A CORFU hotel has slammed a British gran for “fabricating complaints” after she moaned her stay was a “nightmare” thanks to “no bacon, sausages or chips”.
The OAP was fishing for compensation from the start – and even blamed the staff for bad weather, the hotel’s boss claimed in response to her complaints.
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Susan Edwards, 69, from Westerhope, Newcastle upon Tyne, said her seven-night stay at the Lido Corfu Sun Hotel on the Greek island was the “worst holiday” she’d ever been on.
She told Chronicle Live there was “no English food” on the all-inclusive menu and she was “sick to death of looking at rice” by the end.
The grumbling gran was also dismayed at only being offered chips “one day out of the whole lot” during her £750pp week-long stay.
Now the hotel’s manager, Makis Triantafyllos, has hit back – claiming Susan’s complaints are all a ruse to get money back.
He told The Sun: “From the very beginning of her stay, [Susan] demonstrated clear intent to fabricate complaints in pursuit of financial compensation, going as far as to complain about the weather.”
She reportedly demanded to know from the staff: “Why is it raining?”
The manager claimed Susan’s attitude had been “sarcastic and dismissive” to staff who did their best to accommodate her.
Makis revealed that other hotels had contacted him to say they’d allegedly had similar run-ins with Susan in the past.
The hotelier fiercely defended the menu, saying the food service is “generous and diverse, offering fresh salads, fruits, hot and cold dishes daily”.
He fumed that Susan’s account of the food was “entirely false and disrespectful to our culinary staff”.
And as for the “no English food” dig – Makis said the Sun Hotel offers “world-renowned and beloved Mediterranean cuisine” with other options tailored to guests’ preferences – including those from the UK.
The spat continued over the issue of room keys.
Susan said she’d asked for a second key for her daughter because she herself gets tired in the afternoons and likes to pop back for a lie down.
She said the hotel told her: “No, too expensive.”
However, Makis said Susan was given a second room key but that it was “revoked after it was used solely to keep the electricity running – leaving the air conditioning on 24 hours a day, even with open windows and the room unoccupied.”
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This behaviour, he explained, “violates our sustainability and energy policies”.
Susan also took aim at the hotel’s facilities, claiming there was no entertainment at the site, which is “stuck in the middle of nowhere”.
She said trek down to the private beach was too steep to navigate.
The hotel said the beach is “approximately 300 meters away, accessible via a path that is clearly described”, and that it “hosts three weekly evening events by the pool“.
But it was the food and drink that most riled the bee in Susan’s bonnet.
She said: “On a morning you could have toast, a hard-boiled egg, or something in sauce.
“For breakfast there was mozzarella and sliced tomatoes. There was no hot bacon or sausage.
“We got chips one day. One day out of the whole lot.
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“There was fish, sardines and rice – I was sick to death of looking at rice.
“There was pasta and salads, none of this was marked [labelled].
“One night there was a Greek night and they had kebabs, I couldn’t eat that.”
The 69-year-old has to be careful with what she eats, as she has a condition called ulcerative colitis – a long-term inflammatory bowel disease.
Makis said Susan’s pre-occupation with poking holes in the services “clearly indicated that she was focused on securing compensation, rather than enjoying her holiday”.
He claimed it is a “well-known tactic among certain tourists – particularly from the UK – to pursue compensation by raising exaggerated or unfounded complaints.”
He said these are “often entirely disconnected from the actual services clearly described and agreed upon by the hotel and the tour operators”.
Hotel staff made “consistent and respectful efforts to accommodate her”, he said.
Makis added: “Targeting a hotel with excellent ratings (8+/10 on Booking.com and 4.3/5 on Google) and many loyal, returning guests, based solely on questionable accusations, is both unfair and damaging.”
After receiving Susan’s complaint, a TUI UK & I spokesperson said: “Our priority is to ensure customers have the best possible holiday experience, so we are sorry to hear that Mrs Edwards felt dissatisfied with her holiday. We have been in touch directly with Mrs Edwards to come to a resolution.”
The travel company offered her £100 in holiday vouchers – but Susan claims some people were offered more after complaining, and so declined the olive branch.
