Dummy & dumber
Hotel’s bizarre welcome for grieving Brit family
The effigy and a message on bed spelled out in petals A TOURIST was horrified after hotel staff made an effigy of her friend’s dead son with a birthday cake on it.
Karen Baker asked for balloons and a cake for pals Faye and Andrew Stephens, whose son Alex died in 2014, aged 22.
Instead, staff at the Royalton resort in Jamaica created a dummy out of clothes and towels and laid it on the hotel bed.
It had tears on its face and was holding a can of lager. A cake on its lap bore the message: “Happy birthday Alexander.”
Karen, from Herts – Alex’s godmother – said: “I was horrified. I was sweating and shaking.” She then removed the dummy before his parents saw it.
TUI apologised and refunded the family £1,300 per person, the full cost of the five-star holiday.
The travel firm said: “We believe it was a misunderstanding with no intention to cause upset.”