Family of four who fell ill with suspected food poisoning at Butlin’s claim they were THROWN OUT despite not being well enough to travel
Lisa Lyne said her family trip to Skegness turned into a "nightmare" after three of them became violently ill
A FAMILY-of-four who fell violently ill while at Butlin's claim they were thrown out by the holiday resort despite not being well enough to travel.
Lisa and Darren Lyne and their two children aged 3 and 1 were three days into their week-long holiday earlier this month at Butlin's Skegness when everyone apart from their three-year-old fell ill.
After a sleepless night, Lisa alerted resort staff about the situation – but the family were promptly told they had to leave for fear of infecting other guests.
Darren was forced to embark on a four-hour drive to get his family home while still ill – resulting in an "horrific" five-and-a-half hour journey.
Lisa, from Swindon, Wiltshire, said: "It was a really awful trip. It was a real ordeal. It was so bad I could have cried. I could barely get through it. It was our worst experience as a family.
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"We had barely slept at all through the night. It is not what we wanted from our family holiday.
"They could have given us more time before to get ready before kicking us out after the terrible night we had.
"Their terms and conditions apparently say that guests must leave the resort if they are ill but we became ill there, we are certain of that, and I am convinced it was food poisoning. So to have got it from their resort and then to be turfed out was very upsetting.
"I understand why they have to stop the spread of the illness, but they were reluctant to give us any time at all.
"We had paid for 'gold standard' but we don't feel we were treated that way at all. Trying to explain to my eldest daughter, who was still feeling fine, why we had to leave the holiday early was awful. She was absolutely distraught."
Nimue, 3, was the only member of the family who did not become ill. Lisa claimed he was the only one not to have eaten at the restaurant.
Lisa said: "Nimue is a very picky eater and so she only ate in the apartment rather than at the restaurant with us. This reinforces my belief that it was something we ate in the restaurant that made us ill.
"We were sick all night, it was awful. I had to use all of the towels in the apartment because it is very hard to get a one-year-old baby to be sick only in a bowl."
The following day when she called resort staff to request new towels, she says she was told they were not allowed to leave their room and had to pack up and leave immediately.
When Lisa explained that her husband was so ill he could barely stand and would never be able to drive the family safely home, she says staff gave them a two hour window.
They were informed that if they were to spend the remaining night in the hotel they would not be able to leave the room, even for food, and that they would miss out on the partial refund of £111.
Lisa said: "Upon leaving the site we were asked to sign a receipt form confirming the refund as full and final settlement. I wrote on the form that I was signing 'under protest' as certainly did not consider it a final settlement, but I was effectively held to ransom and felt I had no choice but to sign at that point.
"We didn't feel like they cared about us at all. Everything was done with a smiley face and very friendly but there was no budging at all. They just wanted rid of us straight away.
"It was supposed to be a holiday but it turned into a nightmare."
A Butlin's spokesman said: "It is always a regrettable decision to ask guests to leave before the end of their break, but when it comes to potentially contagious illnesses we have to put the interests of all our guests first. Therefore, as in this case, we always adhere to our procedures in an attempt to restrict the spread of such illness.
"We had a total of eight reported illnesses during the break. In that time we had more than 4,000 guests on resort. Of those eight cases, we did not record any others where food poisoning was a possible cause. Furthermore, our reports indicate the family all ate different meals, making a good issue even more unlikely.
"Obviously we regret that Mrs Lyne and her family were unwell, and we hope they have made a full recovery. We ensured that the family left resort with a cash refund covering the remainder of their intended stay with us."