Safe Holiday Companies
Safe Holiday Companies
Web2move.co.uk for Luxury Tailor Made Multi Centre Holidays, Honeymoons and Amazing Experiences. Online since 2000. How safe is my holiday booking? has been a common question over the past 12 months.
Much has been written about this subject in the press and internet. T.V. programs often sensationalise.
The information below was posted last month by Holidays Please boss Charles Duncombe which Web2move believe explains the reasons and steps you can take to protect yourself.
Subsequent to the failure of holiday providers such as Destinations for Africa, Monster Travel, Goldtrail, Sun4U and Kiss Flights, Holidays Please boss Charles Duncombe says that “Over 250,000 people will probably be affected by travel companies going bust in this winter”
He goes on to say “It is in the summer season when the travel sector is at its busiest and should have the most money. Travel companies should not go bust in the summer. The reality that many have means that, regrettably, there are a number of travel companies who will probably be using summer’s temporary positive cash flow to keep them going. As the summer fades and the bookings start to dry up so will the cash flow and more travel companies are likely to suffer a similar fate. It could easily be another 5 companies with 50,000 passengers each”
If you are nervous about your travel company going out of action what can you do? Here are some guidelines to help.
1) Make sure that your holiday is ATOL protected so if the tour operator or airline go bust you will get your money back (or get repatriated free of charge if you are left stranded)
2) If you have booked with a travel agent then make sure they are ABTA protected.
3) If you pay on a credit card rather than debit card sometimes your credit card company will be able to get your money back.
4) Take out high end travel insurance. It may not cover you for the whole cost of the holiday but it can cover you for supplementary costs (such as hotel stays etc.) if there are delays on flights.
5) Look for any signs of financial troubles with the company that you are looking to book with. Search on google for terms such as the “[name of holiday company] redundancies” and “[name of holiday company] financial loss”
6) Look for holiday companies that sell “long haul” holidays. These are holidays that are to far away destinations outside Europe. These companies are likely to have more constant sales throughout the year rather than the feast and famine that can destroy short haul travel companies.
7) Do not book with companies that are a lot cheaper than other companies. If there is a holiday company that is radically cheaper than prices advertised in elsewhere then they are likely to be trading on wafer thin margins. This means they won’t have a cushion for major events like ash clouds and airline strikes. It is better to pay £50 more for your holiday and enjoy it than lose the whole cost of the holiday.
There are many thousands of travel companies in the UK and as probably only a dozen or so will go bust over the next few months you will be very unlucky if you pick the wrong one. If you follow the tips above you will decrease your chances of being one of the unlucky ones.
For more information and quotes go to www.holidaysplease.co.uk
Web2move work in affiliation with companies such as Holidaysplease and have for many years recommended to customers that they pay a little more when booking their holidays.
Experience has shown that when you pay the cheapest price you are on your own if something should go wrong whilst you are on holiday on the other side of the world.
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You can find links to a number of Independent Travel Companies on this website and other websites on the Internet, to make your booking.
However, Web2move can recommend Holidaysplease (Born in 2002, and part of the Hays Travel consortium which is the largest chain of independent agents in the UK), having had an Affiliate relationship with them for many years.
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