Family arrive on Spain Loveholidays break to find hotel shut

The family had booked to stay at the 4R Regina Gran hotel, but could not get into the building

A family who booked a holiday in Spain turned up to find their hotel was closed due to coronavirus restrictions.

Paul Davis and Sharon Wells arrived in Salou with their son, 10, to find a sign on the hotel door saying it was still shut because of the pandemic.

They are one of a number of families which Loveholidays has been accused of "abandoning".

The online travel agency apologised and said it had been in touch with them to arrange compensation.

Ms Wells, of Market Rasen, said: "I was extremely angry. You turn up and expect to start your holiday, and we just didn't know what to do next."

Loveholidays said some hotel closures had not been "communicated to us"

The family booked their trip after the Foreign Office lifted its warning against all but essential international travel for some countries, including Spain.

However, they were left disappointed after arriving for their all-inclusive stay earlier this week.

Mr Davis said: "The taxi dropped us off; we walked around the back of the hotel thinking maybe it was partially shut, but it was all shut up."

The family tried to call Loveholidays for help, but Mr Davis said the customer service was "non-existent".

They paid for a night at another hotel before being relocated.

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Which? said it had been contacted by a number of Loveholiday customers who turned up in Spain to find accommodation had not reopened and the company was uncontactable.

The consumer body's travel editor Rory Boland said: "Really simple review of Loveholidays - terrible, do not book with them.

"You cannot be sure if the package is cancelled when you will get your money back.

"We have people travelling out to Spain who are suffering the lottery of whether their hotel will be open or not."

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In a statement, Loveholidays said the company "appear to be singled out" for issues which customers of other online travel agents were also facing.

A spokesperson said: "We acknowledge that some of our previous actions have caused uncertainty and confusion for our customers and we apologise for this.

"We are listening to customers and taking on their feedback and trying to improve matters by significantly increasing customer services resources so we can help them as needed.

"Unfortunately, as travel reopened, we did have a few instances of customers arriving at closed hotels where we had not been informed in advance of the hotel closure.

"As an online travel agent, we are reliant on suppliers informing us of closures."