Thomson website on Hotel Be Live Tenerife bears no resemblance to reality

sun terrace

Thomson website gives a description of Hotel Be Live Tenerife. Only one problem, it fails to match reality.

The Be Live Tenerife Hotel is reserved for adults, so a peaceful environment’s guaranteed.

Thomson are dumping clients on a hotel that is a building site.

The noise is horrendous.

Apart from the noise of the building work, which gives you an early wake up call, there are other major problems of noise.

Around the pool, unpleasant arrogant entertainer blasts guests out with loud music, deafening at midday, plus shouting on a microphone.

In the lounge, noise from dire so-called entertainment, plus entertainer shouting on a microphone.

Impossible to relax either in the lounge or by the pool. Clients are driven out of the hotel or up to their rooms.

Peaceful environment guaranteed, must be Thomson’s idea of a sick joke.

• Thomson Holidays dump clients on building site
• Hotel Be Live Tenerife building site

There’s a buffet restaurant with outside seating.

There is a buffet restaurant. There is no outdoor seating.

There is a reserved area of the restaurant, for which clients have to pay 15 euros per person per day to sit in. It is not outside.

The hot meals leave much to be desired. Often cold.

Dishes are labelled. Often the labels are wrong.

Restaurant  is unbearably hot. Either no air conditioning or it is not working.

Hotel Be Live Tenerife Adults Club reserved area of restaurant. #Tenerife pic.twitter.com/K8oC0EG0Xb

— Keith Parkins (@keithpp) November 22, 2016

At night, chefs rustle up meat and fish to order. 

No food is cooked to order either by chefs or at night.

At dinner in the evening meat, fish and poultry is cooked on a hot plate. Often  it is under-cooked, blood in the interior, a serious health hazard. When cooked, it is piled up on a metal tray to get cold. The tray balancing on a metal  rail from where it could easily topple over onto the client scalding with hot fat.

The fish is not labelled other than to say it is fish.

Every couple of days meat dish is disgusting processed meat.

If you fancy a workout, the hotel has a small gym you can use.

Dilapidated equipment in the gym.

There’s an L-shaped pool and a handy bar to complete the scene.

Yes, there is a pool. No mention of guests packed in like sardines due to building work, no mention the water is cold, or the loud music blasting out around the pool, deafening at midday, or the brain-dead entertainer shouting on a microphone. Impossible to relax.

No mention of the grassy area beside the pool, for which clients are being charged 15 euros per person per day to use. Threatened by an aggressive lifeguard and ordered to leave should you venture into this area.

• Segregation at Hotel Be Live Tenerife
• Hotel Be Live Tenerife Adults Club scam

Away from the pool, there’s a first-floor terrace where you can take in the sun.

view from room of sun terrace

Yes, there is a sun terrace only cannot use because the hotel is a building site.

A good-size pool offering a sun terrace, sunbeds and parasols.

Define good-size pool. It is quite small.

You will be lucky to get a sunbed even luckier to grab a parasol.

When it rains, each sunbed covered with a pool of water. No one bothers to tip up the beds drain the water, wipe the beds dry.

The sun terrace is not not by the pool, it is in another outdoor area and out of use because it is a building site. As a result clients packed like sardines around the pool.

The resident band usually gets people on their feet.

There is no resident band.

The so-called entertainment does an excellent job driving people out of the lounge.

Lounge

Yes, there is a lounge only unusable due to noise in the lounge from so-called entertainment and entertainer shouting on a microphone.

The reason the nuisance  in the lounge, ballroom  is sealed off, ceiling has collapsed, rubble on the floor, scaffolding poles holding up concrete beams.

• Hotel Be Live Tenerife entertainment
• Hotel Be Live Tenerife entertainment excellent at emptying the lounge

wifi

No wifi in rooms. There is wifi in reception lobby. It is not free. A charge of 4 euros per hour to use.

Free wifi in local bars and coffee shops for the price of a drink.

library

No there is a not a library. There is a room with a few books that guests have left. Room unusable due to noise from so-called entertainment and entertainer shouting on a microphone.

garden

Adults Club

There is a grassy area beside the pool for which clients are charged 15 euros per person per day to use. If you access without paying, ordered to leave by an aggressive lifeguard, who otherwise sits in the pool bar all day.

Hotel Be Live Tenerife building site

sun terrace

view from room of sun terrace

Hotel Be Live Tenerife was closed for two months for major renovation and building work.

It reopened on Monday 31 October 2016.

It should never have reopened. It is a building site.

Large areas of the hotel are out of use.

Outside the sun terrace and chill out terrace are closed, leaving only a crowded area around the swimming pool, where clients are packed in like sardines.

There is a grassy area, but this is segregated off for Adults Club, and anyone who strays into this area is threatened by a lifeguard and ordered to move, else Police will be called.

Noise is horrendous both inside and outside the hotel from the building work.

On the sun terrace, pnuematic drills and a digger and a bulldozer.

On the chill out terrace, metal girders being cut with grinding wheels. These girders were carried through the swimming pool area. A miracle no one seriously injured.

Part of the ceiling inside has collapsed with rubble on the floor.

Inside, ballroom, toilets, downstairs conference room, are out of use.

scaffolding poles holding up concrete beams in conference room

Ballroom and downstairs conference room, ceiling appears to have collapsed, rubble on the floor. In both areas, concrete beams are being propped up by scaffoldng poles.

Not just a building site, potentially a death trap.

This begs three questions:

• why are the beams being propped up?
• what are the beams supporting?
• what will happen if the beams collapse?

Due to lack of use of ballroom, so-called entertainment has been relocated to the lounge. Lounge in darkness in the evening, horrendous noise. Guests who wish to relax, read a book, chat with friends, are forced to sit in reception, go to their rooms or go out. Entertainment guy shouting on a microphone.

Thompson fully aware of the situation, but refusing to do anying, are still sendng clients to the hotel. Thomson have even tried to claim they did not know what was going on.

Thomson rep at hotel completely out of her depth. Two weeks ago tried to claim work would be finished by the end of the day. Work is unlikely to be finished before Christmas.

No apology from either Thomson or Be Live.

No offer of redress as apology for example free wifi, free drinks.

Note:  wifi not available in rooms. Only in reception lobby.  A fee of 4 euros per hour to use. Local bars and cafés, free wifi for the cost of a drink.

No action by hotel management to mitigate. They could stop the nusiance around the pool, open the grassy area, the nuisance in the lounge. They refuse.

Black Friday, unbelievable, Be Live were offering 40% discount to stay at the building site. No mention of course that a building site.

No offer of compensation.

Compensation should either be free holiday, date and time of client choosing or if not possible to take, then full refund of holiday.

Be Live could offer free accommodation, with Thomson picking up cost of flight and transfer and travel insurance.

A lot of very angry clients.

If thinking of going to Hotel Be Live Tenerife, check reviews on TripAdvisor, check with travel agent and tour operator if work complete.

The hotel should close and remain closed until all building work complete.

Tour companies should not be sending clients to a building site. They should be advising clients of the situation, offering accomodation elsewhere or full refund of holiday.

At the very least, directors of Be Live appear to be criminally liable. To re-open, a statement would have had to be made. This statement would also have to have been checked. Who lied? Who turned a blind eye?

That hotel is open, is gross negligence by Be Live, if not criminal negligence. Demonstrates the contempt Be Live has for guests at its hotels, corporate greed more important than client satisfaction.

Thomson are in breach of UK law.

Is Puerto de la Cruz happy with Be Live destroying the reputation of the town and its hotels?

Is Tenerife happy with Be Live destroying the reputation of the island and its hotels?

Is Ashotel happy that one of its members is behaving in this way, destroying the reputation of Puerto de la Cruz, Tenerife and its member hotels?

• PHOTOS Hotel Be Live Tenerife building site

Thomson Holidays dump clients on building site

sun terrace

view from room of sun terrace

Book a holiday with Thomson, what do you expect? Not a building site that is for sure.

Arrival two weeks ago, sun terace a building site, digger, bulldozer, pnuematic drills.

What next? Raise with rep.

Rep claims Thomson not aware. Rep claims work finished by end of day.  That was two weeks ago.

Hotel was closed for two months. Reopened end of October as a building site, work nowhere near finished. Begs question how Thomson not aware.

Thomson are aware now, and yet still sending clients to a hotel they know to be a building site. Not advising clients prior to arrival of dire state of hotel.

The work is unlikely to be finished by Christmas.

Sun terrace out of use. Until yesterday, chillout terrace out of use.

As a consequence, area around swimming pool clients packed in like sardines. Subjected to loud music, plus noise from building site.

A grassy area adjacent to swimming pool, roped off, clients not allowed to use unless they pay hotel 15 euros per person per day.  If they have the audacity to attempt to use, ejected by an aggressive lifeguard who doubles as a bouncer. Welcome to Be Live Adults Club scam, rope off areas, then charge clients to use.

scaffolding poles holding up concrete beams in conference room

Internally, toilets, hairdresser, information room, ballroom, conference room,  sealed off.

In ballroom and conference room, concrete beams held up by scaffolding poles.

As a consequence of ballroom out of use, so-called entertainment held in lounge, very noisy, clients unable to relax, read a book or chat with friends,  are forced to go to rooms, sit in lobby in reception, or go out.

Thomson Cares, giving every impression of being a parody account, say refer to rep. Refuse to escalate to senior management.

@keithpp pic.twitter.com/a8xL9cn7Od

— Rachel Lucey (@RachelCLucey1) November 22, 2016

For the record, Thomson Holidays Managing Director, David Burling, david.burling@thomson.co.uk, but he lacks the courtesy to respond to e-mails.

Hotel Be Live Tenerife, in Puerto de la Cruz, please check with TripAdvisor, please check with your travel agent.

• PHOTOS Hotel Be Live Tenerife building site

Thomson holiday with free car hire scam

When an offer sounds too good to be true, it usually is just that, too good to be true.

A family booked a Thomson holiday with free car hire.

They arrived at Malaga Airport expecting to find their car. Well yes, they found a car, but not what they had expected.

Instead of the car they were expecting, and they had it in writing, a car that would take them and their luggage, they found instead a tiny micro-car, into which it was impossible to fit.

You and Yours, BBC Radio 4:

Imagine the scene – you arrive at Malaga airport and head off with your family of four to pick up the hire car. You bought this holiday because it came with a free hire car – a Ford Fusion or equivalent. But then you see the car and despite what’s written on your contract, the car isn’t a Fusion, or anything like it, it’s a tiny Renault Twingo or Peugeot 107. This is what happened to listener Reverend Richard Hancock when he found he would have to squeeze himself his wife and two sons, and 80 kilos of baggage allowance into a micro car.

Thomson, were contacted. If Thomson in Malaga are anything like Thomson in Tenerife, they offer what they jokingly call an improved service, instead of being able to call a local office, have to call a call centre in the UK (at additional cost).

The family were offered an upgrade, an upgrade to what they had already booked, an upgrade that was going to cost them £175.

The moral of the story, if an offer looks too good to be true, then it probably is.

And if you want to hire a car when you go on holiday, book locally when you arrive, cut out the middle man.

In Protaras in Cyprus, try Windmills Car Hire, a range of cars, and what you pay is what you pay, no hidden extras. Car hire includes breakdown cover and insurance. Cars are provided with a full tank, returned with a full tank.

Windmills Car Hire also do a good deal on currency exchange.

Why not cut the tour operator out of your hotel, out of your holiday? Book a flight, book direct, book the hotel direct, cut out the middle man.

Travel and leisure employees most likely to tell lies

Employees in the travel and leisure sector are more likely than any other to lie, according to HR experts.

Almost 30% of HR people working in the travel and tourism sector said they believed they were told more than 10 lies a week.

This places travel and leisure ahead of banking, media and construction as the most deceitful sector, according to a poll by People Management magazine.

According to the survey, 92% of HR professionals in all sectors believe they are lied to every week, and a third say the number of lies they hear is increasing.

Some businesses are using polygraphs to screen staff for drink and drug problems or criminal convictions, or in cases of fraud.

Other lies detected were the employee who claimed to have ‘caught’ Gulf War Syndrome or the accountant who passed his professional exams aged 14.

Robert Jeffery, editor of People Management, says: “We don’t know the exact factors why workers in the travel and leisure sector might be so willing to lie, or whether these HR professionals’ perceptions match reality.

“But if lying is taking place on such a widespread scale, it has a detrimental knock-on effect on all sorts of areas – from employee engagement and levels of trust in the organisation to rates of fraud.”

Published in Travel Mole.

It is difficult to know which are the biggest liars, the criminal banks or the tour companies. Has anyone met a Thomson rep who is not both bone idle and a liar?

My most recent experience was in booking a flight.

Dates and times which were suitable to me were chosen, the flight booked (actually part of a package, included hotel too). A couple of weeks before I was due to fly, the return leg was changed, not by half an hour or an hour, but several hours, the return flight was changed from a day flight to a night flight, no offer of compensation, even though night flights are cheaper, I would be greatly inconvenienced, be unable to get home and forced to spend the night at Gatwick Airport until I could catch a train in the morning.

The letter notifying me had some nonsense that the flights were only a rough guide and they reserved the right to change. This ignores the fact that we have legislation outlawing unreasonable clauses in contracts.

Having checked what flights were available, I decided I had two options. Either add three days onto the end of my holiday, or shift my holiday by three days.

I left it to my travel agent to resolve, with me sitting at her side.

No way, said Thomson, could three days be added to the end of the holiday. No explanation was given as to why.

Holidays tailored for you says the Thomson website, junk e-mail, TV ads and paperwork.

Ok, shift holiday by three days. No flights, was the response. Check your own website!

The Thomson website at the time showed four flights.

It will take five working days. Book a holiday, and it is instant. Try and change, and it takes five working days.

Whilst at the travel agent, the hotel was checked for accommodation, No problem.

Five working days pass, no response from Thomson. A week passes. No response. They are phoned. They are phoned several times over the morning, no response. Finally, late afternoon, a response from liars at Thomson, no can do, no accommodation at hotel.

Again checked with hotel. No problem with accommodation.

A few days before due to fly, having checked situation with hotel, try again. Same response from Thomson, except this time they embellish the lie, their area manager had gone to the hotel in person and checked, there is no accommodation available.

On arrival at the hotel, I again check the situation. They tell me yes accommodation and it would have been no problem to have changed my stay. Had area manager checked? No area manager had checked, not even the rep had checked.

I decided to take it up with the rep, and ask to see the area manager. Except I never see a Thomson rep, others ask me have I seen the rep as they have not seen a rep either.

On my last day, I am in another hotel and spot a Thomson rep. I ask would she please either using her mobile connect me through to the area manager or please give me his or her number. She refuses.

On my way home, I decide to try at the airport, only I find closed.

At my hotel, at least one person had the same problem of flight changed at short notice and was none too pleased.

At the airport whilst checking in, I ask others were they aware of the flight change? They say yes, they knew when they booked. Thinking must be last minute booking. They say no, had booked some months ago,

On my flight back, with an additional hour delay, I talk to my travelling companion. For her it was a sore subject. No way would she have booked this flight had she known it was going to be a night flight. Unlike myself, she had been given no notice of the change of flight times. The first she knew was when she arrived at the airport to find she had several hours wait for a flight that had been changed from a day flight to a night flight.