TUI Review – Disappointing Experience from Start to Finish I am currently staying at the Aquila Rithymna Beach Hotel in Crete, and unfortunately, the experience has been far below what you’d expect from a 5-star resort – and from a company like TUI, who I have previously trusted with my holidays. From the moment I arrived, the problems began. My first room had completely non-functioning air conditioning. Despite reporting it at 2am due to unbearable heat, I was only offered a fan that blew around warm air. No sleep, no help, and no urgency. When staff eventually checked the unit, they admitted it wasn’t working but still played down the issue, implying it was usable. It absolutely wasn’t — I’ve lived through extreme heat and this was worse due to poor airflow. Once I was moved to a different room with working air con, the contrast was stark. It confirmed the first unit was completely broken, and I felt as though staff had knowingly downplayed the issue to avoid dealing with it. Even the process of getting moved was chaotic. Initially, I was told maintenance would come the following night — which would have meant enduring three nights of this. Only after insisting on a resolution was I finally moved. My new room, while cooler, was noisy (despite my request for quiet), overlooked the main road, and was directly above the entrance where coaches arrived every few minutes. I also experienced construction noise from the balcony area. There were several other issues: The fridge in my first room didn’t work, which I later discovered was a serious issue as I needed to refrigerate medicine. It remained overnight in a broken fridge. The second room was extremely dated, with faulty plug sockets, a caved-in shower drain, a TV stuck in the wrong aspect ratio, and no slippers provided. The Wi-Fi was nearly unusable — even messaging via the TUI app took several minutes to load, and streaming was impossible. The food was very average at best — far below 5-star expectations. There was persistent cigarette smoke coming through the air conditioning, even though I was in a non-smoking room. I was repeatedly disturbed by staff knocking on the door despite a “Do Not Disturb” sign being in place, which added to the stress rather than helping resolve anything. All of this led to a huge amount of time spent going back and forth to reception and messaging the TUI support team instead of relaxing on what should have been a stress-free holiday. It became exhausting trying to get even the basics right — working air con, a quiet room, proper facilities — and none of it should have required this much effort. To make matters worse, the TUI messaging app repeatedly notified me that “now that this has been resolved, we will close the conversation” — when nothing had actually been resolved. I had to continually reply to correct this, making it feel as though my issues were being prematurely dismissed, rather than properly acknowledged or addressed. It added to the feeling that I wasn’t being listened to and was having to battle to be taken seriously. I also encountered issues before even reaching the hotel. My flight seat had been double-booked, despite me having confirmed it through the TUI platform. I paid extra for this seat, and had all the documentation (physical boarding pass, Apple Wallet, and email confirmation) showing my allocated seat: 31F. But when I boarded, someone was already sitting in it. It was embarrassing to ask them to move, only to find they were assigned the same seat. When I contacted TUI, they first blamed me for sitting in the wrong place. Once I pointed out all my matching documentation, they shifted the story, claiming I had somehow reserved the seat two weeks before I even booked the holiday — a nonsensical explanation that only added to the confusion and frustration. There was no apology, just blame and dismissal. As if that weren’t enough, the TUI representative Laura, who handled my in-resort complaint, categorised the entire experience as simply “a broken safe and noise.” This drastically misrepresents the full scale of issues I outlined and adds insult to injury. As you can see, this wasn’t just noise or a faulty safe — it was a cascade of serious failures, including broken essential facilities, disrupted sleep, poor service, compromised medication storage, and repeated invasions of privacy and peace. Despite raising these points politely and clearly, Laura abruptly closed the conversation when I disagreed with the proposed compensation. I remained respectful throughout, yet the dialogue was cut off without further engagement. Being shut down in that manner was incredibly frustrating and summed up the broader experience — being ignored and brushed aside rather than supported. TUI’s initial offer was a 10% refund — which, broken down, equates to a token gesture compared to the scale of the problems. That figure is completely disproportionate to the disruption I faced each day, chasing basic comfort and repeatedly being let down. Eventually, they offered a monetary alternative or voucher, which still failed to acknowledge the compounded issues or the time and wellbeing lost. I’m now escalating this complaint because what I’ve experienced is not acceptable — not from a 5-star resort, and certainly not from a company that claims to prioritise customer experience. I’m requesting a 30% refund, which I believe is more reflective of the disruption and disappointment I experienced. If you’ve stayed in genuine 5-star accommodation before, you’ll immediately see the gap between expectation and reality here. This trip has been a let-down on almost every level, and while I’ve previously enjoyed holidays with TUI, I’ll seriously reconsider booking with them again if this is how they handle issues when things go wrong.