This is the shocking moment a man caught cleaners at a five-star Greek holiday resort drinking from his bottle and rummaging through his belongings.
Tommy Hudson, of Willington, County Durham, says he felt unsafe in his room on his Jet2 holiday to the Elios Hill hotel in Crete after recording staff snooping in his family’s possessions.
The dad-of-one splashed £4,600 on a break at the newly opened hotel with wife Joanne and their two-year-old daughter Elsie in early August, hoping for a relaxing break.
Mr Hudson, 42, said: ‘It took over what should have been a nice family holiday.
‘Instead, we were talking about it every day and checking cameras in case something else had happened.’
In one clip a male cleaner is seen looking into a WHSmith bag the family left in the room and rummaging through belongings on the shelves.
Another video captured later in the holiday, a cleaner takes a sip from the family’s bottle of Sprite before returning it. He then appears to take a key card to the room.
There is no claims any item was stolen from the room but Jet2 said the 275-room hotel has dealt with the staff in question and had apologised to Mr Hudson and would provide an ‘appropriate gesture of goodwill’.
But he says an offer of £320 cash compensation isn’t good enough and is now escalating his complaint to Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA).
‘They’ve come back to us offering £320. It doesn’t seem like they have taken it very seriously at all,’ ex-Navy man Mr Hudson said.
‘On the second to last day, he was drinking out of our water bottle and took our key card. We had to go and get our keys changed in case he tried to come back into the room. The camera wasn’t even hidden, it was just in the corner of the room.
‘We spoke to the hotel manager and they said the staff had been relieved from their duties.
‘We felt unsafe in the room, we were having to check it on the camera every day.’
Mr Hudson took the camera with him after he said he read a review online by a traveller claiming they had items go missing from their room.
The hotel offered them a trip to a beach club including transportation, food and drink to apologise plus late checkout on their last day after he complained about the first instance, but he then caught the cleaner drinking from their pop bottle on the second-last day and he involved Jet2.
‘We don’t know if he has spat back into the bottle,’ the dad added.
‘It turns my stomach to think my daughter could have drank it as his saliva could be inside and around the edge.
‘I was told by them that due to it being our last day in the resort they couldn’t really do anything for us.
‘The slogan they have on the side of their aeroplanes is ‘package holidays you can trust’. When something like this happens you can’t really trust them any more.
‘It’s really put us off booking another holiday through Jet2. It saddens me as our last eight holidays have been with Jet2 and have all been fantastic.
‘I just want people to be aware this happens.’
A Jet2 spokesperson said: ‘We would like to offer our sincere apologies to Mr Hudson for this experience. We understand that the hotel has investigated fully and taken appropriate action with the staff in question.
‘We have been in contact with Mr Hudson to apologise, and to provide an appropriate gesture of goodwill.’
The Elios Hill Hotel did not respond to a request for comment.