To ask for your suggestions on getting Thomson to help minimise our hotel disruption

[FuckYouDailyMail]

Off to Tenerife at Easter and now had a letter from TUI advising that there will be substantial buildings work going on at our hotel. Checked it out on trip advisor and all recent reviews have people moaning about the state of the public areas during building works and the noise. None of this was happening when we booked and Thomson website still doesn't mention the building work.

Letter gave us number to phone if we wanted to talk about this so I called and it's basically cancel and get your money back or transfer to a different resort but we pay the difference. AIBU in thinking with a couple of weeks to go they should be helping us a bit more. No other local hotels available apparently and I don't want to swap to different resort as we wanted this one plus have car hire booked so don't want to change dates.

I asked if they could put us in a room away from the building work. Not something they can do apparently. Also asked if they could upgrade us to AI (we are HB) as compensation. Again no.

AIBU in being a bit narked that it's just a like it or lump it approach from Thomson and to ask you all if there is anything else I can do. I'm not looking for a free holiday just to go on this one feeling that we've not been let down by the travel agents.

Try putting this on their FB page and tweeting them about it.

yep, social media! twitter and facebook.

also if you have a Thomson shop near you, go in and talk to someone - then they can't hide behind a computer and a "policy".

I had this with virgin once. I asked to be moved as I had read things about theft at the hotel they had put us at. they said they couldn't move us. 2 days in and we'd had a lot of cash and other things stolen. they ended up moving us, paying the difference and refunding us.......

Thank you. I don't have twitter perhaps it's time I got it.

Not ideal but it does sound like you're cutting your nose off to spite your face. Change the hotel and change the car hire booking. Simple!

They have offered you a full refund which seems fair.

Sorry but I think YABABU.

They did send you a letter to inform you about the work and they've offered you the option of a full refund or a transfer to another hotel at an additional cost.

I can understand how disappointed you must feel, but I can see why they can't guarantee a disruption room for you - as presumably all guests will want to stay in those rooms and I'm not sure why you'd want an upgrade to AI to spend more time at a hotel that's like a building site.

I go to Tenerife quite often so if you name the hotel and the alternatives that are on offer I might be able to help with suggestions.

Disruption free room of course not a disruption room - sounds like you're already guaranteed one of those .

Great typo rookie!

If we were being offered another local hotel I'd take it but they've said there isn't any. Only option is change to a totally different holiday and pay the difference plus be out of pocket for car hire / airport parking if our dates and destination change. Or take refund and loose out car hire etc monies if o can't find an equivalent holiday with different company.

Ah ok sorry I thought they had other hotels in Tenerife.
Can you claim on your holiday insurance for car hire and airport parking if you cancel?

Not sure Rookie. I will check and also this weekend I've got more time to check out other operators to see if I can find something else. At first glance everything looks more expensive now than when I originally booked this holiday

We had this at Feb half term but a different canary island. We accepted the transfer to a different hotel as really wanted a holiday. We visited yo the hotel where works were taking place and it was truly awful, dust everywhere, bar closed off, tiles being drilled out everywhere. The noise was unbelievable, we were so glad we didn't chance still going.
Our travel company were very slow to be react, be willing to react, and offer alternatives.

it's basically cancel and get your money back or transfer to a different resort but we pay the difference

Two perfectly reasonable options. You want a freebie holiday because, surprise surprise, buildings sometimes need building work?

YABVU

My friends had a similar issue with Thomson during the Easter holidays. Except they phoned them up the day before travel and cancelled the holiday!

YABU - that is exactly what they offered us when we had to change our honeymoon two weeks before we flew because of terrorist attacks. I doubt you'll get much more for some building work they have offered you two decent options!

I'd look and see if I could book into a different hotel or even different island for the same money. They have loads of hotels to choose from.
I think a refund or move are both acceptible options.

Throw out some hotel names, lots of us go to the Canariy isles on holiday.

This does sound annoying. I would try hard not to pay the additional fee to switch to another resort.

I think YABABU means you are being a bit unreasonable.

Unfortunately you probably don't many options. They'll have it in their terms and conditions what they will offer. You're lucky it's not August or something when everything else would be fully booked.

If I were you I'd shop around other tour operators for something else in budget. Then if you can find something cancel and rebook.

You could try kicking up a fuss to get them to split the difference to upgrade to another resort. Worth a go if you make it clear you'd otherwise cancel.

I work in a job where sometimes things happen out of our control that mean we have to cancel events. We'd really rather not as clients hate it, but when it's an option between giving them a crap experience or giving full refund (despite us losing out financially), we cancel. By the time we cancel often it's too late for them to book something else, so it's pretty rough for the client, but having no experience is actually better than a crap one!