A widow was left ‘absolutely furious’ after a Hilton hotel cancelled her Christmas Day lunch.
Lorna Brown booked the festive meal with her 84-year-old friend at the hotel in Gateshead back in August. They each paid the £30 deposit and were looking forward to enjoying it together, ChronicleLive reported.
But Ms Brown, from Kenton Bank Foot, Newcastle, was left fuming when they contacted her this week to say that her meal plans were scrapped.
She was informed that the hotel was shut from December 23 as there would be no electricity over the holiday period.
Whilst she was told she would receive her deposit back, she was outraged at the cancellation which is taking place so an engineer can turn off the electricity and fit electric vehicle charging points.
Ms Brown, who used to work in IT at Newcastle University, said: "I was shocked and shaken. I like to think of myself as being fairly strong but I'm really very, very cross about this. My friend is just as cross about it as I am.
"They said 'There will be no electricity for some of the time so it wasn't possible to have guests in'.
"I said 'Well I find this very difficult to understand, with the way business has been these last few years. Christmas is a big time for anyone to make profit. I find it very difficult to understand that men would want to come in and work over the Christmas period'.
"I was absolutely furious, I was nearly driven to swearing but obviously I wouldn't!"
Ms Brown said they had decided to dine out for the first time on Christmas Day after her friend lost her husband earlier this year.
She said: "My friend wanted something totally different. I said 'why don't we go out for the day?' and so that was the plan."
Ms Brown said she received the initial phone call, informing her that their meal wouldn't go ahead, on Tuesday. She said she was then contacted by a manager the following day.
She said: "They said there's work that needed done on the hotel and the electricity will be off for a long while and we can't accommodate anyone. They said the decision has come from higher up."
Ms Brown struggled for a while to find an alternative Christmas meal, as everywhere was booked up.
She said: "It's been stressful for us to have to try and book somewhere else, we don't want to have to travel too far. I must have made a dozen phone calls before I finally found somewhere to accommodate us for Christmas Day.
"I was just so annoyed that somebody would make this decision, particularly over a Christmas period. It was very disappointing."
Martin Robinson, General Manager of Hilton Newcastle Gateshead, said: "We are fitting electric vehicle charging points at the hotel, and the engineer has to isolate the hotel’s electricity to do this. As we are quieter over the Christmas holiday we decided to use this period to perform the works.
"We’re very sorry that this has impacted Ms Brown’s plans for Christmas and we have been in touch to try and make things right with her."
