A group of friends say they were duped into booking a five-star holiday in a hotel which doesn't exist.

The Grand Sharm in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, is only an artist's impression in an Airtours brochure, but Graham Summers, his wife Gill and friends Andy and Vicky Nurthen believed it was the real thing when they booked in October.

Only within the past two weeks - despite several phone calls over the past two months - have they discovered the hotel will not finished before they are due to arrive on February 3.

Now Mr Summers, a self-employed tiler, fears the holiday will be a disaster.

He said: "Andy and Vicky are true, generous friends. They have always been very supportive. This was to be a special holiday which we have been planning a long time.

"I think we have been treated shabbily and that we are the victims of misrepresentation.

"We have been sold a product which doesn't exist," said Mr Summers, 50, of Sandy lane, Cottingley.

The friends' suspicions were raised in November when the invoice for the holiday made no reference to the Grand Sharm but instead had them booked into a three-star hotel. And it was significant that the hotel was no longer in the latest Airtours brochure.

"And as an alternative, we have been offered a hotel which is not the same standard, is further away from the area we chose and we are being offered £30 compensation each," Mr Summers added.

"All we are asking is for fairness. We are prepared to pay a little more - something acceptable to us all - instead of being dumped into somewhere where we have read bad reports about. We want the equivalent five-star hotel with the same facilities in the same area. We are not asking for favours that is what we have paid for."

Mrs Nurthen, of Keighley, said: "We went to Sharm El-Sheikh last year and told Graham and Gill how good it was and encouraged them come with us this year - so we feel a bit responsible."

She questioned why the holiday company had included a hotel in the brochure over which there was some doubt whether it would be finished.

A spokesman for Airtours said: "We were disappointed to learn that the property booked by Mr and Mrs Summers and Mr and Mrs Nurthen would not be ready to open before their arrival, as previously confirmed to us by the hotelier.

"Their holiday was sold on good faith and we are currently in discussion with the hotelier regarding this matter.

"We have worked hard to find another hotel of the same standard at no extra cost, or alternatively both couples can change their holiday to another destination with no amendment fee or receive a full refund."