Three friends who booked a £1,500, all-inclusive holiday to Turkey were left in shock after arriving at their hotel only to be told to “go away”.
Aaron Hatton and Danielle Halsall, both 20, from St Helens, Merseyside, arrived in Turkey with another friend on 6 October after booking a week-long all-inclusive trip through Loveholidays.
After flying from Manchester airport, the group arrived at the Arsi Paradise Beach hotel at around 1am to find the gates locked. Unable to get in, they managed to speak to some guests on their balconies before a security guard approached them and told them to leave.
Speaking to the Liverpool Echo, Mr Hatton said: “We just wanted to go somewhere hot for a nice little holiday and booked something with Loveholidays”.
“We were dropped off at about 1am at this hotel we had booked and it was locked at the gates. We went round to the other side and we could see people on the balconies so we asked them how to get in – they said to go around to the front.
“There was a security guard looking at us and we were trying to get through but they kept saying go away, find somewhere else and that the hotel wasn’t open to the public. We showed them our phone with the booking and the name of the hotel but they kept shaking their head,” he added.
The trio had no choice but to move to the hotel’s sister property, the Arsi Blue Hotel, where their “cramped” room “had one double bed and one single bed”.
“We also paid extra for a bigger room with a sea view [at the initial hotel] which was worth £84 a night and after looking up the new hotel that was £18 per night, so we were downgraded,” said Mr Hatton.
“After 11.30pm we were told we could only get a drink from the water machine and that it wasn’t safe to leave the hotel at night. They told us to go and lock ourselves in our room,” he added.
After two days the group decided they wanted to go home and got in touch with Loveholidays, before filing an official complaint on 13 October. Their families had to pay over £500 to fly the them home, with Mr Hatton saying that the entire experience was “so stressful and traumatic”.
“We were left in a country we didn’t know in the middle of the night with nowhere to go.
“We registered a complaint on 13 October and it just said it was processing, we have tried to call Loveholidays but they said the phone line was for people who were still on holiday. It seems like Loveholidays are just not bothered”.
In a statement to The Independent, a spokesperson for Loveholidays said: “We’re very sorry Mr Hatton’s holiday did not live up to our usual high standards. We’re investigating the relocation error with our accommodation supplier to ensure it does not happen again and are doing all we can to support Mr Hatton’s claim.
“While we’re still within the usual timeframe to investigate this complaint, we’ve already been in touch with Mr Hatton to apologise and reimburse his accommodation costs, alongside offering a £100 voucher from Loveholidays”.
