A grandmother is demanding a £12,000 refund after claiming her grandson was 'eaten alive' by bed bugs and infected with huge open sores at a four-star TUI hotel.
Karen Levick and her family splashed out on a luxury trip to Catalonia, Spain, for her daughter's honeymoon - but says it soon descended into horror.
The 47-year-old claims the hotel was filthy with dirty plates not removed from their rooms for days and that she heard bedding sometimes went unchanged between guests.
Even worse, Karen's youngest grandson Alfie Garlick was 'eaten alive by bed bugs' that they claim were infesting his bed.
Horrifying photos show the little boy with huge open sores covering his arms and legs that Karen claims developed from bed bug bites that became infected with staphylococcus aureus.
After returning home to the UK, Alfie was diagnosed with staphylococcus aureus, an infection in the same family as MRSA, and treated with antibiotics.
Alfie, who is now five, has thankfully made a full recovery but despite reportedly being given a partial refund from TUI, Karen is demanding the full £12,000 back for their ordeal.
TUI have apologised for the family's experience but pointed out that the bites could have been from any insect such as a mosquito - something Karen disagrees with.
Karen, from Redbourne, Herts, said: "Alfie was four at the time and he definitely contracted an infection from that holiday bed and bed bugs in the bed. It turned into massive, open sores.
"It was all the beds, all dirty bedding, out of bags, in bags and dirty mattresses in the middle of the room. They had clean stuff folded up around it on the shelves. It was horrendous.
"The managers admitted that they had such a problem with one of their cleaning companies not washing the bedding inbetween people.
"There was a lot of the hotel that was good. It was the cleaning part of it which wasn't. You don't expect to pay £12,000 on holiday and for my grandson to become ill.
"I look at those pictures and I think that poor little thing, he was eaten alive. Luckily it was an infection that could be treated with antibiotics.
"When we were back from holiday he was straight into the hospital to have swabs. It was a staphylococcus infection, which is related to MRSA.
"This is a four-star hotel. It's not some back street hotel. It's an awful lot of money to pay to go on holiday. You do not expect to leave with an infection."
Karen claims the hotel had been a favourite with her family and they had stayed there three times beforehand with no problems.
But when they returned for daughter Kate Garlick's honeymoon in July 2018, the family were horrified by the lack of cleanliness of the hotel.
Karen claims that even after they requested for their sheets to be changed, they returned from a day out to find cleaners had left their doors open and bedrooms exposed to the public.
Karen said: "I just think it's barbaric that TUI are prepared to take top dollar off you and put you in that situation. You just feel very ripped off.
"The aftercare of TUI are absolutely awful. They use every technique to not respond and not get back to you.
"Even when they said they were going to pay me they didn't pay me and we had to keep fighting and fighting.
"For me, the aftercare system was as bad as what happened on the holiday. It was an absolutely nightmare to get it.
"If I hadn't been like a dog with a bone, there's no way on heaven's earth I would have gotten it.
"TUI as a company were absolutely disgraceful when we got back. It drove me to distraction.
"We ended up getting 20% off the price of the holiday back in cash which was about £2,300.
"The claims for Alfie's nasty infection would be a completely different claim should the legal department agree to take it on.
"This holiday was about a year ago and the legal team got back to me and said their hands are tied. First of all she offered £500. I was like, that's ridiculous.
"My grandson was four years old and he had massive open wounds on his body from this infection. Now they've gone up to £1,275. It does seem a ridiculous amount.
"A little four-year-old has contracted an infection. It's massive.
"One of the managers of guest relationships literally admitted to me that they were not always washing the bedding inbetween people. Can you actually imagine?
"They were literally at the end of their tether to know what to do in this situation.
"It's a four star hotel and very expensive hotel to go to, and you've got petitions outside the hotel because of the cleaning situation. It's the people that go to the hotel who are suffering from it.
"We complained about the room to the managers and eventually they did actually clean the room. But then they left the door wide open.
"We'd been out at the theme park for hours and we came back and the door is open all that time. They just couldn't do anything right.
"When we were on holiday, we had stayed at that hotel three times before and never had a problem. It was a nice hotel.
"The sad fact is that when this happens, it's not like you've gone with a budget place on the beach.
"TUI is one of the most reputable companies but were a nightmare to deal with. It was a massive shock to me.
"The worst stress of this 100 per cent has not been the infection, but how TUI have been afterwards.
"I ended up in tears on the phone to these people because they were not listening and were using every tactic in the book to ignore me.
"While £12,000 is huge, even if you were going to a little 2* B&B you still expect a certain level of cleanliness.
"I'm not a clean freak. If there's a little bit of mould in the shower I'm not going to be making a fuss about it. But this was on another level.
"They wouldn't be taking away the dirty plates in your room or if they were outside of your room they would just sit outside your door so it would attract bugs.
"This was 100 per cent genuine. This was a honeymoon you can't get back."
Karen made a formal complaint to TUI and was eventually offered two payments of £2,322 and £1,275 in compensation for her ordeal.
But she claims she was forced to spend months chasing them before the cash for the first payment actually arrived in her account.
Enraged, Karen has rejected the second figure and is demanding the full £12,000 back.
A spokesperson from TUI pointed out that the bites were confirmed as insect bites but not necessarily bed bug bites and that they could have been from any insect, such as a mosquito.
While Karen acknowledged she is unable to prove that the bites were from bed bugs as opposed to another insect such, the family firmly believe they were bed bug bites.
She pointed out that she had never seen mosquito bites like this and that she encountered many people in the hotel 'covered in bites', which she blamed on 'bed bugs from the unwashed bedding'.
A spokesperson from TUI said: "We're sorry to hear Alfie fell ill on holiday. We've been in contact with the family since their return and they've accepted a gesture in respect of some of the issues raised.
"We've also thoroughly investigated the issues related to Alfie's insect bites and although we weren't able to confirm their cause, we have offered a gesture of goodwill to reflect the impact this would have had on their holiday.
"Unfortunately, this has been declined and we have since attempted to speak to Mrs Levick.
"We'd like to reassure customers that we regularly audit all of the hotels we feature in respect of health and safety, including hygiene."
