Dream holiday turns into nightmare

A Turkish resort owner has made more than 100 elderly European tourists pay for the failure of their travel company. The French and Belgian holidaymakers were thrown out of their rooms in a hotel in Antalya. Their belongings were held hostage against an 80,000 euro bill.

A holiday guarantee fund paid half, but the owner of the bankrupt tour operator had to hand over 30,000 euros in cash to a friend of the hotelier in Belgium.

“It is not normal that a travel company, no matter how big or small, has to pay a ransom so its clients can eat or get into their rooms to collect medicines, or even their passport to get home,” said the travel agent.

However, even when the bulk of the money had been paid the nightmare was not over for the pensioners caught in the middle. The hotel owner insisted on charging each person 275 euros to get their possessions back.

Copyright © 2012 euronews