we witnessed people engaging in sexual activity in areas that were visible from outside the resort, including one couple where the woman was performing oral sex on the man while he stood in the sea.
None of this appeared to be screened or enclosed from public view. We appreciate that adults-only resorts exist, but we did not expect explicit sexual activity to be openly visible from a public beach close to a resort used by families.
We found this inappropriate and extremely uncomfortable.
Throughout our stay, hotel management appeared reactive rather than proactive. Problems were allowed to continue, communication was poor, guests were repeatedly left searching for information themselves, and there was little evidence of effective leadership during what was clearly a major operational failure.
While a small number of staff were friendly and genuinely tried to help, our overall experience left us with little confidence that guest welfare was being treated as the priority it should have been.
What disappointed us most, however, was TUI's response.
Rather than accepting responsibility as the company we booked and paid, TUI repeatedly referred us back to the hotel or suggested that power issues are simply something that happens "in the Caribbean."
That explanation is simply not acceptable.
We have travelled extensively throughout the Caribbean, including Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Mexico, and have even experienced a Category 5 hurricane. We have never experienced disruption on this scale or for this length of time.
Surrounding hotels, local businesses and even the street lighting had power while our resort continued experiencing failures. We also understand that guests travelling with other tour operators were relocated to different hotels, yet TUI customers remained at the resort despite the ongoing problems.
When you book through TUI, you expect them to stand behind the holiday they have sold you. Instead, we felt responsibility was continually pushed back onto the hotel rather than accepted by the company we had actually paid.
To make matters worse, after paying approximately £3,000 for this holiday and enduring prolonged power failures, loss of air conditioning, repeated water interruptions, reports of illness among guests, my wife becoming ill, poor communication, management failures and the other issues that significantly affected our stay, TUI offered us the equivalent of just one night's accommodation — £50 in cash or £100 towards another TUI holiday.
When checking out of the hotel, staff could not even tell us what that one night's accommodation was actually worth.
We asked for an itemised bill so we could understand how this had been calculated, but we were told they could not provide one. We left without any clear explanation of how the compensation figure had been reached.
To add further insult, due to flight schedule changes we are now arriving back in the UK in the early hours of 13 July instead of 12 July, meaning we have incurred an additional £70 in airport parking charges.
This extra cost was never clearly explained during booking, before travel or during check-in, and we received no meaningful explanation from TUI regarding the change or its financial impact.
We also contacted TUI's management team during the holiday.
Unfortunately, the representative we spoke to appeared to have very little understanding of the situation at the resort or the scale of the issues guests were experiencing.
Rather than reassuring us, the conversation left us with even less confidence that anyone was taking ownership of what had happened.
We found TUI's offer completely inadequate and entirely out of proportion to what we experienced. It did not reflect the disruption, discomfort, additional expense and distress caused, nor did it restore any confidence that TUI had genuinely listened to or understood the seriousness of our complaint.
This review is not simply about power cuts. It is about customer welfare, communication, accountability and how TUI responded when a holiday fell so far below the standard we had paid for. We booked through TUI because we trusted them to support us if things went wrong. Instead, we were left feeling abandoned, ignored and repeatedly directed back to the hotel while the problems continued.
We travelled to Jamaica hoping for one week of relaxation and a chance to recharge. Instead, we came home exhausted, frustrated and deeply disappointed.
Based on our experience, we would not return to this resort and we would think very carefully before booking another holiday with TUI.
We sincerely hope TUI properly investigates the issues we have raised, reviews how this resort was managed during our stay, and reflects on how it supports customers when holidays fall so significantly below the standard customers are promised.
