29 October 2023 , 10:00
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A British woman claimed she burst into tears at the end of her two-week holiday in Benidorm after the trip was ruined by "rude" Spanish people. Freda Jackson jetted off to the popular holiday destination in Alicante, Spain, to soak up the sun in the spring of 2017, but insisted her entire holiday was made miserable by other sun worshippers who "got on her nerves".
The grandma, who has mobility issues, said her accommodation was packed with local holidaymakers who nearly knocked her over on one occasion. She also slammed the hotel for being "focused and catered for the Spanish", as she believed they should "go somewhere else" for their holidays.
The grandmother demanded a full refund from travel operator Thomas Cook (Lancashire Telegraph / SWNS.com)Speaking in 2018, Freda, a retired care assistant, said: "The hotel was full of Spanish holidaymakers and they really got on our nerves because they were just so rude. One evening a Spanish guy nearly knocked me flying and he just walked off without even apologising. The entertainment in the hotel was all focused and catered for the Spanish - why can't the Spanish go somewhere else for their holidays?"
The pensioner had booked to stay at the Poseidon Playa, located on the outskirts of Benidorm, with a friend in April 2017. She said travel operator Thomas Cook had recommended the hotel, but despite her request for flat ground access, it was located on a slope instead.
Freda and her friend paid £1,133 for the holiday and demanded a full refund or a free trip after describing their holiday as a "disaster from start to finish". The grandmother-of-six added: "I have never complained about a holiday before - but this one was a disaster from start to finish. My friend and I paid for it from our pensions and it was a struggle trying to fund it over 12 months and the holiday was totally ruined - I cried after.
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"We wanted to go somewhere on flat ground and not in the hills because we have mobility issues. To top it off once we got to reception they told us we had been put on the 14th floor, thankfully we were moved to the second floor, and that it was 42 steps down to the hotel's swimming pool."
She booked to stay at the Poseidon Playa with a friend in 2017 (tripadvisor)The woman submitted a letter of complaint to Thomas Cook who initially offered her and her friend a £75 holiday voucher as compensation, but after Freda declined the offer, the travel company made an improved offer of £566 to be split between Freda and her friend.
The week after Freda's story went viral, she exclusively told The Mirror she had been wrongly painted as a "racist" and insisted her comments had been "taken out of context". She claimed she never said Spanish tourists should go somewhere else, but instead only complained that the hotel didn't "cater to English people".
She said: "It's all a pack of lies. I never said the Spanish should go to another hotel, just that the hotel didn't cater to English people. It's been totally taken out of context. Now people who don't even know me are calling me racist which is just not true. I didn't slag the Spanish off at all."