Family kicked out of Butlin’s ... because 3-year-old girl was ill
A FAMILY was ordered to leave a Butlin’s resort after their three-year-old daughter was sick on her bedsheets.
Catherine McDonnell said staff locked her husband and daughter Elizabeth out of their apartment on the Skegness site because they thought she had a contagious virus.
But Mrs McDonnell insisted the youngster vomited because she had been bouncing on the bed in excitement and says the actions of bosses ruined their holiday.
The family arrived on Friday August 19 and Elizabeth felt a little ill on Tuesday night. By Wednesday morning she felt fine. However, Mrs McDonnell, 27, noticed a small amount of sick on her sheet.
The mother of one, from Hull, said: ‘Elizabeth was a little bit sick on a sheet and I rang guest services to ask for another. I wish I hadn’t.’
Instead of bringing a fresh sheet, holiday park staff arrived with yellow contamination bags and asked the McDonnells to bag up the dirty bedclothes themselves.
They were then given an ultimatum to stay in their apartment for two days in quarantine or leave the Lincolnshire site. When the McDonnells refused to do either, Butlin’s deactivated their access cards so they could not enter their door, forcing them to leave on Wednesday – two days before the end of their one-week stay.
Mrs McDonnell offered to take Elizabeth to a nearby walk-in health centre to prove she wasn’t ill, but staff would not relent.
‘I just can’t believe how we’ve been treated,’ Mrs McDonnell said. ‘Kids get sick all the time and it doesn’t mean they’re ill. She’s not contagious. She played all day with children in neighbouring apartments who thought the whole thing was a massive overreaction.
‘Elizabeth was absolutely devastated. She cried all the way home because we had to leave early.
‘We’d planned all our activities for the Wednesday and she knew we were staying two more days there.
‘Not one person came to see Elizabeth to assess whether she was ill or not, which she clearly wasn’t.
‘They made this decision on the basis of a phone call from me asking for some clean sheets.’
Her husband Francis, 41, accused the holiday camp of acting like a ‘totalitarian state’ by ruining their holiday which cost a total of £1,500.
In a letter to the family, Butlin’s said they were asked to leave because Elizabeth had a ‘contagious disease’.
A spokesman said the company had offered a cash refund for the remainder of their holiday as a ‘goodwill gesture’, adding: ‘It is always a regrettable decision to ask guests to leave before the end of their break, but when it comes to potentially contagious illnesses we will always put the interests of our guests and team first.’
However, the family said that they will not accept a refund, and Mrs McDonnell insisted: ‘I would just like an apology.’