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Travelscene collapse exposes protection loophole
News that customers who purchased accommodation only with Travelscene subsidiaries are not protected exposes a loophole in the bonding system, says the Association of Independent Tour Operators.
According to Sunvil managing director and AITO council member, Noel Josephides, companies such as Travelscene sell unbonded accommodation-only products in a bid to save money and compete more effectively than firms that shell out money in order to be fully bonded with organisations like AITO. But it leaves customers exposed if the company fails – as Travelscene did last week.
“We are aware that not all parts of the Travelscene business were bonded”, Mr Josephides told TravelMole.
Travelscene was previously an AITO member, but resigned its membership before it began to sell unbonded accommodation-only products. Mr Josephides says?Travelscene would not have been able to renew its membership, had it wished to do so, because of these unbonded elements within the company.
He told TravelMole: “Agents that sell unbonded accommodation have to inform the client that their contract is with the accommodation provider and not the operator. This is a problem for agents because it is not well understood by the public.
“It is a very serious problem and it is the same issue that AITO has with no-frills airlines like EasyJet and Ryanair selling unbonded accommodation on their websites.”
Speaking on this issue earlier in the year, AITO chairman Martin Garland said: “It seems as if the UK Government is content to wait until British consumers are stranded overseas and lose their money before it does anything.
“We have been urging the Government to take action to clarify consumer protection law in the travel industry for years. They are deaf to our pleas; it seems it will take a major collapse of an airline or other unbonded organisation to galvanise them into action.”
Report by Ginny McGrath
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