1800 Hotels Makes A Comeback
Posted on August 11, 2010 by Fiona Hilliard
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Look out….it’s behind you…!
Were you one of the hundreds of holidaymakers let down by 1800Hotels.com in July? If you’re nodding your head and #@!$ – ing profusely, you might be interested to learn that the company has been spending the start of this month crawling its way out of the gutter. Then again, maybe not…
Yep. 1800Hotels bounced back from the brink last week after suddenly shutting down operations in July. Last month, scores of travellers were left high and dry when they tried to check in to their accommodation and found that their reservation had been mysteriously (and embarrassingly) cancelled.
A total of over 3,600 reservations were lost when two suppliers, Tourico and Gullivers Travel Associates cancelled bookings.
1800Hotels maintains that filing for bankruptcy was the only way to stop them from ruining the business.
The company and its Irish counterpart 1800Hotels.ie owed $4 million (£2,5 million) since July 1, according to Gullivers, who said the company would lose $30,000 (£19,156) to $50,000 (£31,919) a day if the judge blocked more cancellations. To counteract any further losses, bankruptcy Judge Caryl Delano gave suppliers the go ahead to continue.
What happened then?
The website and its parent company filed for Chapter 11 protection in Florida last month so that it could gain some space to breathe.
So what does this mean to you the customer?
Well, it’s good news if you’re in the US. The stateside site is back up and running. It even has a new hotel wholesaler and has mended its ways in terms of how it handles its finances. Customer payments now go directly to the supplier.
The Irish site still remains down however, with just a statement to say that the company has filed for bankruptcy to protect customer reservations.
What can you do if you lost money?
If you paid by Credit Card: Contact your credit card company directly and ask them to dispute the charge. Don’t hang around – you’ll usually only have 60 days from the date of purchase to file your case. This is not possible with a debit card.
If you’re in the US and you paid another way, it’s possible to file a claim with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court. You can complete a proof of claim form online at www.flmb.uscourts.gov. The case number is 8:10-bk-16648.
Discussion: 5 Comments
5 Responses to “1800 Hotels Makes A Comeback”
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Robert Redfern
- 23rd Aug, 10 11:08am
You are a bit too lenient. Let down is not how I would describe taking hundreds of pounds of my money and then me arriving at a London hotel on a Friday night after a Eurostar train from France to find that my money has gone and I have no hotel room for me and my wife.
Mended thier ways!!
I would say that it is an affront that a company can go into bankruptcy one month and so making any claim on my travel insurance invalid, and then be back in business to con more people out of thier hard earned money a month later.
As a matter of interest I have filed a claim now on the US court web site you mention even thoiugh I am not a US citizen and although I had to put in a lot of zeros where they would like a zip code or a US telephone number and had to convert the 1800 Hotels xps document into a pdf to submit it as evidence I now have a case number assigned to me.
It also seems to me odd that a company can operate in the UK and then allow that bit of the business to remain out of business and they go into bankruptcy in America ( where I presume none of the UK website creditors actually live who cannot maybe make a claim). Who exactly will represent these UK and Irish creditors in the US bankruptcy court when for example the bad guys (1800 Hotels) propose to pay 1p in the £ out to creditors?
I do not think that you saying they have a new system where they pay the hotels directly amounts to much more than an admission that they were pretty stupid in the first place to not be able to run a simple business where all you do is you take a hotel booking and then book a room and pay the money you get mostly to the hotel.
Regards
Robert
Stuart Byrne
- 23rd Jan, 11 08:01pm
Being one of 1800hotels victims I have also ‘lost’ close to £2000-00.
I paid by credit card but unfortunately there was more than 60 days in the payment being made and the cancellation so the company are not interested.
I have followed the instruction and filed my claim and rec’d an acknowledgement postcard and that is it!!!!!!
I have e-mailed the company handling the claim-no reply
I have written to them-no reply
I have tried phoning-no reply
How do I track my claim and it’s progress?
Can anyone please confirm that US business procedures are not entirely second-rate incompetents?
Fiona Hilliard (author comment)
- 25th Jan, 11 02:01pm
Hi Stuart.
How long ago was it that you filed your claim?
Stuart Byrne
- 26th Jan, 11 08:01pm
Fiona,
It would have been almost as soon as we returned to UK so probably September/October
FIONA (author comment)
- 27th Jan, 11 10:01am
That all sounds very frustrating, you seem to have followed all the logical steps, but still no joy.
Unfortunately I don’t have any answers for you at this stage but you might find this information useful for chasing them up….
http://www.bankruptcyinformation.com/FL_courts.htm
good luck!
Fiona
http://www.bankruptcyinformation.com/FL_courts.htm