Travel operators are banning British tourists from hotel rooms with balconies - here’s why

British tourists have been banned from staying in hotels with dangerous balconies following a string of deaths on Spanish holiday resorts.

Travel operators TUI and Jet2 have ordered hotels not to put guests in rooms with balconies where the barrier is lower than 1.1m high, or where there are gaps in the railings that could be used for climbing.

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The hotels have claimed that travel operators are imposing the bans amid fears of multi-million pound legal claims after a number of people sued over the falls.

The Foreign Office has issued a warning to tourists to “avoid doing anything that might cost a life”.

New regulations for balcony heights

Francisco Gene, director of the Menorca Binibeca Hotel, told The Mirror, “TUI and Jet2 rules mean no British guests can stay in rooms with balconies that don’t meet new height requirements.

“In places like Magaluf in Majorca there have been a lot of accidents, usually after guests have been drinking and climb over to friends’ rooms.

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“It happens every month in peak season. Now if guests insist on a room they shouldn’t have we make them sign a disclaimer about the balcony.”

Climbing on and jumping from hotel balconies - known as ‘balconing’ - has been the cause of a number of deaths of British holidaymakers in recent years. In June alone this year Spanish authorities logged three more falling cases.

Deaths in recent years

Natalie Cormack, 19, was killed in Magaluf in April last year while trying to climb from one balcony to another, and in June last year Tom Hughes, of Wrexham died when he fell 65 feet in Magaluf.

Freddie Pring, 20, of Minehead, Somerset, also died in a balcony fall in Magaluf, and last July, 21 year old Michael Jones, from Bolton, died falling from hotel railings in Benidorm.

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A TUI UK spokesperson said, “Customer safety is our top priority. We work closely with hotel partners to ensure balconies meet recommended guidelines.”

A Jet2 Holidays spokesperson said, “We constantly review health and safety and balcony safety is very much part of that.”