Holidaymakers were left in floods of tears when they faced being chucked out of their hotel unless they forked out for their room - a second time.
Guests at the La Branda Targa Water Park hotel in Morocco were asked by staff to pay £1,000 to keep their rooms after Europe's third largest tour companies went bust, one woman claimed.
There was screaming and crying at the hotel’s reception as guests refused to pay the extra cost, having already shelled out big sums for the sunshine breaks well in advance
Jessica Birch said her holiday had been “completely destroyed” after she was told to stump up large sums, or leave the hotel, she told the Mirror.
The guests' holiday took a drastic turn for the worse in the week that FTI Group - which is the parent company of two holiday providers that supply Loveholidays - filed for insolvency in Germany.
Has your holiday been impacted by the issues at FTI Group? Email webtravel@reachplc.com
On Wednesday afternoon, slips of paper were placed underneath doors asking guests to come to the reception. When they gathered, the hotel told them they needed to leave the hotel as their rooms had not been paid for, prompting outrage in the lobby, Jessica claimed.
“As there were a lot of us, we all refused to leave the hotel as there was clear strength in numbers here, with a lot of outspoken people,” Jessica, who is staying at the hotel, said on Friday.
She said that the guests tried to explain that they had already paid for their holiday in advance, via Loveholidays. The manager then demanded that the guests pay £1000 to keep their rooms, she claims.
Jessica said she found this confusing, as the cost for the hotel room had only been £500 originally.
“We all refused to pay, and people started to disperse back to their rooms. My partner and I stayed behind as lots of other people were coming back from day trips and we didn’t want them to have to pay [the £1,000 charge] since nobody else did,” she explained.
That evening Jessica said she saw two young women crying at the bar because they had been locked out of their room. The hotel’s reception refused to help them unless they paid the hotel for the room, they told Jessica.
A number of other families claimed they were paying for the hotel rooms on a day by day basis for fear of leaving the hotel, Jessica said.
"This should not be our responsibility to solve. It should be Loveholidays' and the hotel's responsibility to communicate, (rather than) every guest of this hotel communicating with Loveholidays. It has completely destroyed our holiday as we have spent a day and a half trying to fix this problem," she said.
On Saturday Jessica and other guests were told that their outstanding invoices had been paid by Loveholidays.
"We were informed 20 minutes ago by our hotel that our invoice has been paid, but we go home tomorrow afternoon so we’ve wasted our whole holiday worrying about this for nothing," she told the Mirror.
A Loveholidays spokesperson said: “Earlier this week the FTI Group, the parent company of one of our many accommodation and transfer suppliers, Youtravel, filed for insolvency. Only a very small portion of our customers are affected by this and we are working hard to minimise disruption to their holidays.
"We are aware that a small number of hotels have asked affected customers who are already on holiday to pay for their rooms again. We are absolutely committed to covering these costs and are working with affected customers, and the hotels involved, to make sure this happens.
"We are very sorry to hear of Ms Birch's experience with her hotel. We can confirm the hotel has now accepted payment from Loveholidays and we hope Ms Birch enjoys the rest of her holiday.
“If you are on holiday and need our support: Please contact our On Holiday Support Team by calling the number in your booking documents. If you’re travelling with us soon and are wondering if your holiday is affected: Please don’t worry. There is nothing you need to do – our team is working hard to honour any impacted bookings with another partner.”
Just 3% of Loveholidays bookings are thought to be impacted by the collapse of FTI Group.
La Branda Targa Water Park has been contacted for further comment.
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