"We are unfortunately leaving this review because we feel other guests, particularly anyone travelling with a disabled family member, should be aware of our experience with Aqualuz Lagos.
This was not our first experience with Aqualuz. We had issues with accessibility during a previous stay, so when arranging this holiday we were extremely careful to make sure everything was confirmed in advance.
Before booking through Loveholidays, we specifically contacted Aqualuz directly to double-check that the required accessible/disabled room was available. We explained that my mother is disabled and that appropriate accommodation was essential. We were reassured that the room was available, which gave us the confidence to go ahead and make the booking.
Loveholidays also contacted Aqualuz regarding the requirement and requested the appropriate room. We were repeatedly reassured that this was being dealt with.
However, after the booking was made, we were subsequently told that the accessible room was not available.
After further chasing and even submitting a request through the hotel website, the room then suddenly became “available” — but only at this point after all the contact we had already had, we were told that we would have to pay an additional €512 to have it.
This was incredibly upsetting.
Our holiday cost over £6000 and we were not asking for some luxury upgrade or simply requesting a preferred room. We were asking for appropriate accommodation because one of the people travelling with us is disabled and genuinely requires accessible facilities.
What makes the situation even more difficult to accept is that we had exactly the same type of reservation last year and no additional money was taken from us for the accessible accommodation.
The accessible option was also not clearly visible to us or the agent as she confirmed in emails when making the booking, which is particularly concerning for anyone who needs accessibility as a necessity rather than a preference.
Communication and customer service
We spent a considerable amount of time contacting both Loveholidays and Aqualuz trying to resolve the situation.
We have to say that the communication from Aqualuz was extremely shoddy and frustrating. There were repeated delays, unclear responses and, at times, responses that simply did not appear to address what had actually been asked.
One particularly frustrating example was when we had been communicating through Loveholidays' agent, only for Aqualuz to effectively respond by telling the agent to contact Loveholidays regarding the matter. This was despite the agent already being the person communicating with Aqualuz on behalf of the booking.
It felt as though we were being passed from one side to the other rather than anyone taking ownership of the issue and providing a straightforward resolution.
By contrast, Loveholidays were supportive throughout this situation and their representatives made considerable efforts to try to resolve matters with Aqualuz. We appreciate the assistance they provided. Our concerns are specifically about the way Aqualuz handled the accessibility requirement and the communication surrounding it.
The previous complaint
One aspect of the communication particularly disappointed us. During the correspondence, Aqualuz appeared to suggest that we felt entitled to complain again because of our previous experience.
We want to be very clear that this was not the case.
The issues surrounding our previous stay were a completely separate matter and had already been resolved. In fact, Aqualuz themselves confirmed this in one of the many emails exchanged with us.
We did not refer to our previous experience because we expected preferential treatment or wanted to “complain again”. We referred to it because it was the reason we were particularly careful to check and confirm the accessibility arrangements before making this new booking.
Had the accessible room simply been provided as confirmed, there would have been no issue.
We have only reached the point of publishing this review now because, after giving Aqualuz every opportunity to resolve the matter directly and engaging in a lengthy email correspondence, we were left extremely dissatisfied with the final response we received from Aqualuz last week.
A special family celebration overshadowed
This holiday was particularly important to our family. We were all travelling together to celebrate two 40th birthdays, including my husband's, as well as my mother's birthday — my mother being the disabled member of our party.
Instead of being able to simply look forward to a very special family celebration, we were left dealing with unnecessary stress, uncertainty and additional costs surrounding basic accessibility requirements.
We find it extremely difficult to understand how a room can be confirmed as available before booking, become unavailable afterwards, and then become available again only when an additional €512 payment is requested.
We also believe that guests should be able to clearly understand what accessible accommodation is available before committing to a holiday and, importantly, whether there will be any additional cost involved.
After our previous experience and now this, we are extremely disappointed.
Accessibility should not be treated as a luxury upgrade. For a disabled guest, appropriate accessible accommodation is a necessity.
We hope Aqualuz takes this feedback seriously and reviews its procedures for dealing with disabled guests, accessibility requests and customer communication.
Nobody should have to go through this level of stress simply to ensure that a disabled family member has suitable accommodation.
We would strongly encourage anyone with accessibility requirements to get everything confirmed in writing directly with the hotel before booking, and to make absolutely certain that any accessible room is formally secured rather than relying on verbal assurances.
For us, what should have been a very special family celebration became overshadowed by an issue that we had taken every possible step to prevent.
A very disappointing experience, particularly given that we had specifically checked the accessibility arrangements before booking and had already experienced problems with Aqualuz previously."
