Karmen Paige was horrified when her three-year-old daughter found these soiled sheets under a bed at their holiday caravan (Picture: Supplied) When Karmen Paige booked a week-long stay at Haven’s Seashore Holiday Park in Yarmouth, she really needed a break. Her parents had both been diagnosed with cancer in the space of a year, and her dad had died on July 24, 2025. Pre-empting the pain of his first anniversary, she planned a holiday to get away from it all. It was expensive, £1,837 for seven nights, but the NHS worker from Essex was willing to spend it for quality time with her partner, Mark, and her two young kids. What she got was a nightmare. After checking in at the Norfolk site, Karmen was disappointed to find a pungent stench in their caravan. A few minutes later, her three-year-old daughter pulled something from under the bed: sheets and children’s clothes, soiled with what appeared to be urine and faeces. ‘I can’t say for definite, but I’ve worked in hospitals and care homes for five years, so I’m pretty clued up,’ Karmen, 36, told Metro. ‘That’s what it looked like, and that’s what it smelled like.’ Karmen had planned a trip to escape the grief of her dad’s first anniversary (Picture: Supplied) What upset her most, she said, was that her daughter had been the one to discover it. The family also noticed other hazards in the caravan, including a broken window handle, carpet peeling off the floor and a light with exposed electric wires hanging off the wall. Karmen took pictures and dragged the soiled items outside in a carrier bag while her partner went to complain at reception. The manager was ‘really embarrassed and apologetic’ and immediately sent a cleaner and a maintenance worker to address the issues. The family were given vouchers to the value of £30 to spend on-site while they waited. But when they returned, the smell was still ‘horrendous’ and the mattress – which Karmen said was stained – had not been changed. Her eleven-year-old son, who is autistic and has sensory issues, ‘really struggled’ with the smell and ended up sleeping in another caravan where family friends were staying. The family found several hazards in their caravan, including this electrical socket (Picture: Supplied) Karmen decided to stay because she ‘couldn’t take the children home from their only holiday’. She also felt responsible for their friends who they had asked to travel with them. Karmen reported the incident over email to the site’s guest experience manager during her stay. She was offered a £100 refund ‘as a gesture of goodwill’ but she responded asking them to provide a full refund instead. In an email seen by Metro, Haven’s Head of Park Experience & Leisure Operations acknowledged that ‘the discovery of soiled items underneath the bed in the children’s bedroom was clearly unacceptable and is not representative of the standard of cleanliness we expect our accommodation to be presented to our guests’. However, they declined to issue a full refund. Karmen said the holiday added more stress at an already difficult time (Picture: Supplied) ‘It was just stressful the whole time,’ Karmen said. ‘I spent my holiday on the phone complaining. I know it might sound like I just love a complaint, but I’m really not that kind of person.’ She added: ‘I find it quite uncomfortable, but these were things I was just so upset over and I felt my family holiday was not safe. ‘We spent a fortune in the arcades and all that stuff for the kids, we did all the little activities they offer. It was a lot, but I really needed that holiday.’ Karmen had previously stayed at another Haven site and said she was happy with that experience, but now she will ‘never’ consider booking with them again. ‘It was just one thing after the other. The sheets were my biggest thing, but it just felt like my whole holiday, I was having to get people out,’ she said. ‘There’d been no checks before we went in. The cleaners obviously are doing the bare minimum.’ A Haven spokesperson told Metro: ‘We’re sorry that on this occasion our accommodation wasn’t up to the standards our guests expect from us. ‘As soon as we were made aware, our team acted quickly to address the complaint. We apologised to the guest and and provided a partial refund.’