A holiday nightmare unfolded for a couple who were evicted from their Corfu hotel and subsequently denied boarding their flight back home.
Paul Bell along with his wife Ellie had snapped up a package deal with TUI, but their Grecian escape was abruptly cut short – they were banned from their homeward journey after they were accused by TUI of using “aggressive and disrespectful language” in the hotel eatery. The North Shields duo, Paul, aged 64, and Ellie, 65, forked out a small fortune to secure another Corfu hotel, arrange alternative flights back home, and organise their own transfers.
Vowing to boycott TUI in future, the Bells rebuff allegations of causing a commotion at the Terezas Hotel’s restaurant in Sidari—a venue they previously rated. The contentious incident reportedly arose when Ellie voiced dissatisfaction to the manager over subpar cuisine, which Paul condemned as “tepid” and “not very nice”.
Detailing their culinary displeasures, Paul recounted offerings like “Some of the things you would get were rice with sprouts, or another time you’d have rice with a slice of beetroot in it. My wife spoke to the manager twice, she complained about the food being inedible and he didn’t seem interested. She asked him to join us for breakfast the next day so we could show him what we meant, but he never turned up.”
Paul and Ellie were left gobsmacked when they received a letter the following day, stating that they could no longer stay at the hotel for the rest of their holiday. The letter, dated May 20, read: “You caused a serious disturbance by shouting inside the hotel restaurant in front of other guests, resulting in significant distress and disruption to the peaceful environment of the hotel,” and “you directed aggressive and disrespectful language towards both hotel staff, the hotel owners, and TUI representatives on site,” reports the Mirror.
However, Paul refuted these claims to Chronicle Live, insisting that neither he nor Ellie had been given the opportunity to share their side of the story with TUI. He said: “I don’t remember anybody shouting. We only spoke to the rep on the day she was at the hotel and there was nothing disrespectful shown to her. They’ve never come and spoke to us to find out what happened, they’ve decided off what the manager has told them. But surely there are always two sides to a story? I was furious, because it spoiled the day we had planned.”
Instead of being given the chance to respond or appeal, Paul and Ellie were simply advised to get in touch with the UK consulate if they needed any further help. Then, late in the evening on May 21 at 22.28, the couple were hit with another blow – a letter stating that Ellie was banned from boarding the TOM1531 flight back to Newcastle on Friday, May 23.
Just over 12 hours later, another email arrived stating that both Paul and Ellie would be barred from boarding the flight. TUI explained this decision was “due to your conduct and behaviour”, in line with their terms and conditions.
Paul hastily booked return flights from Corfu with Jet2 on Thursday, May 22, costing €328.56 (£280). However, upon their arrival back in North Shields, they received yet another email from TUI.
This time, it read: “the refusal of carriage for Paul Bell and Eleanor Bell has now been revoked, and you will now be allowed travel on your inbound flight”.
“That doesn’t help us now, because we were told we have to make our own travel arrangements and we came home. We had to pay €60 for a taxi to the airport as well, because we weren’t allowed on the transfers,” Paul added.
“When we go on holiday, we try to go somewhere nice and quiet, sit and chill, try the local stuff, go to the towns and see the scenery and to have food like we did (in the hotel) was really disappointing. We got no back-up whatsoever from TUI.
“They took whatever the manager said as gospel and came to a decision just like that. Had we been drunk and disorderly, fine, but we weren’t – we’ve never had any bother on any holidays before, until this time with TUI.”
ChronicleLive has learned that TUI intends to refund the couple’s Jet2.com flights home and their travel to the airport. TUI declined to provide further comment to the publication.
The Mirror has reached out to TUI for additional information.
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