1800hotels.ie - what's happening?

aidanodr · 13-07-2010 3:32pm

Apparently they based out of Florida USA also at:

http://www.1800hotels.com/

Gone also Im afraid ..

Aidan

Volviclady · 13-07-2010 3:39pm

Just wondering if anybodies booking was payable through Tourico?

I have emailed them as can not get through by phone....just waiting on reply to see if my booking is secure.....but doubt it

godders · 13-07-2010 4:01pm

I've just called You travel and the hotel themselves and they've both told me that my booking was confirmed but i'm still not 100%. I'm due to travel to Portugal next Thurs so wouldn't be surpised if i'm asked to pay again:mad:

katcali · 13-07-2010 4:13pm

We have found out that our hotel booking for Lanzarote was made but they have not recieved payment. We have paid in full using Laser for 6 people for 2 weeks so it is a fair amount we are out. Flights are paid for too. Everyone is just in shock and its upsetting for the whole family. We now dont know what to do. We have spoken to our Travel Insurance company and they have told us once we get a cert from the bank stating that 1800hotels has gone bust we can make a claim through them-hopefully! This could be a long process though and what do we do in the meantime?? The hotel owner is keeping 3 apartments provisionally for us but we need to decide whether we want to pay again for them or take the risk and hope to get something back from the insurance. If we are not successful in the claim it will be a very expensive 2 weeks!

aidanodr · 13-07-2010 4:18pm

1800hotels Facebook Page:

http://www.facebook.com/1800hotels?ref=ts#!/1800hotels?v=wall&ref=ts

Expand the comments under the message at top of wall starting with "Fans, are you planning on getting away this summer ...

Aidan

godders · 13-07-2010 4:19pm

Hi Katcali, on your holiday voucher who was the holiday payable by? Mine was YouTravel which according to another poster have been paid for all bookings until the end of the month but like you im not sure what to do as I don't want to have to pay the full amount again

sp_en_ny · 13-07-2010 4:24pm

Trust me they have gone, if you paid by credit card contact your banks and get your money back asap. If you travel your hotel will most likely have been cancelled and if you travel you will have to pay direct (assuming they have availability) at a higher rate. Call the hotels in advance and see if they will honour the original price you paid 1800 but be warned they dont have to. All staff were sent home yesterday and i gather a rescue package was being worked on but i think this will be very unlikely. All their suppliers are cancelling all of their bookings. This is as much as i can say i am afraid.

sp_en_ny · 13-07-2010 4:33pm

I forgot to say, I know all of this becasue i work in the industry and are one of the suppliers having to cancel bookings. If you are looking to rebook through a reputable company i would recommend www.onhotels.com i think you will find rates just as competitive and reliable.

katcali · 13-07-2010 4:35pm

godders wrote: »

Hi Katcali, on your holiday voucher who was the holiday payable by? Mine was YouTravel which according to another poster have been paid for all bookings until the end of the month but like you im not sure what to do as I don't want to have to pay the full amount again

"Hotelbeds" was the name of the company who our holiday was payable by. I have emailed them and have heard nothing back. The hotel owner doesnt have a clue whats going on. He seems to think it will still be paid but im not too sure.

Noel Gibbs · 13-07-2010 4:36pm

The company has hit the wall owing substantial amounts to various wholesalers. In all likelihood they went bust paying too much on ppc, or buying forward currency badly.
Nearly all forward bookings will be cancelled, so I would suggest strongly that you claim your money back from your credit card and rebook with an alternative supplier.
If you are looking for an Irish owned hotel booker, then please try www.roomex.ie or the british www.onhotels.com has a sturdy financial basis.

sp_en_ny · 13-07-2010 4:41pm

Hi Katcali,

I know hotelbeds and they have offices around the world but their main one is in Spain. Hotelbeds i think were involved in a rescue package that looks as though it wont materialise and if so i am certain they will be cancelling all bookings that have not arrived. Only suppliers where 1800 had to prepay wont or should not be cancelled. However, very much doubt there were many suppliers where prepayment was required.

Stepherunie · 13-07-2010 4:42pm

My CC company isn't charging it back to my cc even though it only went through 11 days ago. Seems I've lost it, booking is for next november so by all accounts, not a hope it's been paid on.

sp_en_ny · 13-07-2010 4:47pm

They must refund you, you bought a service that will now not matarialise. So under these rules your entitled to chargeback because no service has been provided for what you paid for.

aidanodr · 13-07-2010 4:48pm

Hi guys,

Very interesting. I for one cannot get at www.1800hotels.com through normal browsing. BUT if you use a proxy server to browse annonymously - that is to make it look like you are browsing from outside Ireland - IT WORKS. I tried this as a few people in the states have said they can get at the .COM site no problem.

Here is a proxy service:

http://www.zend2.com/

Just pop in www.1800hotels.com into the ENTER URL field further down the page AND GO, wait for 30 seconds or so ... tadaa!

So are they somehow blocking Irish customers and trying to sustain the US business??

Aidan

katcali · 13-07-2010 4:50pm

sp_en_ny wrote: »

Hi Katcali,

I know hotelbeds and they have offices around the world but their main one is in Spain. Hotelbeds i think were involved in a rescue package that looks as though it wont materialise and if so i am certain they will be cancelling all bookings that have not arrived. Only suppliers where 1800 had to prepay wont or should not be cancelled. However, very much doubt there were many suppliers where prepayment was required.

Thanks sp_en_ny. I know your probably right. We will just have to book the hotel again from scratch and try and get the bank to send us a liquidation cert for 1800hotels and claim from our holiday insurance. We will never pay by laser again. We just wanted to get the payment out of the way so we wouldnt have the credit card bill when we got back

.

Ponster · 13-07-2010 4:50pm

aidanodr wrote: »

So are they somehow blocking Irish customers and trying to sustain the US business??

Aidan

I have no problems in getting to the .com site from France

aidanodr · 13-07-2010 4:54pm

Ponster wrote: »

I have no problems in getting to the .com sire from France

Yes - thats what I meant - YOU ARE IN FRANCE, not in Ireland, you are using French ISPS and servers. I said blocking Irish Customers from Ireland .. somehow.

Others HERE in Ireland would need to confirm its not just me. I am with EIRCOM service provider but using OPENDNS as my DNS Servers,

Aidan

Ponster · 13-07-2010 4:55pm

aidanodr wrote: »

Yes - thats what I meant - YOU ARE IN FRANCE, not in Ireland, you are using French ISPS and servers. I said blocking Irish Customers from Ireland .. somehow.

Others HERE in Ireland would need to confirm its not just me. I am with EIRCOM service provider but using OPENDNS as my DNS Servers,

Aidan

Errr, yeah. My post was to confirm what you had posted, not an attack against it

sp_en_ny · 13-07-2010 4:59pm

If you manage to get on any of the sites do not pay for anything, the site will still take your payment but you wont get your reservation.

aidanodr · 13-07-2010 4:59pm

Sorry Ponster

Didnt mean it to sound like that - believe me I had a happy face when typing it

- Just slightly mis interpreted your line, sorry again!

Aidan

wcarey1975 · 13-07-2010 5:00pm

Have rang CC company and they have said until they recieve official confirmation that 1800 have gone into liquidation then theres nothing we can do. Once they get the confirmation then we can send in a letter for a payment refund chargeback. They have been advised to ask all customers to to check with the hotel directly and confirm the reservation is valid. I have rang our hotel which is in Florida and the reservation is still there. I didnt ask them however if the payment has been recieved for the reservation. I hope all is okay but I highly doubt it. Well heres to finding a new hotel.

stakey · 13-07-2010 5:02pm

Booked a hotel in Barecelona with these shyster's two weeks ago, rang the hotel today and no sign of the booking at all. :mad: Payment was meant to go through Travco so no surprises there.

We're going to pursue a chargeback and luckily there's a few hotels in the same price range on lastminute.com and hotels.com. Lucky this hit the internet as we're due to fly tomorrow and we haven't heard anything from this lot.

Additionally, their Facebook page has fallen off the face of the planet. Or else Irish users aren't allowed to see it

aidanodr · 13-07-2010 5:04pm

PPC - PAY PER CLICK maybe - where you advertise on likes of GOOGLE down right hand side of search list, someone clicks through to your site, YOU the advert owner, PAY a fee per click, not the clicker ...

Look up Google Adwords

Aidan

Noel Gibbs · 13-07-2010 5:06pm

yeah tarka you pansy

Newbee09 · 13-07-2010 5:10pm

we have booked a holiday for my mums 60th in august. The voucher says payable through TRANSFAR AGENCIA DE VIAGENS E TURISMO ? Anyone know who these are?

Tradin · 13-07-2010 5:27pm

I paid for 3 bookings through laser, it's been a major lesson! I have emailed Hotelbeds and have heard nothing yet, they have cancelled one of my holidays this morning, so the hotel told me. I am just waiting really on confirmation to say that they have cancelled the others. I was on Joe Duffy this morning, just to get the whole thing out there, I have also contacted some papers, I mean how many people are going to arrive over in their hotels today/tomorrow and not know about this!!!! As bad as some of us are I would hate to find out on arrival. The whole thing is a mess. :mad:

Ponster · 13-07-2010 5:33pm

From Tripadvisor :

These quotes are from the managing director of 1800hotels around 3hrs ago:

‎1800hotels Graham Peakin: “We have an application before US courts to ensure suppliers honour our bookings. We are taking an injunction against our two largest vendors to prevent them cancelling bookings for a 14 period to enable us go back into talks. It is not affecting all of our vendors, just two particularly large ones.”

‎1800hotels Graham Peakin: “The only reason we stopped taking bookings in Ireland is that we didn’t want to continue to take people’s money while this injunction against suppliers cancelling bookings is being sought in USA.”

Edited: today, 17:24

Looks like they are looking to be taken over!

"Discussion on going. Court injunction to decide whether 2 big bed banks can be forced to honour contracts & allow takeover talks to resume".

24hrhotels · 13-07-2010 5:34pm

Newbee09 wrote: »

we have booked a holiday for my mums 60th in august. The voucher says payable through TRANSFAR AGENCIA DE VIAGENS E TURISMO ? Anyone know who these are?

These are generally the local handling agents for Youtravel.

In case you are unaware how the system works. The hotel recieves confirmation of the booking when the reservation has been made. They are generally not paid until after the customer has stayed at the hotel. The travel providers like GTA, Youtravel, Tourico etc will have contracts with the hotels and pay them monthly after the customer has stayed.

My advice would be to contact the agent or handler on your voucher and see if your reservation is valid quoting your reference etc.

www.24hrhotels.com are agents for Youtravel.com here in Ireland and can assist with rebooking accommodation.

jack presley · 13-07-2010 5:39pm

I have a weekend away booked with them for later in the year so I rang the hotel directly and they said it was booked through Gullivers (i.e. GTA) and everything's in order so that's a relief.

hotelconnect · 13-07-2010 5:47pm

1800hotels have, in many cases, bought accommodation from HotelConnect.

If your voucher shows "payable by HotelConnect" (or similar) we would urge you to contact us on +44 20 8731 7000.

Unfortunately it is likely you'll have to pay for your stay again as we probably have not been paid ourselves. We can however secure your booking for you.

You should then speak to your credit card company or travel insurer to see if you are covered for your original payment.

We'll make every effort to make this process as hassle-free for you as possible.

Thanks
HotelConnect

1800hotels.ie - what's happening?

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