HOTELS IN CLAIMS PSYCHOSIS
Establishments report huge hike in claims from tour operator customers as 'suspicious' inspector visits several hotels
THE APPEARANCE of a 'suspicious' British gas installations inspector at several Benidorm hotels has caused psychosis in the sector fuelled by a huge rise in claims from tour operator customers and some UK law firms.
This week, Hosbec (Benidorm’s hotel association) confirmed that over the past year the number of claims rose from 1,000 to 10,000 – an absolutely bewildering statistic.
The situation is causing major concern among Hosbec's members - highlighted by the arrival of a 'suspicious' guest at hotels.
Regarding this, Hosbec has sent out a warning to its members, as well as plac- ing the note on its website.
A British woman (with initials S.S.) has been staying in various recently reformed four-star hotels in Benidorm and Alicante, where she books herself in for one night.
In the early hours of the morning, she has been sneaking into areas that are off limits to guests (boiler rooms, etc) and taking photos and videos.
The next day she presents her “report” to the hotel management, saying she is a UK gas engineer. As well as showing “reports” to management, she also takes them to the Benidorm tourist offices, and then to Hosbec itself.
Some hotels were victim to the woman's outrageous comments on TripAdvisor: “I was flabbergasted to find all the boilers in this resort are illegal and leak poisonous gas into every apartment”, “You must not stay here until the problem is resolved, otherwise death or illness could be imminent”.
At another well-known recently renovated Benidorm hotel, she blocked the entrance to stop guests from entering while shouting that they would die if they stayed there. She was then arrested by the National Police, spending the night in a police station lock-up and then hauled in front of a judge who fined her.
Hosbec have stated: “The truth is that Spanish hotels, and those of the Valencia region in particular, are subjected to very tough security inspections, and the most evident proof of this is that the number of incidents after receiving 72 million tourists last year has been zero. And the same has happened in previous years.
"In addition, all hotels working with the British market are subjected to extensive checks and inspections by the tour operators themselves, which im- pose additional specific safety measures. However, it should be noted that the Spanish safety control system is much more rigid and demanding than the British one, so we are quite sure that all establishments scrupulously comply with all necessary measures.”
Hosbec also say that they have looked the woman up on the internet and didn’t find anything about her.
CBNews has found out that she is registered on the UK Gas Safe Register, but only for domestic gas services, not com- mercial services, so inspecting hotels would be definitely way out of her comfort zone.
What are the real reasons for her behaviour? Is she a fruit cake? Some hotel staff who have spoken to her seem to think so. Is she seeking some sort of compensation or is this some type of hidden camera joke that will blow up in the UK gutter press or television in months to come? Unique to British guests Regarding the claims hike, Hosbec points out it is unique to British holidaymakers.
“We do not have this problem with any other nationality – only the British that come on packages through a tour operator, namely Jet2, Tui, Thomas Cook and Monarch.”
Hosbec general secretary Nuria Montes told CBNews that the worst part of this is that in the case of illnesses, they do not actually have to prove that they were ill – and can make a ‘claim’ up to three years after returning from their holiday.
The often-bogus firms springing up make claims against the tour operators, charging excessive fees for themselves, and in turn the tour operators deduct the payout from the hotel bills, who are actually the ones footing this compensation culture. “This is also rife in Mexico and the Dominican Republic,” Nuria explained.
Unless the British government changes the law to clamp down on these firms it will be the innocent British holidaymakers who will end up suffering.
Prices will have to go up, and in some cases hotels may reduce the number of rooms available to the tour operators.