Endacott warns: Don’t rip agents off

On Holiday Group chief executive Steve Endacott says agents should not be ripped off by hotels and bed banks boosting prices to capitalise on the company’s demise.

Following the announcement on Friday that OHG had gone into administration, some agents who rebooked clients with different accommodation suppliers have been out of pocket.

Endacott said Hotelbeds, which had been in talks with OHG last week, was offering a price guarantee, but some of the others were charging much higher rates.

He said: "It does seem that hotels and bed banks are being greedy and trying to profit from the situation.

"Hotelbeds have been offering a price guarantee so I would suggest any agent having an issue goes to them since they should be the best prepared, having been in discussion with OHG before the collapse.

"My advice would be to shop around and challenge any price increase. Legally the customer still has a contract in place with them that they can not walk away from."

Endacott said he believes bed banks and the dynamic packaging sector is more valuable following the Med Hotels VAT ruling last week.

He added that, since the collapse, the OHG sales team has worked in their own time to send out detailed booking reports to all agents listing all bookings, along with the price OHG had agreed with the hotel.

Taking away the 3-5% margin that would have gone to OHG, hotels and bed banks should still be able to offer comparable prices so agents needn’t be out of pocket.

The OHG finance team has begun contacting all agents so that forward bookings that have not been returned can be refunded.

Independents say the demise of OHG once again proves it’s better to book with a bonded agent than do a DIY booking.

Jean Heathcote, homeworker with Independent Travel Experts, sent a message to customers saying: "We had people booked with this company. Fortunately for them, they had used the services of Independent Travel Experts which is a fully bonded ATOL agent.

"The same accommodation was re-booked with a different bed bank but at a higher cost. However the higher costs were NOT passed on the customer, as these are conditions of our ATOL agreement.

"The customer didn’t even have to lift a finger as all his changes were taken care of by Independent Travel Experts.

"If you book your holiday by booking flights and accommodation yourself, your holiday is not financially protected by ATOL. Don’t gamble with your holiday."