Gardenia Plaza in Sharm El Sheikh under the spotlight

The BBC´s Secret Tourist exposed serious issues of health and safety at the Gardenia Plaza Resort in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. The fourth programme in the series was filmed in the four star resort in Sharm El Sheikh, which is located right underneath the flightpath of Sharm´s airport.The programme sent a family to the resort undercover, to film any hazards at the hotel, paying close attention to health and safety procedures throughout the complex. Typically, a family of four would expect to pay over £3,000 to stay for a week at the Gardenia Plaza.

After checking in to the hotel, the family found dirty and stained towels in the bathroom, hairs in the shower and the beds, and broken fittings. All rooms allocated to the crew were dirty, and two members of the family set about cleaning their own room on the second day of the holiday.The family were then woken by building work and by planes flying in and out of Sharm Airport.Although they had requested a room with a pool view, they were overlooking a building site. On exploring the hotel complex, the children´s play area posed some serious hazards, including a cracked slide, missing screws and bolts, which made the whole slide unsteady. A metal spike was protruding from the ground which could have proved fatal if a child had fallen on it.

Loose electrical cables were seen around the resort, and missing and broken manhole covers were also in evidence. Cockroaches and flies were also swarming around the Gardenia Plaza, and presented plenty of health hazards.The all-inclusive hotel offered little choice when it came to the food, and guests were expected to pay extra for bottled water, pizza and other snacks. Only one out of five restaurants was actually all-inclusive with no extra charges. The family also had to pay for use of the water slides within the complex.

Advertised as a luxurious health club, the fitness centre housed gym equipment that didn´t work, and a jacuzzi covered in flies and cigarette butts. Both young children suffered from rashes on their faces and they had to pay £50 for a doctor to tell them the children were sensitive to the chlorine in the pool.An undercover health and hygiene consultant, sent in by the BBC, tested the swimming pool and found that the chlorine levels measured 4.56, which should have been no more than 2.00. Ice and drinking water was contaminated with the same bacteria that is found in faeces, and the bacteria in the water was over 200 times more than the acceptable limit, and posed a serious risk of infection.

The water in the Jacuzzi was tested and an expert found that the level of bacteria was over 100 times the acceptable limit and that it was likely to cause skin and ear infections. The BBC crew revisited the hotel ten weeks later after sending their findings to the hotel management, only to find nothing had changed.If you have suffered holiday illness at the Gardenia Plaza Resort in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt or at any other holiday hotel throughout the world, Farnworth Rose Holiday Illness Solicitors want to hear about it. We are experts in the complicated field of travel law, and Anne Thomson, a valuable member of our team, has over 25 years´ experience dealing with holiday illness compensation claims. We work on a no win, no fee basis and you keep 100% of the claim. For more information or to make a claim, contact us on 080001 54321 or fill in the online claim form.