Holiday hotels force Brits on XL packages out

Hundreds of tourists from Britain have been forced out of their hotels following the collapse of travel company XL Leisure.

Resort hotel managers took the action fearing that their hotels wouldn’t be paid for the guests’ charges, even though the UK’s Civil Aviation Authority issued a guarantee of payment.

Approximately 85,000 UK holidaymakers are still abroad on XL package tours and sources inside the industry are warning that it could take up to two weeks and £20 million to bring them home.

Planes from all corners of Europe have been enlisted to participate in a massive airlift comprising 46 flights to repatriate 21,000 British tourists.

An additional 200,000 travellers who booked their holidays with Britain’s third largest travel company are now finding that they have lost those travel packages and will have to seek refunds through the government-backed ATOL scheme.

Some 150 tourists were left stranded at the Turkish holiday resort of Bodrum, when K&S Travel also ceased trading.

Thomson and First Choice worked to find alternate accommodations for XL package tourists who had been booted out of their hotels abroad.

The director of consumer protection for the CAA, Richard Jackson, said: “With help from the travel trade, we have been working very hard to look after XL’s customers.

“Our immediate challenge has been to repatriate holidaymakers due home in the days following the company’s collapse.”

www.xl.com