Travel
‘My husband and I were eaten alive by bed bugs in £150-a-night hotel’ – it was ‘dreadful’ | Travel News | Travel
A woman and her husband, who remain anonymous, found that they had sustained 170 bed bug bites between them after staying at the Cumbria Grand Hotel back in May, they have claimed.
The couple only realised what had happened a couple of days after returning from their stay at the hotel.
The woman wrote to The Telegraph to share her experience. She alledges: “My husband and I stayed at the Cumbria Grand Hotel back in May and we were eaten alive by bed bugs.
“My husband, who has cancer, sustained around 150 bites, while I had around 20. We got home and only a couple of days later realised what had happened, as we had inadvertently brought the bugs back home. The last nine weeks have been dreadful.”
The woman claimed that her husband had become infected twice “due to bites”. One of these times the husband had to attend an eye hospital after experiencing blurred vision and acute inflammation.
As the husband is going through chemotherapy and has a low immune system, this made the wife more worried.
The woman said that she had emailed the hotel and it has refunded their original fee.
However, the reader claimed that the hotel has only offered a “three free nights’ stay” as a way of compensation.
The couple have had to spend a total of £700 so far as they have had to bring in pest controllers to exterminate the bed bugs.
The woman added: “We both still have hugely irritated marks and nightmares about being bitten and these things resurfacing.”
Bed bugs are small insects that feed on blood by biting hosts that come into contact with infested surfaces.
And while they will first ruin a holiday by irritating the skin, bedbugs can also travel home with people, often unknowingly.
While these pests are not a sign of bad hygiene, there do enjoy hiding within objects like furniture.
All hotels should have strict procedures in place to spot and halt infestations, but on this occasion the Cumbria Grand (where rooms average at £150 a night, it wasn’t enough.
The Telegraph pressed the hotel’s owner for compensation on the reader’s behalf, which resulted in the owner quickly offering £1,500.
For severe reactions to bed bugs, some solicitors claim they could win several thousand pounds. But it is worth noting that they’d take a big chunk of the amount as fees in the event of any success.
Chris Rickard, owner of Strathmore Hotel Group, told The Telegraph: “Unfortunately, despite the best intentions and efforts of hotel owners and operators, the issue of bed bugs is increasing at an exponential rate.
“High hotel occupancy levels coupled with climate change, is the ‘perfect storm’ with regards to these highly evasive pests.
“More support and guidance from the Government is needed and needed soon to prevent this being an extremely serious issue for both hotels and by extension the economy in the years to come.”
Express.co.uk has approached the hotel for further comment.
Going through the new EU digital border system could be easing during summer holidays (Image: Getty Images)
Brits heading on holiday during the summer months could get ‘temporary relief’ from the EES, which has caused travel chaos in recent months.
Ever since the European Union‘s (EU) new Entry/Exit System (EES) was fully rolled out on Friday, 10 April, there have been reports of major travel disruptions. Holidaymakers have been stuck in gruelling queues lasting up to four hours as they attempt to navigate through the digital border system, with missed flights and holiday plans torn apart.
The EES has replaced manual passport stamping and requires all Brits travelling to the Schengen area to “create a digital record” and register their biometric details, such as fingerprints and a photograph. Yet as it continues to cause turmoil at European airports, there have been growing concerns about how it will impact travel, particularly during the summer holidays, which is notoriously one of the busiest times to fly.
The EES has caused major delays across European airports (Image: Getty Images)
However, an EU official has said that European airports could ease EES requirements until September this year.
Uku Särekanno, Deputy Executive Director of Frontex, which helps to manage the external borders of the EU, said: “The biometric registration, taking fingerprints and facial images, is probably the most challenging part of the entry-exit system rollout.”
He explained: “We have until the end of the summer, the possibility during the tourism season to lift the biometric controls or the biometric registration temporarily. If there is a peak hour, you see that there are hundreds of people queuing, their queues are getting too long, then member states still have the possibility to lift biometric registration.”
“The EU has considered, for the period of summer, to make sure that there is still some relief for the worst-case scenario.”
However, he explained that this is a “temporary relief and is ending in September”. Särekanno also said at ABTA’s Travel Matters conference that there is “no intention” of any further relaxation of the rules for the EES, as the procedures are expected to be “aligned by that time”.
‘We expect that the situation will stabilise in one or two years’, the EU official said (Image: Getty Images)
Yet, after the summer holidays, it could take up to two years for the EES to be “as smooth as possible”. Särekanno explained: “We expect that the situation will stabilise in one or two years, because the most challenging part is the first enrolment.”
Explaining further, he said: “Within the next two-year period, we will see that the first enrollment will be done. A significant number of visitors will not have to enrol by metrics anymore, so it will be a big relief for them.”
Biometric data for the EES, including fingerprints and a photograph, is collected from travellers upon their first arrival at the airport border in the Schengen area. However, there have been reports that British holidaymakers have been asked to resubmit their biometric data, even after their initial visit.
In response to this, Särekanno said at ABTA’s conference that this “needs to be corrected” by the border crossing point of the member state. He added: “We are on it and we are trying to ensure that there is a coherent approach to the border procedures.”
“In these circumstances, we are putting a lot of effort into that to ensure that the practices will be harmonised,” he concluded.
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MoneySavingExpert (MSE), the consumer advice website founded by journalist and broadcaster Martin Lewis, has issued an urgent travel warning to millions. In the latest Money Tips Email, the consumer experts offered advice for anyone booking holidays.
The advice said: “Summer is coming, and if you’re booked to go away and haven’t got your insurance yet, you need to do it NOW, today, straight away!” As the experts highlighted, taking out travel insurance the moment you book your holiday provides the greatest level of protection, including cover should anything arise that prevents you from travelling.
Holidaymakers heading to Europe are also being urged to obtain a Global Health Insurance Card before departure. MSE has warned that more than two million cards are set to expire this year, meaning countless travellers could lose out on vital benefits if they fail to renew before their trips.
The UK Global Health Insurance Card allows travellers to access healthcare abroad without paying any more than a local resident would across the European Economic Area, reports the Mirror.
The NHS states: “The UK Global Health Insurance Card (GHIC) lets you get necessary state healthcare in the European Economic Area (EEA), and some other countries, on the same basis as a resident of that country. This may be free or it may require a payment equivalent to that which a local resident would pay.
“The UK GHIC has replaced the existing European Health Insurance Card (EHIC). If you have an existing EHIC you can continue to use it until the expiry date on the card. Once it expires, you’ll need to apply for a UK GHIC to replace it.”
Travellers still need travel insurance, but the card could prevent people from paying the excess if they need medical treatment during their trip. MSE said: “Going to the EU? Ensure you’ve a valid (free) GHIC/EHIC – over 2m expire this year.
“The ‘Global Health Insurance Card’ (GHIC) and its predecessor, the EHIC, give access to state-run hospitals or GPs, mainly in European countries, for the same price as a local. So if they don’t pay, you don’t either. Over two million expire this year, check yours.”
A UK GHIC is free, and you can apply through the NHS website. The NHS advises avoiding unofficial websites, which may charge an application fee. People can apply for a new card up to nine months before their current card expires.
The NHS said: “After you’ve submitted your application, we’ll email you within 24 hours to let you know whether it has been approved or not (if you don’t get a reply, check your junk folder). We may need to see additional information or documents before approving it. Once your application has been approved, you should receive your new card within 15 working days. It will be sent to you by post.”
A Spanish tourist hotspot is set to pass a clothing ban on a particular item of clothing. Those still wearing the garment could face fines of up to £25,000. The eye-watering sum of money will be levelled at those wearing burkas should a Balearic Islands law come to pass.
The Balearic Islands – Majorca, Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera – could see the banning of the burka come to pass should legislation from the right-wing Vox and the People’s Party of the Balearic Islands (PP) parties be approved. The two parties said the legislation protected women’s rights.
The proposal has faced opposition from Spanish political parties including the PSIB, MES per Mallorca, MES per Menorca, and Unidas Podemos.
Not only has a £25k fine been proposed by the two parties, but Vox representatives have also tabled a motion to punish those who force or coerce women to wear niqabs and burkas with up to four years in prison, GB News reported.
Manuela Canadas, one of the party’s MPs, insisted that the normalisation of the strict Islamic coverings “means accepting a medieval regression in the 21st century.”
She added: “The veil is a tool for erasing personality, designed to obliterate a woman’s civil existence.”
PP’s deputy leader Cristina Gill slammed left-wing MPs for “denying women’s right to exist” by attempting to block outlawing a “practice that renders women invisible”.
She added: “This is their kind of progressivism, for women who are fully veiled. They want to keep them hidden.”
The PP deputy leader insisted the Islamic dress presents a risk to security, noting that the European Court of Human Rights has previously ruled that face coverings could be limited in public spaces on these grounds.
Left-wing and centre parties called the proposal from Vox and PP “racist”. PSIB deputy leader Teresa Suárez said the law was not intending to bolster women’s rights, but “an obsessive idea of a supposed cultural threat”.
She added: “It uses the burka to talk about the incompatibility of Islam with our society.”
More than 20 countries across the globe have banned the burka and other full-face coverings from public spaces, with France becoming the first European country to do so in 2011.
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