Episode 14 Rip Off Britain

We asked you who has left you feeling ripped off when it comes to

your holidays and you came back with a catalogue of travel disasters.

When we got to the hotel, it wasn't to the standard.

We felt totally ripped off and we paid to move somewhere else.

It happens all the time,

that somebody else has paid less for the holiday that I've paid more for.

So, whether it's a deliberate rip-off, a simple mistake,

or a catch in the small print,

we'll find out why you're out-of-pocket,

and what you can do about it.

Your stories, your money, this is Rip Off Britain.

Hello and, in this case, a very warm welcome to Rip Off Britain

where, along with a little sunshine, from the lovely island of Tenerife,

we'll be bringing you plenty of tips and advice,

in particular on how to stop your holiday being totally ruined by the

arrival of some unwanted guests and in this case, we do not mean people,

-Angela, do we?

-No, we don't, Gloria. In fact, what we are talking about

are various creatures that when you're on the beach

or in your hotel room, are said to be on the increase.

So, as we find out just why that might be,

we're also going to be sure that you are armed with everything you need

to know to avoid them causing a problem and, Julia,

I am feeling that I'm itching already.

Yeah, well, all these ticklish little customers can prove more than

just an annoyance. In some cases,

they can actually make or break your holiday.

One in particular can be especially difficult to shake off

and what's more, it only really comes out at night.

So, it's just as your head is hitting the pillow that you may

suddenly realise you're sharing your sheets

-with some very unsavoury bedfellows.

-Ouch.

Coming up: They're back with a vengeance.

Bedbugs.

So, what happens if they've infested your holiday accommodation?

It's just awful to hear the kids crying and I just felt...

We just both felt really bad, felt really guilty that it was

supposed to be fun for them and it had just turned into a nightmare.

And if it's true that there are more jellyfish than ever off UK shores,

what is the best way to avoid being stung on a day at the beach?

It looked like she'd had boiling water

poured over the tops of her legs.

They were really red and very hot.

It took us a long time to try and get her to calm down.

She went into anaphylactic shock.

Now, in our last series, we reported on a really horrible subject -

that of bedbugs in hotel accommodation abroad.

But I'm afraid now and I have to tell you,

I'm itching at the very thought of it,

the problem is rather closer to home, because those pesky,

unbearable critters are now hitching a ride back to our own shores,

in unprecedented numbers. And that means, and yes, you've guessed it,

even if you are on holiday in the UK,

you could find yourself sharing a room

with some of the most unwelcome bedfellows,

as happened to one family

who captured the whole thing late at night on camera.

Now, they're not the sort of guests anyone would want to share a hotel

bed with. They hide in your sheets and then they come out at night

to feast on your blood.

And if they get into your luggage, well,

you could end up taking them home as a souvenir.

Yes, it's the dreaded bedbug,

which, as we reported last year, seems to be making a big comeback.

We started seeing the bugs coming out from the headboard

and the sockets and behind the pictures on the walls

and everything again, and we said, we just can't stay in that room.

Tracey Lorenz told us how her holiday in Fuerteventura

was absolutely ruined by them.

I was really itchy, covered in bites,

all up my arms and legs.

I had bites up my face.

In my ears, where my face was on the pillow,

across my back and my front.

I was literally covered in bites.

I am so itchy already. Now, in the 1980s,

bedbugs had all but been eradicated in the developed world

but now, I'm afraid, they're on the rise again

and it isn't just on holidays abroad that you might come across them.

New infestations are reported in the UK every single week.

Now, Dr James Logan of the London School Of Tropical Medicine

is one of the country's leading experts on the pesky little devils

and knows all about the rise in numbers.

We found that there was around a sort of 30% increase

in bedbug infestations every year

and it's probably due to a number of things, including an increase

in people travelling, and that might be contributing a little bit

to bedbugs getting spread around the country.

And it seems they've spread to all kinds of different accommodation,

as childminder Nicky Martin found out after a much-needed night away.

Her children, Evie and Alfie,

had been so keen to go camping

but, worried about what creepy-crawlies

there might be around a tent, Nicky wasn't so sure.

The children really wanted to go camping.

We've camped before in the garden and they really loved it.

So we wanted to venture out somewhere a bit further.

We try to get out a lot, we ride bikes and we are quite outdoorsy.

I've never really liked camping that much because of bugs.

I'm a bit of a...like...

Bugs climbing in your ears and stuff when you're camping.

The family eventually agreed on what seemed a perfect compromise -

glamping, a more luxurious way of being close to nature,

which in this case meant camping in a wooden pod

and a front door to keep unwanted insects out.

Glamping, for us, was perfect.

It meant that we had the best of both worlds.

We could still have electric,

we could lock the door and still be outside.

Nicky booked one night in a camping pod

at the Billing Aquadrome Holiday Park in Northampton.

So we finally went ahead and booked it and then every day,

the kids were saying, "Is it today we're going camping?

"Is it today we're going camping?"

And then when the day finally came, they were just really excited.

And as soon as they arrived, the fun began.

Fairground and bike rides,

campfires, even toasting marshmallows.

And a great day ended with a much-needed night's sleep.

Or at least, that was the plan.

We'd been in bed about ten minutes before Alfie then started

complaining about being itchy

and we just thought he was sweaty cos he'd been playing

so much football with his friends and not had a shower.

So, we didn't really think much of it.

But when an hour later Alfie still couldn't sleep,

Nicky's husband Keith swapped beds

and soon he found that he was being kept awake as well.

Keith felt really itchy and he thought it was just in his head,

like when people talk about nits and stuff, you just think, ugh,

you feel like you've got nits as well.

He said he could feel stuff crawling on him and we put our lights on

and realised... That's when we saw them all,

and I just wanted to cry.

Awful. It became apparent that everyone's skin and bedclothes

were crawling with bedbugs,

so Nicky started filming, using her mobile phone,

to record the extent of the infestation.

I started to take photos of the bugs that we could see on the duvets.

There were bugs crawling on the children's faces.

And all on Evie's pillow, with her hair and it was horrible.

It was horrible to see.

In a panic, Nicky and Keith decided to get out of the room very quickly

and put the kids in the car but some of the bugs went with them.

I could hear the kids screaming cos they could see something,

so then I went back into the car and the duvet that I'd given them

had still had a bug on it. So I shook it off and by that point,

when they were in the car,

I was just thinking, they're just everywhere.

I just can't get away from them.

After calling the emergency number at the holiday park,

the staff did come to investigate

and after confirming that the pod did have a bedbug infestation,

it provided the family with alternative accommodation.

I then just started crying and Keith just hugged me

and just said, don't cry in front of the kids

cos it'll worry them more. It's just awful to hear the kids crying.

And we just both felt really bad,

felt really guilty that it was supposed to be fun for them

and it just turned into a nightmare.

The next day, the family returned home, but Nicky says the car,

bedding and clothes were still crawling with bugs,

so she followed the advice,

which is to wash garments and linen at a minimum of 60 degrees

to kill them.

One of the first things we did when we got home was just put

everything in the wash, all our clothes. For boil washes,

we left them out the front until there was space for them.

Even after we'd washed everything,

I still found a dead bug when I was folding up the clean washing.

There was also one in the suitcase that we had all our food in.

We fumigated the car.

We sprayed all our luggage, all our suitcases.

But even when we had washed stuff,

I wasn't completely confident that it had all gone anyway.

To be completely assured that they really were rid of the bugs,

Nicky decided to throw this lot away.

We threw away about £500 worth of belongings, air beds, bedding,

kids' cuddly toys...

..some things even after we've washed,

I wasn't comfortable that they were clean.

Since returning home,

Nicky has used social media to make it known that she was not happy

with her experience at Billing Aquadrome.

And after doing so, she was contacted by another family

who said the same thing had happened to them.

So I've actually had a message from a lady that stayed

in the same pod as us a few days before.

"We stayed in that pod for three nights.

"The next morning, we woke up covered in bites."

I just feel really sad for her that they got so many bites.

After complaining to the Billing Aquadrome Holiday Park,

Nicky was refunded the £42 cost of the one-night stay.

But she doesn't feel that that makes up for the terrible experience.

I can't believe the cleaners had never noticed

that there's bedbugs in there. It's left me feeling really angry.

I feel angry that they think they can keep

their pods in that condition and think that's acceptable

cos it's not. I'd never go back there.

We asked pest control expert Peter Barrow Davies

to have a look at Nicky's video footage to see what he made of it.

That's a pretty bad infestation.

Based on temperature and the availability of food,

it's looking like that's probably been there for six to nine months.

The insects that we are seeing are just the ones that

are on the surface. Bedbugs are the world's experts in hide and seek.

They've spent hundreds of years learning how to hide.

So what we're seeing on the surface is just what is coming out

and can't actually get into the places that they can hide

because there's so many insects in there.

This is something that we come across quite regularly.

A simple inspection by a pest controller

or even a housekeeper should really have spotted this early on.

Now, detection is one thing but the financial cost

for a business to tackle an infestation can soon mount up.

There is a huge cost of bedbugs to the hospitality industry.

If you look at an average hotel with an average infestation,

it will cost them between £5,000 and £10,000.

That's made up from treatment, lost rooms, negative publicity.

It really is a huge cost to the hospitality industry.

We spoke to the Billing Aquadrome Holiday Park.

It told us it sincerely regretted the inconvenience suffered

by Nicky and her family.

It says it acted immediately to upgrade and refund her

and to call in specialist help.

It added that despite entertaining hundreds of thousands of guests

that this had never happened before

and that the experts had helped to do everything it can

to make sure that it doesn't happen again.

Alfie, do you remember this?

You had bugs on your face.

-Did I?

-Yeah.

-On my face? Here?

On your face. But Mummy and Daddy never told you that.

But back at their home in Bedfordshire,

Nicky and her family will take some persuading to try camping again,

even at the glamping end of the scale.

As the saying goes, once bitten, twice shy.

It was like...

..something out of a horror movie.

The worst part of it for me was seeing the bugs on the kids' faces

and feeling awful that we'd put them in this, it was

supposed to be a holiday and then we just felt guilty that we'd...

..put them in this pod full of bugs, really.

Later in the programme, we'll hear how holiday-makers may unwittingly

be bringing bedbugs into the UK.

And as we'll see,

Peter and his team use sniffer dogs to hunt them down.

We'll have everything you need to know

about keeping those dreaded bugs at bay.

This time last year, we looked into reports that seagulls

were becoming really more aggressive and quite a menace

in British seaside resorts and we had some really great tips

on how you can avoid them swooping down to steal your food.

But now there's another creature that, every summer, it's claimed,

is becoming an increasing threat to anybody

who likes to dip rather more than just their toes into the sea.

And if you believe the scare stories that there are swarms of them

in the waters internationally, just waiting to pounce,

are jellyfish really on the rise along our shores?

And if so, what is the best way to avoid being stung?

Of all the mysterious creatures that live in the ocean,

the jellyfish is perhaps one of the most misunderstood

and also one of the most feared.

There's been an invasion on our beaches.

Barrel jellyfish have been spotted in huge numbers.

We've just spotted a large jellyfish off the side of the boat.

It looks quite frightening.

And as the temperature of the waters around the UK coast rise,

so, it seems, does the number of the gelatinous creatures

cropping up on our shores.

More and more jellyfish are being spotted on the UK's coastline.

So, how scared should we be?

Well, while tales of swarms of jellyfish are undoubtedly overhyped,

not least because you'd actually call a collection of jellyfish a bloom,

it does appear to be the case that jellyfish are being spotted

more frequently around UK beaches.

And if one stings you, it can really hurt,

as Michelle Anderson and her 11-year-old daughter Talisha,

discovered the hard way.

They'd been coming to this beach near Colwyn Bay in North Wales

since Talisha was a baby.

Talisha loved the water. She'd go and play with her friends,

brothers and sisters, in the water, splashing around.

You know, she kind of got used to being in

the shallower end of the waters

and then she just sort of ventured further out.

But in August 2015, Talisha's love of the sea was completely destroyed.

I first noticed something was wrong when she just let out a huge scream.

It was different than any other scream we'd heard.

It was pure agony, rather than,

"I've just fell over and hurt myself."

She was struggling to get out of the water.

She looked like she couldn't move.

We thought maybe she had her foot caught in a rock or something.

Michelle and her husband Tim rushed to see what had made their daughter

cry out, and were shocked by what they found.

When she stood up,

there was just a huge jellyfish over the top of her legs.

We had to drag her back into the water to try and make

the jellyfish move a bit more easily, so we could untangle her.

By this point, she was still screaming and it was probably

even worse, the fact that we were trying to pull them off her.

Talisha's own memories of that day are still terrifyingly vivid.

I was really scared at the time cos I didn't know what it was,

so I was like...

I tried to run out of the water but it was kind of heavy

and it was dragging me back.

I struggled to breathe because of the pain.

It was clear this was more than just a mild sting.

So Michelle quickly called an ambulance.

Her legs were very, very swollen,

to two or three times the size they were.

And it looked like she'd had boiling water poured over

the tops of her legs. They were really red and very hot.

It took us a long time to try and get her to calm down.

She went into anaphylactic shock.

Talisha was suffering a severe reaction

to the venom from the jellyfish.

There was nothing... There was nothing else that we could do,

apart from wait for the ambulance.

Paramedics arrived at the scene and Talisha was taken to hospital

for further treatment, including a shot of adrenaline.

Later, after some research,

Tim discovered that the most likely culprit

was the huge lion's mane jellyfish

which can grow two metres wide and up to 100 metres long.

When we told the doctor about it,

he was quite shocked to how big we said it was

cos he's not used to them being that big.

He was the one that said it was OK, it wasn't poisonous,

it was only venomous.

They gave her morphine to kill the pain,

they gave her, like, an ibuprofen gel

to take down the swelling of her legs and to ease the pain.

The next day, Talisha was well enough to be sent home

and though the scars on her legs eventually disappeared,

the psychological impact lives on

and Talisha is scared to go back into the water.

When I'm on the beach and I see jellyfish,

it worries me because I don't know what, like,

if the tide's going to come in and wash them on to me or something.

Cos I don't know if they've still got tentacles on or something.

But while some experts believe that, rather than there being more

jellyfish, we've just got better at spotting and recording them,

others, like conservationist and marine biologist Frankie Hobro,

believe that, as well as their numbers DEFINITELY increasing,

there is a clear explanation as to why.

There are a couple of factors contributing to

the larger numbers of jellyfish on our shores

and one of those is climate change

and warmer currents earlier on in the year

for longer periods during the year

and obviously those warmer currents are carrying jellyfish

in larger numbers, they are managing to breed earlier and for longer,

so you see them in much larger swarms locally

and around the shores.

The good news, however, is that most jellyfish around British shores

are unlikely to do any more than just sting.

But the painful irritation that causes is still best avoided.

So, if you do get stung, there's simple advice on what

you should do next, which I'm delighted to say

doesn't include a remedy perpetuated by the TV show, Friends.

Jellyfish sting. It hurts, it hurts, it hurts!

-Well, there's really only one thing you can do.

-What? What is it?

You're going to have to pee on it.

Well, that apparent remedy has become so established that when,

on a recent TV show,

adventurer Bear Grylls was stung by a jellyfish,

former Spice Girl Mel B did the honours in an attempt to help.

This finger is now getting really quite painful.

Mel's kindly offered two or three times to provide some urine.

But I'm afraid her valiant efforts won't have made any difference.

There is a myth about urinating on a jellyfish sting.

This doesn't work. It may actually make it worse,

so it really isn't advisable. However, there are some things

that you can do to relieve it instantly

and in the longer term as well.

If you haven't got anything at all to hand,

the best thing is to use sea water

and to try and rinse the tentacles off.

Very, very important that you do not get in contact with the tentacles

at all, yourself, with your skin.

So anything that you can to cover your skin

to try not to get stung any further and to try and remove the tentacles.

But of course, the best advice

is to avoid being stung in the first place.

So, experts like Frankie say it is worth taking heed of any warnings

that jellyfish have been spotted around a beach

that you might be visiting.

It's really important that people don't avoid going in the sea.

Instead, the simplest thing to make sure you don't get stung

is to wear a rash vest or a wet suit

and then if you do come in contact with the tentacles of any jellyfish,

you wouldn't even notice because they wouldn't be able to sting you

through those at all.

Back in Wales, that's exactly what Talisha will be doing once

she's ready to return to the water but, painful as her ordeal was, she

now has quite a positive attitude towards jellyfish themselves.

I don't think they are bad creatures because

if we're going into their home,

it's not like jellyfish would like it if they came into our home.

So it's kind of our fault if we get stung.

Still to come on Rip Off Britain,

how man's best friend is on the front line

in the battle against bedbugs.

So, the dog has taken Adam forward into these seats here.

You can see that the dog's working all over the front of the seats.

Earlier in the programme, we heard how one viewer was sharing

her accommodation with bedbugs.

It seems the tiny little pests really are back with a vengeance.

But help is at hand.

There's a whole industry springing up to deal with

the problem and front of the queue to tackle it

are some big-name hotels and airlines.

So meet the sniffer dogs, fighting to keep the bugs at bay.

You might assume that this emergency response team has been sent

to search this plane for explosives.

In fact, they're looking for something else.

It's not bombs they're sniffing out...

..it's bedbugs.

Good boy.

Charlie the chocolate Labrador is on the front line

in the war on bedbugs.

He is one of an army of sniffer dogs deployed across the UK

to tackle the rising number of infestations.

And handler Peter Bowers-Davis says companies that use dogs like Charlie

are much in demand.

We've probably seen a 50% to 100% increase in enquiries

through us for the use of our detection dogs

and our eradication methods for bedbugs,

which does indicate it is a rising problem in the UK.

And it's aeroplanes that have played a key part

in the recent rapid spread of bedbugs.

In many cases, they'll have hitched a ride on someone's bags

or carry-on luggage and they can spread fast in close proximity

to other travellers and their belongings.

This plane is a disused one in Leicester,

so it's the perfect place for dogs like Charlie to hone their skills,

picking up the bugs' very faint but distinct scent.

One of the reasons why we are doing this training exercise

on an aircraft is because bedbugs will get anywhere

where people are spending a number of hours,

sleeping, resting, not just on the bed,

but trains, aircraft, buses.

Inside these containers are hundreds of live bedbugs,

which will be placed on board the old plane for the dogs to find.

So, what we're going to do is go up onto the aircraft,

hide the three samples,

give it a couple of minutes to vent and let the scent start to rise

and then let the dogs go and search.

On a plane, bedbugs will find a number of hiding places

within the fabric of the aircraft.

Under the headrest and even within the magazine rack.

This is a favourite place for the bedbugs,

due to their attraction to CO2,

which is what you breathe out,

especially when you're asleep.

So, all the samples are now out

and we're ready to let the dogs come on and find them.

It's time to unleash Charlie to see if he can find the little bloodsuckers.

He's been doing it for over seven years,

so this should be a walk in the park.

So, the dog has taken Adam forward into these seats here.

You can see that the dog's working all over the front of the seats.

Charlie makes a beeline straight for the back row

and seems to have sniffed something out.

There he is. He's just located the sample and he's got his reward,

which is his tennis ball.

Bedbugs may be small but thanks to his nose,

Charlie has no problem finding them.

Pest control companies like Peter's are routinely employed by airlines

to check the planes currently in service.

If they find bugs, the airlines use various kinds of

heat treatment or chemical pesticides, while trying to keep

their planes on the ground for as little time as possible.

But Dr James Logan from the London School Of Hygiene And Tropical Medicine

says it's usually down to us that the creatures got on board in the first place.

So it seems we're all to blame for the booming bedbug population.

One of the things about bedbugs is that they're incredibly good

hitchhikers, so they're designed to be able to cling onto us,

to our clothing, and hide there or in our luggage.

They come out in the plane and, you know,

planes are full of nice little crevices and cracks

that they can hide in, so it's a perfect place for them

to sort of have a bit of a stopover.

So, time to get up close and personal with a bedbug.

Look away now if you're starting to itch.

-So, you're willing to do this?

-Yes.

-You're happy?

-Yeah, I'm ready.

-Yeah?

I've got some hungry bugs here.

They're male. Do you have a preference for which bug?

-We've got two here.

-I don't mind.

-That one looks good.

-So, if you can roll your sleeve up,

what we'll do is we'll just pop this bedbug on.

The bugs are drawn to human blood

and can consume three times their own body weight

in a single feed.

Do you feel it when they bite you?

I know it's happening because I can see it,

but I don't think I can feel anything.

-OK, so it's kind of like psychological...

-Psychological.

Yeah. Cos the thing about bedbugs is that, when they bite you,

they produce saliva and the saliva contains a sort of anaesthetic

and an anticoagulant, so it stops the blood from clotting

but it also means that you can't feel it,

which is why when you get bitten by hundreds of bedbugs in your bed,

you don't wake up and you don't know about it until the next day.

But there are simple ways you can minimise the risk of taking

any bedbugs home with you. In a hotel room,

the best advice is never put your bag on the floor,

from where they can easily climb into it.

Keep it on the luggage racks and fully zipped up.

And on a plane, one tip is to secure any carry-on luggage you might

put under your seat inside a plastic bag.

Although, of course, with any luck, those sniffer dogs

will have already made sure there aren't any bugs around.

And back in Leicester,

it's the success of ongoing training, like today's session,

that could determine if your future holiday will be free

from the menace of bedbugs.

So, we finished the training session.

It's gone very well. The dogs have been successful and Storm,

the operational dog, has had a tremendous find,

actually in the infrastructure of the aircraft.

So all in all, I'm really happy. It's gone very well.

If you've got a story you'd like us to investigate

then get in touch with us via our Facebook page...

..our website...

..or e-mail us at...

..or if you want to send us a letter, then our new address is...

I don't know about you but I am literally itching all over

after seeing those bedbugs.

But I thought they were pretty much a thing of the past

or at least more common only in hot climates like this.

So I was really surprised and a bit worried to hear that

they're on the increase closer to home. I don't like it, do you?

No, that's really bad news, I think.

But at least now you know what to do to keep away from them.

Just keep your luggage off the floor when you're away.

And that should at least help to lessen the risk of you

carrying any of them back home. I have to say,

they are most definitely not the kind of souvenir

-that I want to bring back.

-No way.

Anyway, that's certainly a top tip but for me,

today's standout fact was hearing that the old wives' tale

on how to treat a jellyfish sting with pee isn't true.

So there's no need to add embarrassment to agony in the future.

And on that delightful note, it's time for us to leave you.

We'll be back very soon with more of your stories but, until then,

-from all of us, goodbye.

-Bye-bye.

-Goodbye.