Two teenagers jetted abroad for two weeks of fun but were forced to flee after finding themselves caught up in the holiday from hell.

Hayley Price and Stephanie Green saved for months for their trip to the popular resort of Faliraki on the Greek island of Rhodes.

But the 19-year-olds were left penniless and terrified as the highlight of their summer turned into the worst experience of their lives.

In the space of six days the friends were forced to move rooms three times, found someone else sleeping in their beds, wasted two days waiting for their holiday rep to turn up, had their room raided and all their belongings and money stolen and were flown back to Birmingham instead of Gatwick The friends paid £261 each for two weeks at the Maria Christina apartments, located 500 metres from the beach and five minutes from the centre of Faliraki.

Secretary Hayley, of Western Place, Worthing and Stephanie, an Inland Revenue employee from Angmering, just wanted to have fun and celebrate Hayley's 19th birthday, due to fall in the second week of the holiday.

Hayley said: "We just wanted to go out, have fun and do some clubbing. It was something a bit different and quite cheap.

"But it turns out cheap is not always best."

On July 2, the teenagers flew from Gatwick, arriving in Greece at 5am.

Hayley said: "We got to the apartments, picked up our keys and were told which room to go to.

"We went to open our door but someone was already in the room. They said it was their apartment and they weren't leaving. We had been double booked but our rep didn't know what to do.

"We were exhausted after a four-and-a-half hour flight and just wanted to go to bed but had to wait around while they decided what to do.

"They said we had to move to other apartments but when we got there they weren't expecting us and had no clean rooms free.

"There was nowhere else for us to go and we thought the room couldn't be that bad so we agreed to stay. But when we got to the room it was disgustingly dirty. The bed linen obviously hadn't been cleaned. The floor had sticky stuff all over it, the sink was filled with dirty plates and the toilet was just disgusting. We couldn't sleep so we sat out on the balcony all night."

They spent the following day waiting for a rep who didn't turn up until 7pm, when they were told they had been found a clean room.

Finally able to unpack, the friends began their holiday, only to return the next day to find a note telling them they had to move again.

Hayley said: "We were sent back to our original apartment, where we were told a rep was waiting.

"We waited in the whole day before they turned up. We spent the night there and began to settle in and the next night we went out on the town.

"But when we came back we found the back door smashed in and all our belongings missing.

"They took everything except our clothes. We were really scared."

Of the six apartments at the complex, four had been burgled. The police came but it was a Sunday and they soon left, telling the tourists to come to the police station the next day.

With no money left and feeling unsafe, the teenagers decided to return to Sussex.

Their holiday firm, Greek specialists Olympic Holidays, agreed to fly them home for free but they had to wait three days for the next flight.

Hayley said: "About an hour before we were finally due to leave they told us we couldn't fly to Gatwick and they were flying us to Birmingham instead. That was to be our compensation. We were so angry."

The teenagers contacted Olympic to ask for their money back but were told they would not be receiving compensation.

Hayley said: "We feel we were very badly treated and we believe it's probably down to our age."

Kratinos Pyliotis, head of customer services for Olympic, said the firm shared the Maria Christina apartments with another UK tour operator.

He said: "For reasons unbeknown to us, their rep put their clients into our accommodation. It took us some time to sort it out with the other company.

"I'm very sorry it happened."

He said the free flights home were a goodwill gesture and the firm had to rely on operators finding seats available.

He was not aware the girls had ended up in Birmingham, adding: "If they care to contact us, we will gladly look at it again.

"Perhaps we should have been a bit more sympathetic with the initial request.

"We do not favour or adversely treat any client because of age, sex, creed, colour or religion."