Tenerife - Los Gigantes - Illness / Gastroenteritus

Hi all,

Looking for some advice here.

It was my dad's 65th birthday on boxing day so to mark it we all decided to go to Tenerife for Xmas / New year just gone. He'd recently undergone cancer treatment so it was something we were all looking forward to. We booked 2 weeks at the Hotel Los Gigantes in Tenerife, where my parents had been for the previous 6 years. It's a Thomson Gold Hotel.

When we arrived the place was rife with talk of everyone becoming sick with bad diahorrea and vomiting from all the people my parents knew from previous years. The hotel did absolutely NOTHING. The Thomson reps did nothing. All there was, was a handwash disinfectant which unless you were looking for it you would never have found it.

Anyhoo, sadly for Dad he caught the bug on new years eve which meant he spent new years and the day after in bed. 2 days later I developed the symptoms and then the day we were due to come back my mother caught it too. She travelled back as she just wanted to get away from the place. Let me assure you, it's a VERY nasty bug. Terrible uncontrollable sickness and diahorrea (at the same time for my dad I'm sorry to have to tell you).

Since we have been back countless people have been in touch with us from our tripadvisor reviews of the place saying how we all became ill. Thomson have pretty much washed their hands of the situation, saying it's a virus brought to the hotel by the people on cruise ships. Long story short they have sent us each £50.00 in compensation as a "good will gesture".

Personally I don't think this is good enough. As i see it, it amounts to negligence on Thomson's behalf. Not telling anyone about the sickness bug in the hotel and now 4 months on the place is STILL litered with reports of the illness. People are now even cancelling their holidays here:

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel_Review-g1079320-d282376-Reviews-Hotel_Los_Gigantes-Acantilado_de_los_Gigantes_Tenerife_Canary_Islands.html

I don't know what to do? I have written back to Thomson's (CC'ing in Watchdog and someone I believe to be pretty high up in their customer services dept) as they have deemed this to be the end of the matter but we spent pretty much 2 weeks worrying with every little twinge that we would be coming down with this illness. It ruined the holiday completely and that's not a blag for a massive pay out. It genuinely did!

It's my 30th in May and I'm looking to book something up, maybe to Florida and sadly Thomson's are coming up cheapest.

Where do I turn?

Thanks for reading and your thoughts welcomed.

Deleerious