The process of the tourist against the Egyptian hotel and the tour operator that sent her to this hotel ended with compensation of 2.5 thousand pounds. The process lasted for several years, and the cause was bedbug bites during a two-week vacation of a tourist in Hurghada. The “damage” was significant — the tourist had to go to the hospital. Moreover, in Hurghada, the tourist was not only bite but later was not allowed to the pool.
The injured tourist, then 19-year-old Abby from West Yorkshire in Britain, flew to Egypt to a hotel in Hurghada called the Nubia Aqua Beach Resort in October 2018. Her grandparents also rested at the hotel. “My room looked clean, but it smelled a little like disinfection, but I didn’t think about it at the time,” the tourist said. However, the nightmare began the next day – the tourist discovered that she was covered with red marks and blisters. “I complained at the reception desk – they told me that it was probably mosquitoes,” the tourist continued her story. However, the number of bites increased, and they also began to swell and turn into huge, itchy blisters.
“It was a real nightmare, I was in pain, everything itched. And I could never relax – I felt like everyone was staring at me, putting on sunscreen was unbearable. One tourist even asked me if I had some kind of skin disease and if it was safe for her to go into the pool from which I had just come out,” the tourist recalls. In the end, it came to the point that she had to go to the hospital, where the tourists prescribed antihistamine injections. “The doctor was just shocked when he saw me, he said that he had never seen so many bites on the body of one person,” the tourist said. The doctor also revealed to her the cause of the bites: they were bedbugs.
“I repeatedly asked the hotel to relocate me and process the room, but eight days passed before the room was changed. And these terrible bites stopped immediately,” said the tourist.
After returning, the tourist contacted Hudgell Solicitors, a company specializing in court proceedings. She requested an expert medical opinion. At the same time, the tour operator We Love Holidays Ltd denied any responsibility for the errors in the hotel. Hudgell Solicitors argued that the tour operator failed to carry out adequate inspections to assess hygiene, health, and safety standards, and did not monitor these standards properly or at all, thereby exposing the woman to a foreseeable risk of injury. The hotel itself initially tried to claim that the tourist had brought bedbugs in her luggage, but eventually admitted guilt and paid compensation. At the same time, the process lasted several years.
According to the tourist, most of the scars from the bites have already healed, but some “are still visible in the sun.” The psychological consequences also remained. “It didn’t stop me from wanting to travel. But now, every time I go into any room, I worry—and carefully check the mattress and bedding. I am very afraid of experiencing this again,” said the tourist.