How many of you reading this are either at an all-inclusive hotel or have been to one? And by all-inclusive, I'm tending towards excluding those which display four or even five stars. Why would I do this? Principally, and do please excuse the generalisation, the three-star all-inclusive might typically house a clientele that is most interested in the pursuit of compensation.
If you are and have been at an all-inclusive, and it does seem to apply mostly to all-inclusives, you may have been aware of some of the individuals who seem to hang around. They can be found inside hotel grounds and on hotel property as well as outside. Security in many a hotel is lax to the point of non-existent.
These individuals can include, inter alia, illegal street sellers. They move in from the streets and inhabit poolside and other areas. How on earth is this allowed to happen? Reasons, one in particular, have been offered to me. I'm not, it has to be said, convinced by allegations that "incentives" are offered to turn a blind eye. The street sellers just don't have that kind of wherewithal, albeit their masters may have. Even then, I frankly doubt it.
There are sellers of a different sort. They don't come armed with fake products (or drugs). They don't want any money as such. They are armed instead with claims' forms, either actual ones or available from websites. They are representatives of one of the most miserable, ethically reprehensible and morally bankrupt lines of business that exists in the holiday market. They come from law firms lining up to press compensation claims. The legal profession ethical? Most of it is, but there are also elements of it who - as the old gag would have it - would fail to distinguish between ethics and a county in eastern England.
The claiming of compensation, often for minor matters or perhaps even trumped up, is nothing new of course, but as a "business" it has more tools at its disposal - social networks - than were generally the case over five years ago when I previously looked into it. The circumstances as they were then have not altered, save for the seemingly greater determination to seek to extract compensation. They are principally of British making, involve British law firms and tour operators and British tourists from a culture that has been consumed by the pernicious influence of what was once mainly promoted at appropriate times on UK television and radio but which has now spread to social media.
The hotels are almost invariably the victims. Hard though it may be for some to feel sorry for them - and there are examples of their being their own worst enemies - the hotels are caught by contractual arrangements with tour operators and by the massive costs of challenging claims, which themselves will typically be greatly in excess of what a Spanish court might permit: there are caps under Spanish law but aren't under UK law. And it is UK law and UK courts which decide. It simply isn't worth hotels making challenges. Instead, they find that arrangements with tour operators are such that claims levelled against tour operators are deducted from the invoices the hotels send to the tour operators.
Hotels complain that tour operators are far too compliant in accepting claims. They are, after all, in a better position to fight claims in court, but generally tend not to, challenging only the obviously fraudulent attempts, such as trying to claim for something at a hotel that the holidaymaker had not been staying at.
This is an issue which doesn't affect only Mallorca. It is one that is evident in all the sun-and-beach regions where there is a mass of British tourism - Benidorm, Tenerife and elsewhere. Hosteltur magazine online reports that Ashotel, which is the association for hoteliers in Tenerife as well as in La Palma, La Gomera and El Hierro, has sent out a communication to its members in which it identifies one particular firm in north-west England as allegedly encouraging British tourists to press claims for the likes of food poisoning. Hosteltur also reports that Tui and Jet2 are making hotels aware of individuals who are knocking around hotels looking for likely claimants, with law firms operating on a no win, no fee basis.
There are, of course, genuine cases and very serious ones, such as claims against Thomson by holidaymakers who contracted cryptosporidium at a hotel in Can Picafort in June 2003 and which took until January 2011 to be settled. But many are anything but reasonable; they are what the tourism industry in Mallorca refers to as the "sport" of the holiday compensation claim, and one played principally by the British.
Coming back to those loitering around hotels, perhaps some holidaymakers will claim for the annoyance caused by illegal sellers. As I say, some hotels are their own worst enemies.
Showing posts with label Holidaymakers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Holidaymakers. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 24, 2016
Monday, July 29, 2013
Ruddy All-Inclusives
The local Spanish press, you may have noticed, takes a great deal of interest in what the foreign press has to say about Mallorca; the British and German press in particular. Typically, the sensationalist is what is picked up and it normally has to do with either Magalluf or Playa de Palma and with drunkenness, violence and all-round bad behaviour. Occasionally, however, there is something else to alert the local press, and an example of this was an article written for "The Sunday Times" last week by Matt Rudd. Its theme: all-inclusives.
Rudd's article was entitled "Escape from All-catraz". The allusion to a prison was a hotel in Can Picafort. It's probably best if the hotel remains unidentified. Rudd spent only fours day there, but in that time managed to spend only eight euros. He had gone outside and bought two gin and tonics.
Writing an article about all-inclusives for "The Sunday Times" requires, as with any newspaper, an understanding of the typical reader, and the typical reader of "The Sunday Times" would not, one imagines, be opting for an all-inclusive. If he or she were, then the paper has been wasting an enormous amount of effort in devoting as much attention as it does to exotic destinations or, in the case of Mallorca, to quaint country settings and the usual gushing drivel that passes for much travel writing.
Rudd isn't your normal travel journalist, though. That's because he is funny, and with all-inclusives, he can be as funny as he wants, because "The Sunday Times" reader will be only too happy to collude in the joke. But the humour, including, as an example, a description of being like a goose on a foie gras farm, doesn't disguise realities. The point about these realities, however, is that we know about them already. Though one would have to assume that the typical reader of "The Sunday Times" doesn't know about them.
In talking with the local press (Matias Valles at the Diario de Mallorca), Rudd highlights these things we know: all-inclusives have become more popular since economic crisis and the fall in the value of sterling; that holidaymakers at all-inclusives hardly ever venture out; that staff in such hotels are not happy because they don't get tips; and that the punters themselves are beginning to become disenchanted because what they see outside (if they go outside) is the consequence of their being in an all-inclusive - places closed down and a loss of character.
These are things that have been known about for ages. When I first started to write regularly all-inclusives (seven years ago), all the above were themes with the exception of the economic crisis and the situation with the pound. This clearly has made all-inclusives that much more attractive, but Rudd, in asking why the holidaymaker appears to have abandoned an adventurous spirit in favour of the all-inclusive, misses the point somewhat. The adventurous spirit disappeared long ago. It existed only when the holidaymaker knew relatively little about where he or she was going. This hasn't been the case for years; the internet has seen to this. Holidaymakers want convenience and a lack of hassle and the all-inclusive is really just a more extreme manifestation of a long-established trend: holidaymakers are, by and large, not adventurous.
Of course, some are, like Matt Rudd and so also like many a reader of "The Sunday Times". Over three years ago, Rudd wrote an article in which he admitted to being a "holiday snob". He didn't really have a lot of time for coastal resort Mallorca at all, referring to the "flabby pink people" to be found in the resorts. Interior Mallorca was where it was at, and for "The Sunday Times", this would be entirely appropriate.
On the one hand, I find myself being defensive about all-inclusives when the rise is taken for the enjoyment of a readership that would never typically be found dead in an all-inclusive. On the other hand, however, Rudd has done a service. He has attacked, belittled and ridiculed all-inclusive, which is representative of so much that is wrong with regional government policy, i.e. giving the hotels all they want and neglecting the alternatives. Rudd is a voice for these alternatives, be they country fincas, villas or, probably even, luxury apartments. The government would be wise to realise that a market which Rudd is addressing doesn't want what he experienced for four days. His article, in a very different way to sensationalist Magalluf articles, should be paid attention to. But of course, it won't be.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Rudd's article was entitled "Escape from All-catraz". The allusion to a prison was a hotel in Can Picafort. It's probably best if the hotel remains unidentified. Rudd spent only fours day there, but in that time managed to spend only eight euros. He had gone outside and bought two gin and tonics.
Writing an article about all-inclusives for "The Sunday Times" requires, as with any newspaper, an understanding of the typical reader, and the typical reader of "The Sunday Times" would not, one imagines, be opting for an all-inclusive. If he or she were, then the paper has been wasting an enormous amount of effort in devoting as much attention as it does to exotic destinations or, in the case of Mallorca, to quaint country settings and the usual gushing drivel that passes for much travel writing.
Rudd isn't your normal travel journalist, though. That's because he is funny, and with all-inclusives, he can be as funny as he wants, because "The Sunday Times" reader will be only too happy to collude in the joke. But the humour, including, as an example, a description of being like a goose on a foie gras farm, doesn't disguise realities. The point about these realities, however, is that we know about them already. Though one would have to assume that the typical reader of "The Sunday Times" doesn't know about them.
In talking with the local press (Matias Valles at the Diario de Mallorca), Rudd highlights these things we know: all-inclusives have become more popular since economic crisis and the fall in the value of sterling; that holidaymakers at all-inclusives hardly ever venture out; that staff in such hotels are not happy because they don't get tips; and that the punters themselves are beginning to become disenchanted because what they see outside (if they go outside) is the consequence of their being in an all-inclusive - places closed down and a loss of character.
These are things that have been known about for ages. When I first started to write regularly all-inclusives (seven years ago), all the above were themes with the exception of the economic crisis and the situation with the pound. This clearly has made all-inclusives that much more attractive, but Rudd, in asking why the holidaymaker appears to have abandoned an adventurous spirit in favour of the all-inclusive, misses the point somewhat. The adventurous spirit disappeared long ago. It existed only when the holidaymaker knew relatively little about where he or she was going. This hasn't been the case for years; the internet has seen to this. Holidaymakers want convenience and a lack of hassle and the all-inclusive is really just a more extreme manifestation of a long-established trend: holidaymakers are, by and large, not adventurous.
Of course, some are, like Matt Rudd and so also like many a reader of "The Sunday Times". Over three years ago, Rudd wrote an article in which he admitted to being a "holiday snob". He didn't really have a lot of time for coastal resort Mallorca at all, referring to the "flabby pink people" to be found in the resorts. Interior Mallorca was where it was at, and for "The Sunday Times", this would be entirely appropriate.
On the one hand, I find myself being defensive about all-inclusives when the rise is taken for the enjoyment of a readership that would never typically be found dead in an all-inclusive. On the other hand, however, Rudd has done a service. He has attacked, belittled and ridiculed all-inclusive, which is representative of so much that is wrong with regional government policy, i.e. giving the hotels all they want and neglecting the alternatives. Rudd is a voice for these alternatives, be they country fincas, villas or, probably even, luxury apartments. The government would be wise to realise that a market which Rudd is addressing doesn't want what he experienced for four days. His article, in a very different way to sensationalist Magalluf articles, should be paid attention to. But of course, it won't be.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
MALLORCA TODAY - And yet another fall from a balcony
Another day, another fall from a Mallorcan hotel balcony. This time, a Swede aged 36 or 40 depending on which report you read, from the second or third floor of Magalluf's Comodoro de Playa.
Eighteen-year-old Jake Evans, who survived a fall of some twenty metres from a balcony at the Torrenova Playa, is recovering in hospital and telling the local Spanish press what happened. Something about retrieving a lighter, and then slipping. A sunbed cushioned his fall.
Eighteen-year-old Jake Evans, who survived a fall of some twenty metres from a balcony at the Torrenova Playa, is recovering in hospital and telling the local Spanish press what happened. Something about retrieving a lighter, and then slipping. A sunbed cushioned his fall.
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