What was meant to be a short family break turned into a disaster. We — two adults and two children — stayed at Marlie Holiday Park on the 4th of July and were placed in Pod 10, which turned out to be severely infested with bed bugs.
On the first night, we noticed some movement in the bed but didn’t think much of it — it was late, and we were exhausted after travelling. The shock came the next morning when we found dead bugs and a large number of blood spots on the sheets. We reported it straight away and were moved to another pod the same day.
We sent photos of the infestation to the local manager, who simply acknowledged receiving them and seemed more focused on pointing out that we’d been moved — almost proudly — rather than showing any concern. There was no apology, no follow-up, and no sign that the issue was taken seriously. It was only after several chase-up emails and escalating the matter to Head Office that we finally received any proper response.
At the time of the move, there were no obvious bite marks, but within a few days, all four of us began developing painful, itchy bites. What we didn’t realise is that bed bug bites don’t appear immediately — they started showing up 3–4 days later, continued for nearly two weeks, and took just as long to fade. The discomfort was ongoing and genuinely unpleasant.
Eventually, the General Manager contacted us — but the only offer was a refund for the accommodation, with no recognition of everything we had to deal with: a GP visit, antibiotics, out-of-pocket medical costs, and a day of unpaid leave.
To make matters worse, Pod 10 was re-let the same day we checked out, raising serious concerns about hygiene standards and guest safety.
One of the most worrying parts of this whole experience is the very real risk of bringing bed bugs home, which could have turned a bad holiday into a months-long nightmare. Thankfully, we managed to avoid that — but I honestly don’t even want to imagine what it would have meant for our home, our children, and our lives if that had happened.
This wasn’t just an unfortunate incident — it was a clear failure in health, hygiene, and basic customer care. The lack of accountability from local management and the bare-minimum response after escalation made an already stressful experience even worse for our whole family.
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