Mr French and everyone The 4 Main People who could start the ball rolling on this. And say from 1st June any one of our customers that have a claim for Illness and or injury whilst in any of the accommodation that is booked through us MUST report it not only to the Manager/official of the Accommodation & MUST also report it and obtain a copy of the report to our in resort Reps It is a condition of booking that this is done Now if Mr Peter Fankhauser, Snr Friedrich Joussen, Mr Stephen Heapy and of course we cant forget Mr Mark Tanzer truly want to put a stop to this despicable situation then they as a group should stand up and be counted and come together as one and make a joint statement to the above, and stick to it, As for small claims Mr French you and i both know that if the defendant does not appear then the claim is granted so that's another thing that has got to stop. ALL claims against the tour operators must be defended even in the small claims court. As long as the fraudsters think that the claim will NOT be investigated/defended then they will have cart blanch on this fraud.

As for the 'innocent until proven guilty' theory, apparently the UK courts will decide on probabilities, hence the claims are targeted almost 100% at 'All Inclusive' hotels, stating the guest did not eat or drink outside of the hotel. ABTA is currently pushing for change in the UK law, however, as suggested in the FCOs travel advisory, filing a false claim could (and should) result in the claimant being sued by the travel company or by the hotel. This I would like to see, as its nothing more than a fraud, a scam, with the sole intent on makingmoney at the expense of the hotels.

The problem lies with the current UK law regarding 'small claims', and also permits the CMCs to operate in Spain looking for 'business'.

If only one orf two people make a claim the defence could be that if there was a real problem why have no others also made a claim. If people leave the A/I hotel and use a café or toilet outside the reason could be there. How do they know where they caught it from. Bring it on I say Just go to court an fight it and see what comes up and where is the proof that it was the hotel's fault. Of course if there were many people claiming all at the same time that is another matter. To fight it also the hotels must have a good H & S regime in operation with all the data to back it up..

Peter how can this be when most Hotels in Spain are not ALL Inclusive they cater for Half Board as well & not All Hotel are exclusive to the UK you will get guests from all other country's. As for 90% claims coming from women can you provide the stats to prove this. And how can you state that the cost to a UK Customer are far to cheap please go on the TUI/Neckerman site and price up a holiday to a Hotel in Spain that UK customers go to and you WILL see that the price is far less for those Customers than the UK Customer. And the Quality of the product is the same for the UK Customer as it is for other nationality's. And as far as calling customers SHMUCKS well ??? Ignorant comes to mind .

Of course Spanish hoteliers will not pull out of AI's - they make to much money. About 90% of complaints are from women, the answer is to reply to a complaint within 48 hours to get rid of them. The greatest issue to be addressed is that holidays from UK are far to cheap. The amount of money the hotel manager has to budget with in the purchase of food with is much to little. The traveller wants Harrods quality with Primark money and it these 'shmucks' who create the problem.

Not u again FYI not one What about a constructive comment on the discussion

Can i also say that i am sure that UK tourists don't just make false claims while on A/I holidays they do also go on H/B & S/C holidays so does that mean that the UK tourist will be stopped from going to Spain??

How many claims have you made ?

For goodness sake just name & shame both the the Claims firms & the travel Company's that just pay up. And as for those UK travel firms that do just pay up and then have the out and out cheek to charge the Spanish hotels that is a total disgrace. If someone is paid for something that is NOT proven in a court of law then the firm who paid out should NOT then charge another firm. This would NOT happen between two UK firms.And the Spanish hotels should say no we are not paying this you paid it without proof so you should stand the cost not us.It seems as if everybody is blaming the UK tourist in Spain for this and it is NOT every UK tourist its a small minority. UK travel company's should stick to there own rules as laid down in the T/Cs and stop all claims unless it can be proved with evidence from the Hotels that a claim is worthy of payment. And another thing i am sure that the travel company's have some kind of INSURANCE to provide them with a means of recouping the loss they make on such things??

Of course it happens in the UK.

Can the government not just produce a list of who these people are to protect others? I met a lady (using the term loosely) in Egypt, who openly bragged about how she took every holiday in order to make claims when she got back. Fish allergies, she slipped on a 'dry' floor, etc etc etc.. I did let the Hotel manager know what she was on with..

The law needs to change, so these 'scum' making false claims have to file their case in the country where the alleged illness took place.

Good job too if the hoteliers protect themselves against this type of disgraceful fraudulent customers. (British!)

If its true that The Travel Company's JUST PAY UP then its the fault of the UK travel company's They should take EVERY claim to the courts and if they are proven to be fraudulent that person should be put on a black list Just like disruptive passengers are.that will soon start to make the customer think long and hard about puting in a false claim.

Problem with that is it's cheaper to settle than to go through the courts as even if in the right will need to pay for own legal costs. If every tour operator went agency then it would soon disappear as contract would be with hotelier rather than a travel company... and who wants to claim abroad!