Gay travel firm ‘to call in administrators’

Gay travel company Mantrav International (UK) is preparing to call in administrators today following a 90% drop in bookings.

Managing director Malcolm Hardy said late last night that the East Grinstead-based company, set up 10 years ago, was "hours from going out of business".

The company claimed it had been the victim of a smear campaign by a former director, who was awarded more than £66,000 by an employment tribunal that found he had been unfairly dismissed (see previous story). Hardy has refused to pay Andrew Jones despite a court order.

Mantrav accused Andrew Jones of being behind a website that it says falsely accused it of mis-selling holidays to a gay resort in Gran Canaria. Jones has denied the accusations and a client of Mantrav's yesterday claimed he had reported the company to the website actionfraud.org.uk after it cancelled his holiday to the resort but failed to refund his money.

Tim Ferris said Mantrav cancelled his holiday to the Club Mancha resort in Playa del Ingles due to overbooking three days before he was due to travel in November but had failed to refund his cash despite promising to do so. He has since received abusive emails from the travel agency, which have been forwarded to TravelMole. The content of the emails are not suitable for publication.

On Monday, online reputation management company Kwikchex said Mantrav's membership had been suspended after it failed to provide information or undertake certain actions it had requested.

Kwikchex helps companies tackle inaccurate feedback posted online and deal with other reputation issues.

Kwikchex, whose members have to abide by its Code of Ethics and Good Business Practice, said it had changed Mantrav's status from 'pending' to 'suspended' on Monday. Mantrav is continuing to display the Kwikchex logo on its website.

Hardy said last night Mantrav had voluntarily withdrawn from Kwikchex and that the company had consulted solicitors Baines & Cohen with a view to taking legal action against individuals and websites.

In a later email, Hardy wrote: "(Mantrav) is hours from going out of business." He blamed an earlier article by TravelMole for the 90% drop in bookings.

"The end result, Mantrav has lost over 400 bookings, all going to be lost. Directors are calling in administrators tomorrow (Wednesday)."

*This article was updated 21/12/2011

By Linsey McNeill