TRAPPED IN THOMAS COOK NIGHTMARE
Two families with children told to pay-up or leave Benidorm hotel
A COSTA holiday has become a nightmare for two families caught up by the demise of Thomas Cook while staying in Benidorm.
Dylan and Charrelle Hutchison, along with their 5-year-old son Leo and friends Leigh Crombie, partner Vicki Butchart and their four-year-old son Archie. were all staying at the Dynastic Hotel in the Rincon de Loix on an all-inclusive basis.
Charrelle spoke to CBNews about what has turned out to be a nightmare for them all.
She told our reporter that they had booked the package, which included flights and transfers, back in August 2018 at Thomas Cook in Glenrothes, Fife in Scotland and flew out for their week's holiday on September 18.
On Monday morning, when they heard of the collapse of the company, their all inclusive was cancelled with immediate effect and the hotel demanded that they pay a further €1,000 per family by noon or be ejected, even though they had already paid Thomas Cook.
With no alternative they eventually managed to find a self-catering apartment for the remaining two nights.
Unfortunately, it was on the very busy and noisy Calle Gerona, not at all suitable for young children, but with little alternative they booked it, and had to shell out a further €300 in addition to paying for another transfer to get them back to Alicante airport on Wednesday morning.
Fortunately, family helped them out, sending money across, enabling them to eat as the spare cash they had was swallowed for the deposit on the apartment.
It was their first time here in Benidorm and “Leo loved Mundomar - we’d had a great time until then” but their holiday has now been ruined Charrelle said.
As it was Atol protected they are keeping all their receipts in the hope that they will be able to claim back all the additional expenses.
But the backlash against the Dynastic Hotel on social media has been venomous, with many calling on Brits to ‘boycott’ the hotel for the shocking treatment of the two young families.
We tried to contact the hotel director a number of times for comment but he ‘was unavailable’ on each occasion.
On Tuesday, the British Embassy issued a statement assuring guests that hotel owners will be paid and should not remove guests or request on-the-spot payment- see full report on page 10.
Sadly, scammers are already at play with a number of people reporting that they have been called by a 'Thomas Cook refund agent' offering to give a full refund on their holiday.
All they need to do is read out the card details and 3 digit number on the back of the card. Sadly, there will be some that had actually booked with the company and will fall prey thinking it is a genuine call.