A teenager who splashed $A1700 on a working holiday was told to “get off her lazy fat a**e” and clean her hotel room after she complained it was “littered with used condoms”.
Portia Nancarrow flew to Zante in Greece earlier this month after booking with working holiday company Workers Family, who promised her “memories that will last a lifetime”.
Ms Nancarrow’s working experience was set to be an escape from the UK while staying at accommodation maintained by a cleaner.
But the 19-year-old claims she was instead put in a “filthy” apartment above a takeaway that had a smashed bed, rotten fridge and used condoms strewn over the floor.
Ms Nancarrow even claims she woke on the first night to discover a stranger at the end of her bed who accessed her room because there was no lock on her door.
Appalled at the conditions and after being told to clean it herself, the teenager flew home two days after her arrival and complained to Workers Holidays that she felt the trip had been missold.
However, she was met with a barrage of abuse in response to her requests for a refund, with one manager appearing to brand her a “malaka” — Greek for “w**ker”.
When she described the condition of her room, the manager appears to have suggested he would have “got (off his) lazy fat a**e and cleaned the f***ing apartment”.
Even after her attempts to tidy and clean the room, she claims it was still covered in “filth” so took photos to show the state of it even after cleaning.
Now Ms Nancarrow is hoping to warn other young girls to be careful when planning to work in holiday destinations after her “summer of a lifetime” turned into her worst nightmare.
Tony Furnival, one of the directors at Workers Family, admitted that it was “the lowest standard of accommodation” that was “not fit for tourists” — but said the workers should expect that.
Mr Furnival admitted there were faults on their part, however denied that Ms Nancarrow did not have access to pillows or that used condoms would have been left around.
Ms Nancarrow, from Ebbw Vale in Wales, said the accommodation was “disgusting”.
“When I first got there they put me in this accommodation (above a takeaway),” she explained.
“There were four beds that were already taken up. I had to ring one of the reps and he moved me upstairs.
“This new room they put me in was stinking. It was unreal. When you went in, all the doors had holes in them from where people had been fighting.
“There was a smashed-up bed all over the floor, rubbish everywhere, the floor was stinking. I took my shoes off for two seconds and my feet were black.
“Nothing had been cleaned. The fridge was so rotten you couldn’t even open it.
“All the bed was broken and that had to be chucked outside. They left that on the balcony.
“When they lifted the bed up, this girl didn’t want me to see it, but she was picking used condoms up with her hands.”
The 19-year-old said the showers weren’t even fit for prison, and the mattresses were dirty and covered in what looked like mud.
“We’d spent all this money, and they didn’t give me a pillow,” she claimed.
After complaining to the staff, Ms Nancarrow claims she was initially told to clean the apartment herself, but when she refused, another season worker was paid $A35 to do it.
“I’d paid all that money to come and they were telling me to clean the room,” she said.
“They got another (season worker) in there to clean it. She was just staying in the accommodation like me, and they paid her £20.
“They get your money, send you over there, then that’s it.
“I paid £600 ($A1069) for the accommodation, then I had to pay £60 ($A106) for membership, my flight was £230 ($A410), then when I got there I had to pay a £50 ($A90) deposit.
“All that to go there for just two days (in the end).”
After reaching out twice to three members of staff, Ms Nancarrow claims she received no reply after getting her money back.
It was only after she posted her experience online that Mr Furnival and manager Mitch Hodson responded.
“It’s a lot of money to pay when I could have had a couple of weeks on holiday having a nice time,” she said of the experience.
“The whole experience was awful.”
Workers Family claimed that Ms Nancarrow paid only £460 ($A820) for her accommodation, not £600 ($A1069).
Mr Furnival said the broken wardrobe in the bedroom should’ve been fixed, however the bunk bed situation was similar to a hostel, as advertised.
“If it is dirty, that’s the people that are living there,” Mr Furnival said.
“It’s hostel-style accommodation that they’re responsible for.
“There is cleaning to a degree (by cleaners). Because it’s the end of the season there are so many places she could have been moved.
“We’ve been doing this a lot of years, and while there’s various complaints come about, the way she’s described it, if this was as such a length as she said, do you not think it would be a national scandal?
“There were faults on our part, but the way it’s been painted, it’s really over the top.
“When these people are told that it’s basic accommodation, they know to expect that.”
Another employee from the company, Antony Ross, pointed out that there were many positive reviews on their page.
“Workers Family have looked after me and hundreds of my friends for summer after summer,” one review read.
“Agreed that room looks a state, but that’s one in a hundred, and it’s probably down to some p***heads ruining the room.
“Don’t blame the company, blame the muppet wannabe workers who probably ruined that room.”
