Thanks for the link, but I personally think Thomson's videos are
They are not dated and this can be misleading...."¦showing an area around the pool filmed one month, can be a different scenario at a different time of the year.
They focus too much on kiddies splashing around in the pool, instead of spending more time on filming the things that matter, like the rooms, dinning room and a little bit of the surrounding area.

In their resort video's, whoever has put together the videos for Torremolinos and Benalmadena obviously hasn't got a clue about the area or the boundaries and I find this unacceptable.

In the Torremolinos resort video, they are showing clips of the Puerto Marina which is in Benalmadena and has nothing to do with Torremolinos and depending where exactly you stay in Torremolinos, it's like showing Blackpool pier and staying in Morecambe.
In the Benalmadena resort video, they are showing the promenade and La Carihuela beach, which is in Torremolinos.
They've also shot a scene in front of the hotel Sol Aloha Puerto which again is in Montemar/Carihuela area of Torremolinos and sold under Torremolinos, yet they include it in a Benalmadena resort vid.

Maybe I'm a bit biased because I've videod hotels/resort for this site and when I look at the Thomson video for my favourite hotel on the Costa del Sol (Pez Espada) their old video consisted mainly of people splashing about in the sea and now I see they are focussing on the empty dinning room in their latest video.

Talk about "gloss it up"

I'm not a professional, I just point and shoot, and I do it for free as a hobby for HT because I want to, but having stayed at some of their hotels and in the case of the hotel Pez Espada, even I can see that they have used a wide angled or special lens to make the grassed sunbed area look huge, when the reality is, that it isn't as big as it is portrayed in their videos and there's always the usual scramble for sunbeds and at least I do know where the boundaries are and which hotel belongs in which resort.
IMO : Misrepresenting and misleading on certain aspects.

I know which video I prefer, but then I'm bound to say that.
Sanjiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

Now you've upset them Sanji - they obviously don't like the competiion and have gone into hiding. I've just had a look to check out a hotel in Tunisia where I stayed in October and can't get any pictures at all, only the music. I tried various other areas and the same happened. I then clicked through to "Reviews", which took me direct to Holidays Uncovered - not the most user-friendly place I find.

Sanji, have you contacted Thomsons to point this out to them?

Mind you, their videos are a bit like their brochures. They use the same photographs year in, year out, even though many Hotels have been redecorated or refurbished since the original photographs were taken.

But I do agree, I've seen some of the videos on their site and they are a tad misleading. At least your videos are more in-keeping with what HT is all about, ie showing/telling it as it really is.

It gives you a clue to what the hotel looks like. I have fancied a hotel and seen the video and thought its not for me. Thomas cook video's are even worse talk to some guests, but are they real guest a few quick shots and that is it.

I think it shows more than the brochure does, my hotel this year the video showed exactle how the hotel looked and was when I arrived. My hotel next year the video dosen't show enough of the rooms and spends too much time looking at the spa and inside pool. The room shots are at a funny angle with none of the bathroom being shown. Nice shot of the private beach, but could of shown more like the beach bar and the different restaurants in the hotel, but is showed the beach slopes gentle into the sea and the lovely golden sand.

Barut hotels in turkey always used to have 360 degree video of their hotels but they have a new site which I don't like, trying to make themselves more up market. I can't see tour ops doing 360 tours because it will show up all their misleading brochure pictures.

New video's from last year and this year have not been put on the site.

Better than nothing.

Holidays uncovered not user friendly you want to try holiday watchdog for confusing. Took me ages to how to work how to get to the forums and then its another fight to find the forum turkey, majorca, ect.

Holidays uncovered not user friendly you want to try holiday watchdog for confusing. Took me ages to how to work how to get to the forums and then its another fight to find the forum turkey, majorca, ect.

To me they all focus too much on the selling angle - they need to get people into their site hence the forums, reviews etc but when you get there you can't see the info for the links. TA is another one also. Our prime objective is to assist the holidaymakers I feel some other sites have other prime objectives.

I do like looking at the videos, but I dont think I would choose a holiday based on them anymore than I would choose one based on pics from a brochure.

About 8 years ago we went somewhere on the Algarve and I remember thinking when we got there that brochure pictures were out of date, and they are still using the same ones now. I think they should date the pictures.

Glynis, we know that HT is the best and most independent site on the net.

I tried to read a German site the other day as there were no British reviews of a hotel I was interested in, now that was really difficult.

I hope you asked for the hotel to be added here

Now you've upset them Sanji - they obviously don't like the competiion and have gone into hiding.

I've just viewed the Benalmadena resort video again and I'm really gonna upset them because I think it's a bloody cheek to film an area which is the other side of the Puerto Marina, which a few yards after/before (depending which way you are facing) the Hotel Sol Aloha Puerto belongs to Torremolinos, there's even a blinkin sign a few yards after the hotel saying "Torremolinos ends or Termino Torremolinos."
If you look closely at the video and pause it, you can make out the sign for the hotel Riu Nautilus and see the front of the hotel Sol Timor which are sold as situated in Torremolinos, which they are !
The video which is 2 mins long, is misrepresentation for at least 1 minute and maybe even longer and they are even showing the "point" or rock that separates la Carihuela beach from the Torremolinos (town) beach. Playa del Bonjondillo

Sanji, have you contacted Thomsons to point this out to them?

You've got to be joking Gary, Thomson treat me like a piece of "swear" in June and they go to hell and back for all I care, if they don't know the difference between the resorts and they are making the videos, then that's their problem, not mine, I just think it's blinkin laughable that they are paying someone to put these videos together and they can't even get that right.
If I booked a holiday to Benalmadena based on that video only, then I'd have them in court faster than their legs could carry them.

Sanjiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

Edit.... naughty naughty - Van

Soz can I use the word faeces ?
Very apt for Thomson, they are not on my Christmas card list this year.

Sanjiiiiiiiiiiiii

Surely, if Thomsons are misrepresenting Resorts in their videos, which it would appear that they are, then are they not in breach of the Trades Descriptions Act? Unless that does not apply in this case. I'm not sure if I am allowed to say that, but that would appear to be the case.

I've found many of their videos seem to focus on bikini clad young ladies!
Now I know thats a good selling point for a lot of us but what are the chances of them still being round the pool when I get there?

I've found many of their videos seem to focus on bikini clad young ladies!
Now I know thats a good selling point for a lot of us but what are the chances of them still being round the pool when I get there?

hee hee hee, i liked that

Why do you think I like watching the video's

The video's should be looked as just another tool to help you come to a decission, very rough guide. When I seen a video and not liked the hotel its not the decor or how new the pics are, its the way the pool area is laid out, tiny pool hardly any sunbathing area. a reception area and the rooms apart from the decor are basically the same from hotel to hotel just some more plush than others.

I actually took a chance this year and book a thomson platinum hotel the gran vista in ca'n picafort. It was new to thomson and there were hardly any reveiws on all the review sites and the video swung it for me and was exactle the same as in the video. I knew it was a recent video because it showed the new bathroom, and room was actually larger than it looked in the video.

I am going to the hemera next year and thats a upto date video because the room are refubished in the video, I thought it could of been more detailed.

I think the video's might not be the greatest in the world or up to date, but they better than nothing and do actually more than just the brochure pics. They give a idea of the lay out of the hotel and the pool area.

From what I gather though, scenes are included in these videos that are not actually in the Resort they are meant to be depicting. Unless I've been reading the above all wrong

I am more interested in the hotel video's, thomson push their luck with some of the resort video's but I have checked some of the resort video's for resorts I have stayed in and they were fairly accurate. I think the worst resort video I have seen is ca'n picafort 95% is of the beach and on going I couldn't recognise area of the beach in the video, it could of been shot at any beach in majorca.

I wonder if thomsons shoot the videp's themselves or have a agent who shoots the video's.

Come on then lets start a petition to get thomsons have upto date hotel video's with more details and upto date accurate resort video's

In my opinion all these videos of hotels are to be taken with a pinch of salt.

Do you really believe that it is filmed as is? A major cleaning operation has probably been ongoing before a certain part of the hotel is filmed. The best and newly decorated rooms are shown. Everything is staged.

Give me the "Sanji style video" anytime. Filmed unannounced and just as you and me would experience it when visiting a hotel.

These videos are nothing more and nothing less than an advertising tool. And that is how they should be seen.

Mark

Anybody with a bit of common sense would know its staged concerning the rooms and area's have been cleaned, just kike the photo's in the brochure.

What I am saying they are useful to see how the is layed out and what the pool area is like. I am not talking about the decor or what of furniture is the hotel. As I said I have looked at hotel in the brochure what mad the pool area look wonderful but viewing the video it showed the pool area in a very different light. In the brochure there will be 2 or 3 photo's but the video shows vastly more info on most hotels, but not all.

I don't think any hotel would allow thomson to just turn up and start filming.

Why don't HT start a section where members can leave their own video review, with advice on the site how to upload and level of video quality which will up load without any problems.

OK, Just a few points

I think the video's might not be the greatest in the world or up to date, but they better than nothing and do actually more than just the brochure pics. They give a idea of the lay out of the hotel and the pool area.

With a distorted concept of how big the area really is, it's surprising what a lens can do on the end of a camcorder.

thomson push their luck with some of the resort video's

Believe me, I know that area like the back of my hand and I could navigate it blind folded, Thomson have more than "pushed their luck" in their resort video of Benalmadena and apart from a couple of clips of people in boats, the marina and bikini clad girls sunbathing on the beach, which because of the lack of any background apart from the sea, it could be anywhere, all the rest of that video has been shot in an area that belongs to Torremolinos.
They show the sign for Tivoli World and a fleeting glance of the cable car, which if I really want to be pedantic, is in Arroyo de la Miel, which is a town in its own right and has been merged into Benalmadena by the sheer expansion of Benalmadena.

Do you really believe that it is filmed as is? A major cleaning operation has probably been ongoing before a certain part of the hotel is filmed. The best and newly decorated rooms are shown. Everything is staged.

The latest video for the Hotel Pez Espada, shows a lovely room, but to stay in that particular type of room, it will cost a couple, just under £200 extra in supplements, I think it was £196 the last time I paid it and it is a complete and utter diabolical rip off by Thomson because they advertise it as "a room with a garden view".

There are 4 types of rooms in that hotel, the one in the video, which could be a superior room on the top floor of the hotel, the standard rooms on the other side of the hotel which are smaller and have the smallest balcony you could ever imagine, just enough and I mean just enough for a small round plastic table and 2 plastic chairs, and then there are the rooms in the annexe which also overlook the gardens and the pool.

Unless the hotel rooms have had a mass refurbishment since I was there in June, then that room included in the video is staged or a superior room because all the bed linen, curtains and decor are blue/royal blue. (I will stand corrected if they have changed the colour of the bed linen since June)
I've been going to the hotel Pez Espada many years before Thomson got their little greedy mitts on it and I'm on first name terms with the staff, yet I have never ever been able to acquire one of the limited superior rooms on the top floor"¦usually, they are reserved for people who really want to pay through the nose or for fellow employees of Thomson and Med Playa managers.

Many years ago before Thomson got their little greedy mitts on the hotel and obtained a monopoly on it, I could ask for a room (apart from the top floor) and 9 times out of 10, I would be allocated that room or one as near as dam it, but now, you get the room that Thomson dictate as according to the price you have paid and if you have booked a standard room, then it ain't gonna be like the one featured in the video, guaranteed.!

I wonder if thomsons shoot the videp's themselves or have a agent who shoots the video's.

It shouldn't matter if uncle Tom Cobbly has shot the video, it should be accurate and there is absolutely no excuse to film an area that is within the Torremolinos boundary and the other side of the Puerto Marina.
Walking from the Marina, heading towards Torremolinos until you get to the Hotel Sol Aloha Puerto, that bit belongs ( and it is only a bit) to Benalmadena ( Playa del Saltillo) and then you pass a sign saying "Bienvenidos Torremolinos" (welcome).

They have filmed the wrong side of the boundary/Puerto and if you are staying in Benalmadena, then it can be a fair trek away.
Sorry, no excuse for it, Thomson are a multi million pound enterprise and they should stop misleading the public"¦whether it's a genuine mistake "¦I have my doubts or they employ some dumb who doesn't know when they are filming in front of the hotel Riu Nautilus, that it would be a good idea to check which resort Thomson are flogging this hotel as being within.

Ho Ho HO Thomson

Sanjiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

I don't think any hotel would allow thomson to just turn up and start filming.

They let me and I must have walked into most of those hotels in that area of Torremolinos and have just asked.
There has only been a problem if the hotel has been full and it's quite understandable that it is not right to film a room that is occupied, I wouldn't like it and therefore, I never push my luck with the hotel staff.

Sanjiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii