What have the other reviews been like?, was there photos to go with the review. You always get reviews that make things sound a lot worse than they are.

Though do contact your tour company with your concerns sooner rather than later.

Thanks, yes there is a photo and have just come back from Thomas cook who say they have had no adverse reports but willing to waive amendment fee for change of hotel only problem is everything is a lot more expensive than when we booked! Thanks again

You could write them a letter (send it recorded delivery) highlighting the problems you've read about & say that you are reserving the right to seek compensation should any of the items mentioned mar your holiday.

When you get to resort if you do have concerns then seek out your rep and fill in a complaints form asap, listing any issues in full. You must do this if you wish to pursue the matter on your return as you have give the Tour Operator the opportunity to solve the problem in resort.

I hope all goes well with your holiday. Please let us know how you get on.

Thanks both for your replies. I've had another thought and wonder what you think, after researching Thomas Cook's website, changing our accommodation with them does not seem a viable alternative, prices have gone up hugely, i've found stevens on the hill, which has fabulous reviews. Can we just use our flights and not use thomas cooks awful accommodation and book somewhere ourselves independantly which works out much cheaper than changing to one of their hotels? if so, do you think i will get the money back i paid for resort transfers as i will no longer need it? Thomas Cook have given me until 5pm tomorrow to let them know if i want to change, i assume this is because it is exactly six weeks tomorrow until we are due to fly. The reviews i have read are really concerning regarding health and safety, they say the shower is a death trap, the pool has missing tiles. place is filthy, pool bar is never open and all glasses etc are chipped. They had complained to the rep but they weren;t interested. When i was in the shop today querying this, they rang the resort to check what complaints had been made and i was told there was no adverse reports but they had 'murmerings' re the accommodation, but they would waive the amendment fee if i flew out on the same day to the same island. wonder why they would offer this if they were certain there was no problems? any advice is greatly appreciated. many thanks alison

Was it a package that you booked or were all the elements of your holiday separate?,as ifit is a package I am not sure where you stand.

Your second choice of accommodation is quite popular, and members from this site are there now having a wonderful time.

It was a full package holiday i booked. Thanks again for trying to help.

If it's a package then they may not allow you to drop the accommodation part. Your best option is to get in touch with them tomorrow and put your proposition to them regarding keeping the flight. If they refuse then advise them that you intend doing the above mentioned in my previous post & will seek legal advise on your return.

As far as I see it, there's nothing to stop you booking and paying for an alternative accommodation and not using that which you booked as part of your holiday package.

However, your flights, transfers and accommodation (original choice) is all part and parcel of the package so your transfer will take you to and collect you from your original hotel accommodation.

I can't see they will allow you to change at this stage to flight only without sticking some kind of charges on top.

I'm not sure how far away your other choice accommodation is but there are 2 options here:
1) Tell your agent/tour op that you will not be using the original accommodation but have chosen to stay elsewhere for your own piece of mind and at your own expense or,

2) Don't tell them, go to your original accommodation and check in as normal. Then take yourself off to your new unit and make your way back to your first accommodation for your transfer home. Don't check out of the first unit, keep your key until the last day as normal. At least it will give you the chance to see the room and the hotel complex for yourselves to see if indeed it's as bad as it was painted.

If your agent uses the accommodation you prefer the looks of, they may well alter your transfer but I think that's about as much as you will get from it.

Even if you booked the alternative and after having seen the first/original accommodation and it proved to be as bad as anticipated, then you decided to move into the second choice - I don't believe you would get any recompense without giving your agent/tour op the opportunity to rectify the situation. Plus they could say you already made your mind up to complain before you even got there.

There is another alternative: can you not go to the original accommodation and if worse comes to the worse, book online for the unit you like the look of?

You never know, the first unit you booked may just be perfectly fine!

I've read reviews of places where I've gone to stay expecting it to be the pits and have been pleasantly surprised.

Thanks again for the replies, I've seen photos and they are not good! We are not folk that just complain to see what we get back afterwards, my view is if the place is dirty we'll clean it but it does appear to be more than dirty. This holiday is the first time my husband and I have been away without the kids, they're now grown up! And we're celebrating our silver wedding too whilst away. I did try to do research before we went and most folk just complained about the hill but the reviews were all old ones. I'm speaking to the tour operator this morning, they at least are really nice about it and did appear to try to help. Funny thing is the resort won't actually change as the new accommodation is there too. They only have two hotels/apts available there, one is the one we have booked and the other is double the price of what we paid. Many thanks again for the advice. Alison

Oh sorry should have added, we're not looking for flight only, realise we booked a package and we are quite happy to accept we paid in full for original package it's just we wondered are we allowed to change our accommodation at own expense? The only thing I was hoping to get back was the resort transfer which was an optional extra we added on, not to worry if we can't as I'll be only too happy to have peace of mind about the accommodation, I just would have hated to have got there and found it was so awful and nothing we could do about it.

Hi Sparkycat in the past I've booked packaged and havnt bothered using the hotel once there. I've informed the rep at the airport and we've never had a problem with our return flight.

There was no problem with Thomas Cook today, they said we can just use the flights only. At least this way the holiday in the first instance was so cheap, we effectively have got two cheap flights and they can do what they want with the accommodation. We have just booked and confirmed our own choice of accommodation at Stevens on the Hill in Aghios Gordios so I am very happy. From now on we will definitely only do diy. The accommodation at Stevens is so reasonable too! if the reviews we have seen are right we will be going back here time and time again. many thanks for all the advice offered.

You have picked a good hotel and I'm sure your here all about the place as some fellow HT will be coming back from there on Monday. So there will soon be a reort of their travels going up

Can't wait to hear what they think of it, I am so excited now, six weeks and counting!

I think they have a thread running on the Corfu forum , sorry I'm not very good at doing links

Here you go

http://www.holidaytruths.co.uk/forum/aghios-gordios-t153749.html

Thanks luci

Thanks for the link, can't wait to go now!

Really pleased you got sorted Sparkycat