Trade urged to pull together to fight false holiday sickness claims
The travel trade is being urged to pull together to fight the rise of false holiday sickness claims.
Speaking at the Advantage Conference in Provence this week, Deloitte lead partner Alistair Pritchard said it was a big issue for the industry.
"We need to get together and make sure we appropriately lobby government," he told delegates.
He referred to the recent decision by Jet2holidays to take direct action and put undercover detectives in resort to clamp down on claims companies touting customers.
Spanish hoteliers have threatened to ban British holidaymakers from all-inclusive hotels, claiming they haven’t seen the same rise in false claims in other markets.
Jet2holidays head of trade Alan Cross told TravelMole the operator’s detectives weren’t just in Spain but were in other resorts where the problem has been identified.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office last week updated its advice for holidaymakers going to Portugal, reminding them of serious implications if they are found to have made a false claim.
It had already issued the same advice for Brits going to Spain.
Cross said Jet2holidays was also tracking bookings to identify repeat offenders.
"We’ve had customers who have made a claim against a hotel, then again the year after, but have then booked to go back again. We’ve cancelled their bookings and given them a refund," he said.
"We’ve also told our agent partners to do the same."
He said agents, not just operators, are vulnerable to the scam, and will be even more so when the new Package Travel Directive comes into force next year.
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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