A lesbian couple who flew out to a luxury five star Mexican resort to enjoy their dream honeymoon were left devastated after experiencing what they claim was homophobic abuse from hotel staff.
Emma Louise Morris, 27, and her wife Jo, 31, from Harwich, Essex, were married in July and decided to take a romantic break in Riviera Maya, Mexico just two days after they said I do.
Speaking exclusively to MailOnline, the couple allege staff at the Grand Bahia Principe Tulum Resort turned on them and referred to Jo as a ‘f***ing d***’ after she referred to Emma as ‘my wife’.
Emma claims staff destroyed her property and refused to serve her in the bar when they found out she was in a gay relationship.
Jo, an education sales manager, was even left with glass in her foot from a broken astray on the balcony she claims staff refused to clean up.
Emma Morris (left) married her partner Jo last month and then went on a disastrous honeymoon
Emma and Jo married on July 1 of this year and began their ten day honeymoon on July 3, which they booked through Thomas Cook.
Emma told Femail: ‘The first few days were good but my wife had used the phrase “my wife” when talking about me to various members of staff, this is when everything changed.
‘We were ignored at the restaurant and we weren’t allowed to get our own drinks. We would make contact with various waiters, raise our hands but they either went to a table that arrived after us or just simply stood at the bar and didn’t serve us.
‘My wife had to go to the bar to ask for drinks but was often told she must sit down and wait to be served. This happened at breakfast, lunch and dinner. The bar staff at the pool bar told my wife that she can’t have what she wanted to drink and must have “what she’s given”, which is not something you expect to hear at a 5 star all inclusive hotel.
Jo was left with glass in her foot after the hotel refused to clean up a broken ashtray on their balcony
‘The most shocking part of the whole honeymoon was my wife being called a “f****** d***” by a waiter at the hotel.’
Emma says she contacted the Thomas Cook representative as soon as the waiter called Jo the name, who told her to take pictures of him – but claims this didn’t stop the name-calling.
MailOnline has contacted Thomas Cook and Grand Bahia Principe Tulum Resort and is awaiting comment.
The problems didn’t end there for the couple, as they found a smashed ashtray on their balcony, which took days to be cleaned up and resulted in Jo getting glass in her foot.
‘When going into the balcony to put out our towels and swimwear to dry my wife discovered where the ashtray had gone. It was shattered on the floor of our balcony and a shard of glass went into Jo’s foot causing it to bleed,’ Emma said.
Emma’s GHD hair straighteners were also broken and the couple were refused service
‘We went straight to reception and asked for them to clear it up, as it was their fault and we didn’t have anything to clear it up with without cutting ourselves with shards of glass.
‘Over a five day period we went to a total of 13 members of staff, including managers, but this still wasn’t cleared up until finally a manager came to our room when the maids were cleaning nearby and they were told there and then to clear it up.’
Emma also found her GHD hair straighteners broken and hidden under a chair in the hotel room, despite leaving them in perfect condition when she left the room.
After arriving back in the UK the couple filed a complaint with Thomas Cook, and Emma claims it took them a month to respond.
The clerk says their problems started when Jo referred to her as ‘my wife’ to the hotel staff
‘We finally heard from them around a month after our original complaint when we were told we can have £500 back for our bad time, this was then confirmed in an email that said not £500 cash but £500 Thomas cook vouchers, we didn’t want to use Thomas Cook again so asked for cash,’ she said.
‘We were told we can only have £300 cash, less than 10% of what we paid for our honeymoon.’
Emma and Jo contacted ABTA, who advised them not to take the Thomas Cook vouchers.
‘We are genuinely so upset we don’t have happy memories from our honeymoon and we can never get that back,’ Emma said.
The couple offered £300 cash from Thomas Cook as compensation, which is less than 10% of what they paid for the holiday