Holidaymakers ‘Held Hostage’ In Hotel As Thomas Cook Faces Collapse

Ryan Farmer, from Leicestershire, told BBC Radio Five’s Stephen Nolan the hotel had on Saturday afternoon summoned all guests who were due to leave to go to reception “to pay additional fees, obviously because of the situation with Thomas Cook”.

With many tourists refusing to pay on the grounds they had already paid Thomas Cook, security guards were keeping the hotel’s gates shut, refusing to allow guests out, or to let new visitors enter.

“We can’t leave the hotel. I’d describe it as exactly the same as being held hostage,” Mr Farmer said.

Les Orangers, Hammamet Garden, and Thomas Cook have been approached for comment regarding the situation at the resorts, and representatives for the travel company are understood to be making their way to affected holidaymakers. 

Meanwhile, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has spoken out to assure holidaymakers that they would not be left stranded abroad if Thomas Cook collapses. 

The airlift is projected to cost some £600m and would be the UK’s biggest ever peacetime repatriation if the company goes bust. 

The travel company is at risk of falling into administration unless it finds £200 million in extra funds. The possibility of a failure to do so sparked fears that up to 150,000 holidaymakers could be left stranded.

But Mr Raab told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show on Sunday morning: “We have got all the contingency planning to make sure no one will be stranded.

“I don’t want to give all the details of it because it depends on the nature of how people are out there, whether they have got a package holiday or whether they just paid for the flights and sorted out something separately.”

He added: “But I can reassure people that in the worst case scenario, the contingency planning is there to avoid people being stranded.”

The firm could go bust on Sunday, company sources have allegedly told the Daily Mail, a collapse which would impact approximately 22,000 staff worldwide, 9,000 of which are based in the UK.