British backpacker shares horror tale of hostelling holiday gone wrong

It should have been a dream trip away - but instead, Laura Denmar's holiday to Croatia turned into a dark nightmare.

The student from Cambridge was travelling with her boyfriend after refusing to pay additional charges for a hostel in the popular Croatian city, Split. She needed emergency hospital treatment after the incident in which she was brutally attacked with a metal bar as her boyfriend was pinned to a wall.

The incident happened after Laura booked a £60-per-night room on popular travel booking website Hostelworld. She said that it soon emerged that after arriving at the hostel she had originally booked, she was redirected to another apartment where more than thirty beds were clustered in one room, sharing one toilet with other guests staying at the property.

She told Good Morning Britain: "They had premeditated this attack. She [the cleaner] had locked us inside and he [the owner] turned up with another guy and held my boyfriend against a wall whilst she beat me with a metal pole."

Alijana Vuksic, the head of Split's tourist board, said: "We have sent her a letter of apology in the name of the city of Split and the county Split-Dalmatia.

"We want to invite her for holidays to show this was an isolated incident and that city of Split is a safe destination for British tourists."

The site Laura booked through, Hostelworld said: "The safety of our customers is of paramount importance to us. The relevant apartment was removed immediately from our site as soon as an issue was raised.

We have extensive procedures in place to ensure all accommodation providers on our site have the relevant licence for their country of operation and robust policies to ensure the authenticity of reviews. In this case, the Croatian authority confirmed that the provider was licensed."