Multas a TUI y Thomas Cook por enviar clientes a hoteles canarios en obras
Top story ABC Canarias on Friday 17 February 2017.
Article draws upon excellent article by Jon Douglas in BBC News business, ties to Tenerife, but unfortunately then introduces a few errors.
Tui and Thomas Cook were fined by ABTA, but Tui, with 48 fines in the last two years, was by far the worst offender, including fined at least three times for dumping clients on building sites.
- 2 March 2016 Fined £5,000 failing to inform customers of significant building works prior to departure
- 6 October 2015 Fined £4,000 failing to inform customers of significant building works prior to departure
- 14 July 2015 Fined £2,000 failing to inform customers of significant buildings works prior to departure
The fines imposed on Tui were trivial, little more than the cost of a couple of family holidays, and have failed to act as a deterrent, as those who were dumped by Thomson at the Be Live Tenerife building site learnt to their cost, a holiday from hell.
Be Live Tenerife is in Puerto de la Cruz, in the north of Tenerife, not the south of the island. The work that was taking place was not renovation. It was major building work. The hotel was closed September and October 2016. The work was not complete on time and the hotel should not have re-opened. The hotel re-opened as a building site, a building site where access should only have been to authorised contractors, a hard hat area.
The point made by BBC, that the fines are too small to act as a deterrent. The practice continues, tui are still dumping clients on building sites.
Be Live closed for two months, September and October 2016. It should not have reopened. The work was not complete, it opened as a building site.
Thomson knew the hotel was a building site, nevertheless they sent clients to the hotel.
Thomson are obliged to advise clients of building work, to offer alternative accommodation. They did neither, which is a breach of the ABTA Code of Conduct.
Their brochure and website were misleading as to what to expect at the hotel. Misrepresentation is a breach of Package Travel Regulations.
Thomas Cook were aware Be Live Tenerife was a building site and did not send clients.
This was not renovation, this was major building work.
ABC Canarias tweeted their article with pictures to Lope Afonso and to Ashotel.
Lope Afonso, Alcalde del Puerto de la Cruz, Mayor of Puerto de la Cruz.
To re-open, Be Live would have had to have provided a statement to the local Town Hall, Ayuntamiento, work was complete to obtain a licence to re-open. It would have had to have been checked by the Town Hall before a licence was issued. Was a false statement provided? Did the Town Hall fail to exercise due diligence?
Ashotel, Asociación hotelera y extrahotelera de Tenerife, La Palma, La Gomera y El Hierro, are the hotel association for Tenerife and nearby islands.
Are Ashotel happy with the damage this is doing to the reputation of hotels on the island, the damage it is doing to the reputation of Puerto de la Cruz and Tenerife?
Puerto de la Cruz, as has Tenerife, seen a record number of tourists, but this is only to generate a false sense of security. It is not because they are being pulled by Tenerife, it is because of the situation in Tunisia, Egypt, Turkey and other countries in the Middle East. As soon as the situation calms down in these countries, the tourist numbers will fall.
And it is not helped by clients being dumped on a building site.
Where is the money flowing into the local economy, the tourists on the streets?
Puerto de la Cruz has closed down bars, restaurants and shops, at night the remaining bars are closing at eleven o’clock if not earlier. The streets after eleven o’clock, not a soul to be seen. Where bars once employed two or three people, now they employ one.
When one bar was asked, why were they closing early, no gente en la calle.
All-inclusive hotels are killing the local economy. What use tourists if no money is flowing into the local economy? This is an issue Ashotel, Lope Afonso and his fellow mayors must address, and address as a matter of urgency, not pat themselves on the back because tourist numbers have increased. Or are they going to wait until there is complete collapse of the local economy, by which time it will be too late.
The answer is simple, do not grant hotels a licence to operate all-inclusive, any that do, will be closed down. Licence bed and breakfast and half board only, but not all-inclusive.
The only beneficiary of all-inclusive are tour companies such as Thomson.
And why are hotels even dependent on tour companies? We are not in the 1960s, hotels should be encouraged to seek direct bookings, offer good deals.
It is easy enough to travel from both airports to Puerto de la Cruz. From Tenerife Sur, 13 euros (less with a bono card).
Ashotels and the local mayors should be supporting the hotels to offer direct bookings.
One practical step would be to develop an open source platform for Tenerife and nearby islands. This would be self-financing, small fee charged for each booking. For example Expedia charge 15%. Any surplus, fund local community projects. To participate, would have to agree to a stringent Code of Conduct on Standards.
They must also clamp down hard on hotel operators like Be Live who are giving the island a bad name. Be Live is to take back to the bad old days of Costa del Sol in the 1960s when low standards were the norm.
