Tui fined 48 times for breach of ABTA Code of Conduct
TUI, the largest tour company in the UK, holding company of Thomson and First Choice, has been fined 48 times in the past two years by the trade association ABTA for failure to comply with the ABTA Code of Conduct.
Abta’s code of conduct states customers should be told about building work in advance, or offered alternative travel arrangements or a full refund if the alternative would constitute a significant alteration to their holiday.
Research by BBC Radio 4 You and Yours shows TUI, which owns the holiday brands Thomson and First Choice, has been fined 48 times in the past two years by the trade association ABTA for breach of the ABTA Code of Conduct.
Of all the tour companies fined Thomson are by far the worst offenders.
As clients of Thomson Holidays learnt to their cost when they were dumped by Thomson on the Be Live Tenerife building site, Thomson continue to blatantly dump clients on building sites, continue to blatantly flout the ABTA Code of Conduct.
Had this have been a site in the UK, no visitors would have been allowed to enter without PPE; the likes of hard-hats, ear defenders, steel toe-capped workboots and hi-vis jackets.
There was building work externally and internally.
Externally, two terraces were out of action, as was for a time the swimming pool. Work was taking place on the fire escape, with a sign on the Fire Door to the Fire Escape saying No Entry. Also work at the side and front of the hotel.
The sun terrace was dug down to a depth of at least a foot. A digger, bulldozer, wheelbarrows, piles of rubble, half a dozen workers, pneumatic drills. Noise from the pneumatic drills horrendous. Rubble tipped over the wall into the street below.
A chill out terrace, cutting of metal beams the noise horrendous, the beams carried through the pool area on the shoulders of workmen where guests were on sunbeds. Had the workmen turned around, or anyone stood up from their sunbeds, a serious head injury wold have resulted.
As a result of these external areas not being available, clients were packed like sardines around the small pool, where the water was cold, where sun only from late morning until early afternoon, where the area was blasted out by loud music, deafening at midday, impossible for clients to relax.
Adjacent to the pool was a grassy are of unkempt grass, bare electrical cables poking through the grass. If clients attempted to use this grassy area, they were ordered to leave by an aggressive lifeguard. Told they had to pay 15 euros per person per day to use this segregated area.
Internally large areas were cordoned off, public toilets, a little tourist shop, a ballroom, the area the tour reps and car hire used. Everywhere was evidence of water damage to the ceiling. The lifts kept failing. One morning the power failed, guests trapped in the lifts in the dark, others plunged into the dark in their bathroom, no hot water, then no water. Downstairs a conference room was sealed off . The conference room and ballroom had collapsed ceilings, bare electrical cables hanging down from the ceiling, rubble on the floor, concrete beams held up by scaffolding poles (dangerous though possible for clients to gain access).
As a result of no ballroom, so-called entertainment held in the lounge. Very noisy, impossible to relax, chat with friends, read a book. If nothing else, did an excellent job of emptying the lounge at night.
Nowhere in the hotel, the few public areas that were available, for guests to relax.
Dumped on a building site. Absolutely horrific. No where near a 4-star
Major building work going on every day, this included kangos, jack hammers, heavy drilling, material removal with diggers, motor generator units running, unshielded Manual Metal Arc welding, chipping of hot slag, disc cutting, angle grinding and heavy metal being transported via a winch crane up and down the building. All of this going on whilst there were guests below. No structural support in the bar area directly beneath the removal of structural concrete.
Most areas of the hotel had been taped of and were inaccessible, due to work being carried out, with no warning signage or any locked doors. Doors leading to areas being worked on were unlocked.
The main fire escape of the building was being worked on all week and in the event of a fire would not have been in use, as entire sections of the metal stairs were being replaced and re-painted.
Leaking roofs inside the hotel caused by structural work (they’d removed so much concrete they’d gone down past the polythene membrane layer) which lead to flooding and power cuts during a rain storm, ceilings were coming down in areas open to guests — the tourist information shop for one.
No safety netting protecting guests from work.
The decibel level in the bar area, outside around the pool was totally unacceptable
Had this have been a site in the UK, no visitors would have been allowed to enter without PPE; the likes of hard-hats, ear defenders, steel toe-capped workboots and hi-vis jackets.
In all seriousness had an incident occurred there could well have been a very serious injury, even someone killed.
The hotel had closed for two months, September and October 2016. It should not have re-opened. It was not safe. If this was England, the hotel would have been surrounded by hoardings, no access to anyone other than fully kitted out authorised contractors, hard hats, steel toe-capped boots, hi-vis vests.
Thomson knew the hotel was a building site, and yet they knowingly sent clients to a building site, in clear breach of ABTA Code of Conduct. The claim by ABTA a one off, simply not true.
- Thomson rep on site
- pictures posted on twitter to which Thomson Cares responded
- tui board member former Thomson Holidays MD David Burling notified
- reviews and pictures posted on TripAdvisor
- Thomson internal website showed there was ongoing building work
When clients inquired what was going on, why was the hotel closed, if building work, when finished, what happens if not finished, Thomson simply lied, we do not know, there is no building work, must be confused with another hotel.
Thomson rep had to face angry clients everyday, demanding to know why dumped on a building site, compensation and relocation. And still Thomson sent clients to the building site.
ABTA Code of Conduct obliges its members to inform clients of any building work, to offer alternative accommodation.
There can be absolutely no excuse for Thomson sending clients to a building site.
ABTA Code of Conduct
Rule 2I, 3I — imposes an obligation upon the tour operator where building works are taking place that could have a serious impact upon the ‘Travel Arrangements’. Where there is a problem, they must ‘ensure’ that they notify their clients — in such circumstances they must offer a transfer to alternative accommodation at the same price or to provide them with their rights under Regulation 12 or 13 of The Package Travel Regulations, where the building works amount to a significant change;
Rule6A -requires that its members will maintain a high standard of service.
Rule 5A & 5B — imposes an obligation upon the tour operator to provide an acknowledgement to a letter of complaint with 14 days of receipt of the correspondence. A detailed reply, or a letter explaining the reason for the delay in responding, shall be sent not later than 28 days from the date of receipt of the correspondence.
In addition to problems with building work, the food was not good. Poor quality, hot dishes often cold, chips with everything even at breakfast, food cooked on a hot plate, often raw and running with blood on the inside. A serious health hazard.
Please accept our sincere apologies for the poor quality of the food in Resort. Upon investigating this, I can see that the food quality for the month of November was underachieving. For these reasons, I am pleased to raise a payment up to the value of £167.70 (One-hundred and sixty-seven pounds and seventy pence) in the form of a Holiday Voucher.
Thomson was aware there was a problem with the food, even offered clients refunds May 2016 and November 2016. If Thomson was aware, why did they not act?
The Be Live Tenerife Hotel is reserved for adults, so a peaceful environment’s guaranteed.
In addition to building work, noise, poor quality food, Thomson has misrepresented the hotel in their brochure and on their website. Apart from guaranteeing a peaceful environment, most of what Thomson claimed was available, was not. Misrepresentation, is a breach of Package Travel Regulations, a criminal offence.
These inaccuracies were drawn to the attention of Thomson over Christmas and New Year holiday. Thomson has still not corrected.
Thomson are a rogue company. As long as ABTA hit them with trivial fines, they will continue to breach the ABTA Code of Conduct.
- 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 to date, are little more than a couple of families going on holiday.
Until ABTA hit tui with punitive fines, order full refund plus costs plus damages for loss of enjoyment, Thomson will continue to dump clients on building sites, continue to blatantly flout the Code, as they get off Scot free.
What value ABTA membership if they fail to protect clients?
ABTA should be putting tui on notice, their ABTA membership will be terminated.
Nick Longman Thomson Holidays MD should resign from the ABTA board as a conflict of interest
If Thompson were a competent, reputable company, which clearly they are not, they would have gone to Be Live, instructed them to apologise to clients, provide a free stay at the hotel when all identified problems have been resolved (including replace the Be Live management at the hotel), with Thomson providing the flights (cost of which they recover from Be Live).
If Be Live refuse to cooperate, Thomson should no longer send clients, advise clients who try to book, sorry no longer available as does not meet our standards. For those who have booked, advise hotel no longer available, does not meet our standards, poor quality food, we cannot guarantee building work complete, offer alternative accommodation or full refund, if clients still wish to go, then promptly compensate for any problems they encounter.
This is what any reputable company concerned about reputation would do. Or does Thomson continue to send clients to sub-standard accommodation.
That Thomson ignored requests from You and Yours for an interview and refused to answer questions, once again illustrates their contempt for clients.
The response from ABTA was pathetic. They spoke as a trade body, not as a regulator. All they did was find excuses for Thomson.
ABTA claim when things go wrong, should be promptly resolved. Yes, if things go wrong, should immediately be resolved, something Thomson fail to do, and dumping clients on a building site, is not things going wrong.
Only have to look at hashtags on twitter
- #Thomson
- #ThomsonHolidays
- #tui
and Thomson facebook page (where complainants are blocked if they complain more than once) to see that Thomson is not responding promptly to complaints, and that many of the complaints are very serious.
ABTA repeatedly dismissed that Thomson are persistent offenders.
Be Live Tenerife building site, Thompson continued to send clients there, even though they knew it was a building site. They even lied to clients who inquired.
ABTA claim to be pro-active.
Let us see them ask Thomson for details of all the clients who were dumped November and December 2016 (and the work still appeared to be ongoing January 2017) and inquire of each client
- were they notified hotel was a building site, offered alternative accommodation
- how has their claims for compensation been handled
- have they been fully compensated
There can be no confidence in the impartiality of ABTA whilst Nick Longman Thomson Holidays MD remains on the ABTA board.
If encounter problems in Tenerife, Canary Islands or Spain, report to the local Tourist Information Centre. They will be keen to help as they cannot afford the bad reputation it can give to a resort.
Also ask for the official government complaint form, Hoja de Reclamación from where you are encountering the problem. Four sheets, one copy goes to client, one to hotel, and two to government. If hotel refuses to provide on request, an offence has been committed.
When clients requested Hoja de Reclamación they were fobbed off with a Be Live client survey form (that was not even for the hotel). When they queried this, hotel claimed that was all they had, there was nothing else. Hotel had to be ordered by local tourist information office to provide the official government form.
Does tui have a future, losing money, burdened with debt, contempt for clients? For the hotels, an expensive middle man they cannot afford, for local economies, definitely cannot afford when little money finds its way into the local economy thanks to all-inclusive hotels. Bad as all this is, the real question is, what future does a mass tourism operator have, an anachronism from the 1960s, when it is now so easy for anyone to book direct and make their own travel arrangements?
