Have you asked them the question?

I would suspect you are not alone in this.

There is also the possibility that they may not renew their contract in the circumstances and switch you to another resort.

fwh

Have spoken to Lunn Poly shop I booked it at but they most unhelpful - a pay up or shut up and suffer attitude ! Am hoping that Thomson pull out of this hotel and offer us another but if not then I will pay the £35 each.

This is just my personal view and what I would do"¦"¦
I would phone Thomson and insist that they change my hotel without any charges being passed down to me.

Under the tragic circumstances, I would state that I had lost all faith in their statement which they quote in their brochures about the health & safety of their clients and the accommodation that they use.
I would quote this particular line "The well being of our customers is a priority for us and, as you would expect from Thomson etc etc" and say that it is NOT in the best interest of my well being to have this on my mind for the next 10 months and during my holiday.

Presuming that they may or may not cancel the contract for next year at this accommodation is no assurance to continue with the booking.
Tour Operators have clearly failed in their pledge to personally inspect the accommodation and Tour Operators are legally accountable by legislation for your health and safety.

I suspect that FWH is correct, and you are not alone in this, however to have this issue on the back of your mind until next August is not a good thing I would feel exactly like you and this tragedy has affected me deeply, as I suspect it has affected many many people.

Presuming that Tour Operators will pull out of the accommodation is like presuming that you will have six numbers in next weeks lottery.
Many years ago, people lost their lives in Tenerife through a faulty water heater leaking carbon monoxide and IMO the buck of responsibility was passed around and around until everybody was dizzy.
One would have thought that the complex would have gone out of business, but alas Tour Operators continued to send families to that complex and today the complex is extremely popular.
The tourist industry is a "cut throat" business and I'm guessing that the contracts have already been finalised for 2007 before this tragedy....therefore, to pull out at this stage will mean that someone loses an awful lot of money.
HERE Health & Safety tick.

Sanji x

It was announced on the news at lunch time that the hotel`s license has been cancelled.

The licence has been suspended and is temporary until the all the investigations have been completed.

Sanji

Thanks Sanji, am going to phone Thomson, will keep you posted.

Lou,

To be honest, I really don't blame you for wanting to change your accomodation after this terrible unfortunate tradgedy. There are probably most people who will not wish to go there now, and its understandable.

Now, I work in a Thomsons(Lunn Poly) shop, and to be honest with you, I expected us to be told on our intranet which we use to find all up to date events that have been going on in the past (like we did with Turkey, and fires in Halkidiki) to inform us on whats happening, but no. Sorry to hear that your Thomson shop had a terrible attitude, I cant speak for whatever shop you went in to but my shop do try to be as helpful to customers as possible. As, however, there has been nothing on our intranet to say, they may have thought there is still no change.

However, now that the TO's will have had their contracts suspended as the hotel has had its licence suspended, Thomson may have to change you free of charge anyway. Unfortunately I havent come across anyone wishing to change/cancel, so I cant help you sorry, but i hope Thomson/or your Thomson shop you booked in can be helpful.

Hiya.
My personal thoughts are the following.....
Whilst the licence has been suspended and not withdrawn indefinitely, and as the hotel is now closed anyway and all guests have left until next season.
Everybody involved, in whatever way, will want a speedy conclusion to the investigations to reduce the amount of collateral damage directed towards the travel industry.....and the people who are responsible brought to justice.

Having said that, it wouldn't surprise me if during the next 6 months and before next years season kicks off, that this hotel is given a full safety check and the general public will therefore be reassured that everything is up to health & safety standards.
There is nothing to stop a team of British Gas engineers from being sent out there to check every pipe that runs through this hotel, ready for next season....and then the licence renewed.
If the above is the case, then it is in the TO's interest not to make any rash decisions at this stage.....we are talking about an awful lot of money here and whilst I believe that the Tour Operators will have to put the general publics interest first and foremost now, it doesn't necessarily mean that they will keep the public informed and reassured until such time that is convenient to them.

I personally wouldn't want to go there even if they lined the hotel in gold for next season, and in my opinion, that particular bungalow needs flattening to the ground.

I'm sorry to have such a pessimistic view on this, but I was around during the tragic events of Tenerife and the TO's continued to send families to this complex, even placing them next door to the apartment where people had lost their lives.
IMO:It was shameful, tragic and disgraceful and the biggest cover up.... but it happened.

Maybe the reason why you have had no info on your intranet could be because Thomson are too busy sorting out the costs at this stage.
Sanji x

Thanks for the info on the intranet SMILEonholiday, my Lunn Poly shop used to have a brilliant staff who we were very friendly with - sadly they have moved to other shops over the years. I'm not off work until Saturday so I will go and check things then.
I suspect that the licence being suspended is a big PR ploy now that the hotel is closed for the winter anyway and they will be hoping that the public forget by the new season.

Today, six people have been charged with manslaughter

They include the hotel director, general manager, maintenance manager, air conditioning installation manager and a maintenance employee.

The same charges were brought against an official of Thomas Cook, but TC deny that any charges have been issued against the company or officials.
Whilst the licence has been withdrawn, the Greek tourist minister indicated that it will be permanent, if this tragedy is established to be the responsibility of the management.

SanJi

my family also a few years ago got gassed in a sc complex in gumbet, luckily for us the incident didnt cause any permanent damage to the family, i had 2 children and a baby with us,we had bad head aches but the kids were very ill, vomitting lots, bad head aches, drowsy etc the symptoms of gas poisoning, they were taken to hospital, i had the sense to get in a few witnesses to the smell of gas who backed me up having a feeling the hotel would deny it, but what followed was horrendous, hotel denied any gas leak as suspected although the rep at the time admitted it then later on denied he had said it, but the management staff immediately opened all windows and doors as soon as they walked into the apt and took cooker and gas bottle out !!!! the TO was very unhelpful and gave me a £100 voucher after writing to them for 18 mths i got nowhere, what an insult , anyway i ended up going to court over it and won, but i didnt need all that hassle, the apts were never closed down and nor did the TO cancel their contract probably cos none of us died, i feel so sorry for this family and hope they get proper justice for what has happened and dont have to battle like we did , it could have so easily happened to us if i hadnt of been woken up with my son vomitting i dread what the consequences might have been

that is absolutely horrendous Karen. Makes you wonder how safe many of the hotels and apartments we all stay in really are. lets hope that out of this tradgedy some good comes and the relevant T/Os and hotel owners are made to make more springent checks. the health and safety rules in this country are now so tight but as we know many of the countries we visit this is just not the case

lyn

lyn it was horrendous but it was about 5 years ago now and thankfully kids were only ill for 4 days, thanks to the hospital giving them tabs to stop vomitting etc, the TO had the cheek to say that because we werent ill the whole 2 wks they wouldnt give us a full refund, even though some of us could have been killed , in the end they left me no choice but to take them to small claims court. ever since this incident happened we have booked into hotels and not sc nor have i been back to gumbet ,dont want the memories to be dragged back up, it obviously didnt put me off other areas of turkey though.my TO wasnt thomson so lets hope thomson do the right thing by this poor family

Hiya Ellie

That's an horrendous story you have just posted and my heart goes out to you and your family.
Just a point love, It was Thomas Cook who this family used, not Thomson...however Thomson do also use this accomodation and it could quite easily have been them and not TC.
There, but for the grace of God go I.......or all of us

sanji x

This tragedy really does make me want to keep on using hotels as opposed to apartments.....its a really sad thing to happen and each time i think about it, tears well up as they are doing now.As any mother will agree,i keep thinking what on earth would i do if that was me....nicole

Thats awful Karen. As well as you thinking what could have happened, to know that the place carried on running its business as though nothing had happened and actually doing a 'cover up' is appalling. I can understand why you would want to put it behind you.

I do think when we are on our hols we are taking our and our kids lives in our hands a bit.

I stayed in a 'Louis' hotel last year on Crete, they are actually quite expensive places to stay which makes one assume they are somehow safer (less corners cut perhaps?), and I think they are a chain owned by Greeks.

It just goes to show that even if you pay out more there are no guarantees that you are going to be any safer or that they carry out more health and safety checks than in a cheaper place. It's a worry for all really. Despite the chances of a 'break in' (which are probably quite slim anyway), it's probably best to sleep with a small window open if possible.

thanks for pointing out it was t cook oops, we didnt go with them either, i havent mentioned the TO we went with as i dont know if thats allowed or not

they assured me that all apts in this complex were going to be put on mains gas , not sure if this happened or not, but most of the complex was on mains gas just a few rooms including ours that still had bottled gas and thats were the problem lay somewhere there was a leak from the bottle to the cooker as after the changed the cooker and bottle i could still smell the gas so in the end they removed both and we had no cooking facilities for the rest the week as the gas leak happened at the beginning of our holiday, they moved us in week 2 to another apt

karen

What an awful experience Karen, thankfully you woke in time to avert a similar tragedy. We have been in to our local Lunn Poly shop today and they rang Thomson head office while we were there but it's the same tale "pay up to move or shut up and put up". We can if we wish write a letter to Thomson and the travel agents will pass it on for us. I think for peace of mind we will pay the £70 to change hotels but I find it strange that while mooching about the Thomson website for curiosity today that the hotel is no longer listed as one of the options ??? Maybe SMILEonholiday could enlighten me ?

i would definately change to other accommodation, but maybe if you are not going for a while hold on and see what happens they might change you free if they decide to pull out of this hotel, check to make sure that if you wait a while the fees wont increase, but personally £70 is nothing to make sure you are safe

if anyone wants to know the name of these apts we got gassed in pm me and ill let you know as i dont know if im allowed to name and shame them as they are on hotel reviews here and reviews surprisingly are ok which really annoys me when i know want we went though