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TEN OF THOUSANDS of holidaymakers have been affected after budget holiday operator Lowcostholidays went bust yesterday.
A statement on the operator’s website has advised customers that the Low Cost Travel Group (LCTG) ceased trading yesterday, “following exhaustive attempts by the group’s directors to rescue the group”.
UK accountants Smith & Williamson were appointed as administrators of the travel operator.
In a statement, the administrators said that there were about 27,000 customers currently at resorts and a further 110,000 who had booked trips but hadn’t travelled yet.
The operator was based in Spain, but the majority of its customers came from Britain. It has offices in the UK, Spain, Switzerland and Poland.
It has an Irish website and Facebook page and is a popular provider among Irish holidaymakers.
The company said in its statement that flights booked for people who were already on holidays should still be valid, but that customers may have to pay again for hotels and other services booked through the company.
Smith & Williamson said that some people who hadn’t already travelled would have problems regarding their flights not being paid for.
“All flights as regards those currently in resorts have been paid for and hence customers will be able to fly home when their holidays are over,” the administrator said.
Unfortunately, as regards customers who have not travelled, a small number will have problems as regards their flights not having been paid for, and many will have problems as regards their hotel rooms not having been paid for.
Customers are advised that they will have to pay again for services and either reclaim the money on travel insurance, contact the Spanish travel agency regulator (www.caib.es), or try to have the money returned through their credit card provider for services not received.
Anger
Irish customers have taken to the company’s Facebook page to express their anger and frustration over holidays they booked and paid for not being honoured.
“What good is having the flights when you don’t have transfers or a hotel,” one woman wrote.
I feel sick about the whole thing.
“Made my booking at 3.30pm yesterday,” said another.
We have lost all our money. We are travelling in 2 weeks’ time.
The company states that it can no longer be contacted as it has ceased trading.
Customers are advised to contact the administrator if they wish to process a claim against the company.
The Guardian reports that the majority of its 451 staff have already been made redundant.
Finbarr O’Connell of Smith & Williamson said the Brexit referendum and other factors had led to the company’s downfall.
“The group experienced significant market headwinds in the run-up to the EU referendum as holidaymakers delayed decisions,” the Guardian reports him as saying.
“This was compounded by the leave vote itself and the subsequent fall in value of the pound.
We are planning to meet with the appropriate Spanish regulators and authorities to investigate what compensation may be available to customers who have lost money due to this collapse.
The Irish Commission for Aviation said that it was aware that the company had gone bust and that it was licensed and bonded with the commission.
“The Commission is endeavouring to find out the extent to which this affects Irish customers of Lowcostholidays Spain,” the commission said.
Irish customers who booked with Lowcostholidays Spain should note that the company is licenced by and bonded with the Commission and that details of how to claim, and who should claim, against the bond will be posted early next week.
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Bet the directors and executives still got paid including bonuses.
And so they should, they did their job
Sterling has averaged 1.25 this year and is now at 1.20, hardly a catastrophic drop that has liquidated their finances in two weeks. This company has obviously been struggling for a long time and used the Brexit result as an easy cop out. If a drop of 4% in currency value puts a company that trades in different currencies out of business in two weeks then that company was already finished!
Paul
Try understanding the industry a little before making things up. Holiday companies often work on margins of 7.5% so an FX drop can be significant. Furthermore holiday companies are being severely impacted by terrorism. Egypt, Tunisia and Turkey bookings are all down.
They were emailing “special offers” to entice customers yesterday, presumably knowing there was a good chance they would not fulfil the service.
That has to be illegal.
I got an email about their sale.was just about to book a weekend in London with them but decided to hold off until pay day thank god.
Blaming the Brexit referendum?!
We were affected by this, we are currently away on the holiday and our accommodation was booked with an online travel agency who were sub-agents for Low Cost. We got a call from reception this morning to say there was a ‘situation’…and basically we need to pay for the hotel again direct today ourselves. We have since spoke with the online travel agency, they are fully bonded and have assured us payment will be made and confirmed to our hotel today…fingers crossed. So if you didn’t book direct with Low Cost there might be some hope of minimal/no impact.
I’m sure that’s all you needed and you on holidays
Surely anyone affected can just use a chargeback on their card? You shouldn’t need to claim against the liquidator. If you paid with debit or credit card, get your bank to do a chargeback. Provided it was inside the last six months, it shouldn’t be a hassle.
Eoin
Only covered by credit card and not debit
debit cards are also covered by the visa charge back for non services rendered. you are probably cogitating this with laser, which didn’t have this. most banks have a form to fill in online that should be completed asap if you booked recently.
is that the right use of cogitating? genuine question. im too lazy to search.
It is not :)
Who goes on package holidays anymore.. is it 1986 ?
My thoughts exactly! Who wanders into travel agents and asks for a good deal. Surely the best deals are online with airlines and hotels direct. Last time I used an agent was many years ago and was stung even Sunworld went wallop. Has paid 1800 euro deposit but I thankfully paid by credit card and got it back 5 months later. Lesson learned!
Travel agents are bonded so your money is safe. Also it’s handy booking with an agent if you have kids as most resorts have plenty of entertainment on for kids, a kids club, a rep on site if anything goes wrong and travel to and from the Airport. So travel agents suit some people..
They sell package holidays online too, you know.
I’d hate to be stuck on holidays with snobs like ned Shaw maybe I’ll go back getting package holidays
Bed Shaw doesn’t seem to be all that nice a person to know
Ned no matter what else you do or say in life just know from the moment you posted that comment you are a dick !!
A couple with a few kids that don’t work and have their rent , bills , medi cards , everything pretty much paid for them .they have more disposable income .their social welfare and their child benefit etc .Their money is their own to do what they want with .compare that with a couple who are working , paying rent or a mortgage and all their bills who no help from anyone and which couple do you think gets the better chance to go on holiday ?
Mick, you seem to think I have a big mortgage and that I can’t afford a holiday.. what gave you that impression ?
I like making assumptions just like you Suzie
Who goes on package holidays anymore.. is it 1986 ?
27,000 customers currently at resorts and a further 110,000 who had booked trips but hadn’t travelled yet. and that’s just lowcostholidays… there are numerous other operators out there and millions of package holidays booked online.
Mick , I’m not making assumptions ..
@Welshhibby Tens of thousands apparently! the clue is in the heading, and if you’re really asking to know who exactly these people are well unfortunately that much information would be hard to fit in the column. Thanks for asking! any time pal anytime.
This is why I love going camping on holidays. You can bring as much as you like in the car or van, and if the campsite shuts down unexpectedly , there are plenty of fields around or a friendly farmer you can find who’s more than happy to let you camp for nothing if you turn up with a bottle of whiskey or throw him a tenner a night. Job dine.
Camp for nothing, or, turn up with a bottle of whiskey
Must be all people who don’t have the Internet !!, I don’t know anyone who has gone on a package holiday in years.
You can book your flights and hotels online with out a middleman..much cheaper.
Tell that to my son who saved hard for a week in the sun, booked with Thompson and is now spending a week in a room over the Hotel Disco… no sleep and no alternative available. We on the other hand j y st returned from a quiet enjoyabl r break in a Spanish apartment booked via Owners Direct, Ryanair flight Business class and still a cheap holiday.
Unfortunately the world is full of badly reared self important individuals. There will always be people who think that they are better than others who are less well off than them. Nobody really has the right to judge or look down their nose at anybody else. It costs nothing to be nice to people. I would rather have nothing and treat people with respect, kindness and dignity and sleep well at night than have wealth, arrogance and bitterness in my heart any day of the week.
Wally will be along soon to tell us they should be nationalised
Plenty of cheap holidays to Turkey now.
The Irish arm is bonded and anyone affected should keep an eye on the Commission for aviation Regulations website http://www.aviationreg.ie/news/lowcostbeds-trading-announcement.740.html
They are a different entity to what is being reported in the UK.
It is going to be a difficult time for all affected. It is a massive reason to book through a licensed and bonded travel agent and not do your own thing.
They advertised themselves as licenced and bonded!
thanks Darren. a couple of the kids friends are in magalluf and are being made pay up front for accommodation or else be kicked out. hopefully they will be covered for future claims, but utter confusion over there. does bonded mean that there is a fund to claim against, or do they handle liabilities directly.
They are bonded in Spain
Spent most of my Saturday trying to get my head around this. Had to rebook my hotel direct, £400 dearer but no way was I telling my kids there was no holiday this year after weeks of talking about it. My flights were ok which was great and RBS said they will refund my Visa debit so all in all a pain in the ass but it could have been a lot worse. There are customers abroad right now who will have to settle their hotel bills again and reclaim when they get home. Some probably don’t even know yet because I have had no communication from LCH. An absolute travesty.
Clem Walsh from Blackrock Dundalk is the MD. Hope he’s proud. Google him on link
edin and Twitter and message him your thoughts.
I presume they were not bonded ?
they moved to spain so not in ATOL, people must factor that into their decision to buy so cheap
What a cop out, blaming the brexit vote. These unscrupulous dodgy companies keep getting away with this.When are they going to make these chancers pay into a fund to protect vulnerable holidaymakers. People’s summer holidays ruined now.what a disaster!
I thought all these holiday companies were bonded
Clad i agree with u it has to be illegal. Pure robbery.
Holidays 2 turkey 2 euro
We always book accommodation directly to hotel and flights separate. However if your flying to certain countries like Greece etc you have to do it through agent
I wouldn’t even bother using a travel agent these days since you can do everything yourself online and insurance can always be there if something goes tits up
But the downside of doing it yourself is the stress and hassle when something does go tits up. If you book through an agent you can get onto the agent to resolve otherwise you are totally on your own. When things go wrong they tend to go very wrong.
Some of the stories of this episode where clients booked with an agent and the agent has stepped in to secure the accommodation eventhough it had not been paid by lowcost to the hotel and the agent will then claim against the bond leaving the client pretty stress free.
Anyone saying you always get it cheaper online is badly misinformed it totally depends on what you are looking for.
Darren anything that goes wrong tends to be with the travel agent.
Book Ryanair or Aer lingus and you are safe flight wise, then book a hotel booking.com and you are safe.
The worry as experienced by many is with the actual travel agents.
We have travelled with Low Cost Holidays 3 times – most recently in June and always found them great. They didn’t offer a package holiday in the traditional sense in that you book online and they identify the cheapest scheduled flights e.g Aer Lingus/Ryanair. They do the same for accommodation. Each time we used them they offered a significantly cheaper hotel price then when I tried to book directly with the hotel or booking.com etc. So we are the kind of people who go on ‘package holidays!’ Shame they’re gone.
They went bust cos they were too expensive. Simple as
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