Has Thomsons dropped Tsaros Apartments ?

[abbo]

abbo

As you said personally and that it what it is. My Personal feeling is that most people dont want
Bed and Breakfast, that is why they book an apartment and not a hotel, as for happy hour why
is that not done now why wait until they go independant.
I am certainly not slating the Tsaros Apartments as I am going myself in August

For me an issue Tsaros could have is people staying there but not using the Pool Bar as it is 50yds away. The reason previous people DO keep using the Pool Bar is the extremely friendly welcome, excellent food and good atmosphere of an evening.

The onus is to get people in-the-door and breakfast is a low cost way of forming that bond, whilst 10pm is prime-time walking back to the chalets time to capture customers.

To answer your question as to why not do these already, well it's a fair point but I suppose theyve just delivered whats been asked of them as Thomson customers and not been too proactive in attracting custom.

[Gavlah1973]

I think that due to the ridiculous margins he would get from Thomsons they probably need to sell alcohol at a decent price to gain some profit back. If he went direct then he could probably afford to have a happy hour etc as he wouldnt be needing to 'sweat' the take from his customers and could use food/drinks offers to attract other customers/passing trade etc!!

[swedebasher]

Now official, the Tsaros will not be with Thomson from 2013. Damn sad I say.

UPDATE 18/07/2013......just had contact from Thanassis to say that the Tsaros IS out in the latest brochure so will be staying with them. What are Thomson's up to???

[tonyco1]

They did the same with Tereza's - a game of bluff with the owners.

They tried to drop the price they pay until owners would have made no profit at all.
They tried blackmail in that they would drop the accommodation - the owners just couldn't afford it so refused.
Thomsons then gave in - it's just a game to that lot - - money - - money!!

[sunshinegirl]

Agree with you Tony - we have booked the Tereza for 24 August this year for two weeks.  It will be our third time in SS but first at Terezas as we have booked independently before.  We monitored the price online with Thomsons for about two months then saw it at a bargain price but my husband was out so waited till he got home before booking just to check date was okay. This was on on the Friday evening  but when we went back on line that eveening Thomson were saying they had no availability so we were really disappointed as we thought we had lost it.  It then came back on the system on the Monday so we booked it.

It seems they take hotels on and off as they please which is so unfair the the Hotel owners as they could also be missing out on bookings as we could of booked another hotel thinking that the Terezas had not availability. Dont know why they do it - wonder if the Hotel Owners are aware they do this - suppose there is nothing they could do about it though!!

[Rover]

I read with interset all these posts re Thomson. It seems to me that if owners of hotels/appartments do not wish to use the advantages of dealing with this company, they have no reason to trade with them. If Thomson do not provide what the seller considers to be a reasonable rate, the seller should not enter into a contract with Thomson, and either use an alternative company, or advertise and handle bookings/transport themselves.
I would add that if anyone has a problem with Thomson, it seems to me that the best solution is not to use them, not moan because they do not feature the Hotel/appartment they wish to book.

[tonyco1]

Rover I agree with your sentiments as I am sure most would, however - in reality, Thomsons have a bit of a stranglehold over a great part of the village these days.

I am not so sure all owners could market & sell out all their rooms privately, and Thomsons know this and use their power effectively.

[Rover]

An alternative view would be that Thomson bring a lot of people tp SS, and bars restaurants etc benefit. Certainly SS (and I have been going there since 1995) would not be the same without them.

[sunshinegirl]

Rover I have read your comments and agree with most of them but if you are refering to me in your comment 'not moan because they do not feature the Hotel/appartment they wish to book' I would just like to say that I wasn't moaning because they didnt feature the hotel I wanted it was a case of I was going to book it because it was showing as available but when I went back on it an hour later it had gone so I rang up Thomsons and they told me they didnt have that hotel available anymore - they had all sold out.  It was when I went back on again on the Monday to book something else it was showing the room I wanted at the same hotel I wanted to book on the Friday was available again but not only was it available they had three twin rooms b&b available and have had availability right up until two weeks ago.  What I couldnt understand is where did they get these rooms from if I was told when I rang up they had all sold out!!! If I had listened to the guy at Thomsons on the Friday evening and booked a different hotel then I would have been disappointed to see the hotel I wanted to book originally available again on the Monday. It just doesnt make sense to me. Also it was for the same dates and from the same airport.

I might also add that I have travelled in the past with Thomsons and Thomas Cook and have found no problem with them at all and this time we have got an excellent price with them although I do like to book independently also for the sake of the local hoteliers.

[Jaxbubbles]

Regarding hotels going independent, the Olga has done it this year, and as much as we would have loved to have gone to the Olga again the flights from Edinburgh cost £354.00 each, and a package holiday to the Teresas B&B only cost £420.00 from Edinburgh on the same flight!! So it made sense for us to book the package holiday. I don't know how much flights cost elsewhere, hopefully cheaper than Edinburgh! and the Tsaros apartments don't loose out because of this.

[Rover]

Hi Sunshinegirl. I was not referring to you in my comment, and certainly meant no offence. As far as I am concerned, Thomson have always provided me with good service, otherwise I would not use them. I personally have had several excellent holidays at Voulas appartments, but this is no longer available via Thomson. There are always reasons for these changes, and Thomson will always try and reduce costs. So do our supermarkets, but this does not seem to attract the same adverse comment!

[D@G]

Hi Sunshinegirl. I was not referring to you in my comment, and certainly meant no offence. As far as I am concerned, Thomson have always provided me with good service, otherwise I would not use them. I personally have had several excellent holidays at Voulas appartments, but this is no longer available via Thomson. There are always reasons for these changes, and Thomson will always try and reduce costs. So do our supermarkets, but this does not seem to attract the same adverse comment!

You mean reduce their own costs ie increase their profit? Because they certainly are not trying to reduce costs for us, their customers. The scare tactics that thomsons use with the "hurry only 1 room remaining" is borderline bribery to their loyal customers who return to the same accommodation year on year.

[Georgie2002]

The "hurry only 1 room remaining" thing is (as far as I know) actually true rather than a scare tactic - I've watched the room disappear as I've booked over the phone and also seen it go down to 1 from 2 rooms when booking before.  This year I booked when it said hurry only 1 room left and I got the last 2 person studio, once I had booked the price went up a lot higher as there were only 3 person studios left.

But as I said, that's only as far as I know, I could be totally wrong or completely naive and mislead for all I know!! 

[D@G]

We managed to book 4 (yes four!) apartments at the Tsaros last year when the website was showing only 1  apartment remaining.  Also had a similar thing happen when booking the Romanza for others this year.

[Georgie2002]

I'm sure Thomson have lots of little loop holes to get round putting 1 room left when there's more than 1 that would be suitable for the people booking!  Sneaky and clever no doubt!  But hey I'm not complaining, I got a great 2 week deal that I can't wait to enjoy in August!