Tourists win compensation claims over holiday illnesses

Claims solicitors have won 138 people payouts from a holiday company after a stay in a Bulgarian hotel left them ill.

After a five year action fought by compensation lawyers, TUI UK agreed to settle with its customers who stayed at the Riu Miramar hotel in the Bulgarian town of Obzor.

Last week, the company, which operates in the UK as First Choice and Thomson, admitted liability prior to a trial at Birmingham County Court. An interim order passed by judge David Worster said that costs of £300,000 must be paid.

"We are delighted that Thomson has now admitted liability, but I wish they had done this years ago and taken our complaints more seriously at the time of the holiday," Lisa Vel, of South Ockenden, Essex, who stayed at the hotel, said.

Holidaymakers complained that the four-star hotel had a smell of sewage, poor standards of hygiene and frogs in the reception.

In addition, another group of travellers has launched a legal battle against several tour operators with the help of compensation solicitors after they had complaints about holidays in the Movenpick Resort Hotel in Taba, Egypt, where they stayed during summer 2008.

Posted by Hannah Carr