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ABTA to refund unbonded Travelscene customers
ABTA has reneged on a statement made to TravelMole last week and says it will consider refunds for Travelscene?s Citybedz customers, even though the subsidiary was not bonded.
An ABTA spokesman told TravelMole: “This is not a total reversal on what we previously stated, but it has now become clear that in a lot of cases people were under the impression that they were booking a holiday with an ABTA-bonded company.”
According to the spokesman, the confusion for customers arose because Travelscene sold unbonded accommodation-only product in its main brochure, which carried the ABTA logo on the front. “We did tell Travelscene to produce a totally separate brochure because it was confusing for customers.”
Further confusion arose because customers did not pay invoices to Citybedz, but to Travelscene Group, according to the spokesman.
Customers that booked through the internet will not receive refunds according to ABTA. “If people booked over the internet this is a different matter because you can clearly see that it is a separate company”, said the spokesman.
He added: “If people can produce evidence that they were under the distinct impression that they were booking with an ABTA member, then we will consider dealing with their claim.”
ABTA says it does not believe this issue to be widespread as many members, such as Cosmos and Thomas Cook, bond accommodation only product anyway.
The collapse of Travelscene has left ABTA without a president. Candidates jostling for the position of interim president include Sandy MacPherson, Steven Freudmann, Martin Wellings and John Dellaway. The votes will be counted and a decision made before the end of the month.
Report by Ginny McGrath
Ginny McGrath
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