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Irish travel firm collapse leaves hundreds of travelers without plans

By
APRIL DREW,
Irish Voice Reporter

Published Friday, July 16, 2010, 7:16 AM
Updated Tuesday, July 20, 2010, 5:03 AM

 

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The collapse of online travel company 1800hotels.ie has left hundreds of Irish travelers in disarray and they are not happy about it.

1800hotels.ie was set up in Ireland in 2003 by businessman Graham Peakin but moved to Tampa, Florida a number of years ago.

It handles booking for up to 70,000 hotels around the globe.

It announced on Wednesday that it was forced into bankruptcy but not before attempting to restructure its debt.

A statement from the company said , "“All customers should contact their hotel directly to make sure that their reservation is not affected.”

It is believed that some customers may lose out on the rooms they booked with the company.

They added, “We will work diligently to resolve this matter as soon as possible and will provide more information as it becomes available.”

The staff at the Dublin office were informed on Wednesday that the company was in liquidation and there jobs were no longer available.

A last-minute deal to find a buyer for the company fell through on Monday night, the source said.

It is believed that the air travel disruption during the Icelandic volcanic ash cloud in April caused the company a significant loss.

Simon Nugent of the Irish Travel Agents Association said the likely upshot of the company’s closure “is that a lot of people’s bookings are going to be cancelled and they’ll have to pay more to rebook them, especially as they get closer to the departure date”.

He said some consumers may be reimbursed for cancelled bookings via their credit card companies.

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3 Comments

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Posted by Monsoonman on Jul 17, 2010, 01:04 PM EDT
STARVING IRISH ARE STRANDED HOMELESS WANDERING THE STREETS !!!...(if travel booked through failed agency 1800hotels.ie)....No I think IC's headline for this topic was pretty tame...for them.
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Posted by jacersisityourself on Jul 16, 2010, 05:56 PM EDT
It’s amazing how much a difference that a missing apostrophe makes to a headline. “Irish Travel Firms collapse..” is different to “...Irish Travel Firm’s collapse..”. Will ICentral Editors please wake up? The headline is too alarming to the millions who travel to & from Ireland. The majority of travel firms in Ireland and elsewhere are working away as normal; all please acknowledge.
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Posted by kilkeekbt on Jul 16, 2010, 02:10 PM EDT
At least twenty people that I know of have lost their reservations in London preceding our cruise in early September. All have had to rebook at higher rates. We just consider ourselves fortunate that we heard about the firms closure and didn't arrive in London only to be told we had no reservation. In hindsight, we didn't check the company out close enough.
 


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