Dad and daughter ‘scared to sleep’ in Turkish lodge room with bedbugs and cockroaches

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A father and daughter claim to have found bed bugs and cockroaches in their hotel room while vacationing in Turkey.

Joe and Sara Palmer, from Blackheath, London, flew to Turkey with TUI from London Gatwick in October for a two-week holiday.

The couple claim they were bitten by bed bugs during their stay, bites so severe that Sara had to be put on an IV in the hospital for an hour and given four types of medication to control the swelling.

Ms Palmer also claimed to have found a large cockroach on the floor. She told the Mirror: “It was awful. We were afraid to sleep because we were constantly being bitten.”

She added that she and her father were “constantly itchy and uncomfortable” during their stay and that they “continued to be bitten for the remainder of the holiday.” She described the trip as a “nightmare”.

“We contacted the head of guest relations who said they were cleaning and disinfecting the entire room,” Ms Palmer added. They later arrived with cleaning supplies and a bottle of insecticide, sprayed the pillow and curtains and reportedly said they would come back to do the rest.

“We contacted guest relations and asked if it was okay to go back to our rooms,” she said. “They said ‘yes, all done’.”

But the Palmers claim the room looked much the same as before, with a “dirty dust cover” still on the bed.

Ms Palmer claimed that she and her father once caught another large cockroach under a jar that a TUI representative had collected for them.

A TUI spokesman told The Independent: “We are really sorry to hear about Ms Palmer’s experience. Our customer service contacted her to apologize and offered her a holiday voucher as compensation.

“We are not aware of any complaints regarding cleanliness at this hotel, so we thank Mrs. Palmer for bringing this to our attention. We will conduct an investigation directly with the hotel.

“We want to reassure our customers that incidents like this are rare.”