Protect your holiday from busted firms
LAST week 1800Hotels filed for bankruptcy, scuppering holiday plans for hundreds of Irish customers and more worldwide. As the online hotel booker wasn't covered by the bonding scheme that protects holidaymakers' money when a travel firm collapses, many could find themselves out of pocket.
Though we are emerging from recession, companies of all sorts have still been going bust at a rate of knots. Four ceased trading each day this year to June, the Insolvency Journal has reported.
If a furniture shop, a beauty salon, a hotel, or a tradesman is in trouble or goes out of business, ordinary customers are usually deemed to be 'unsecured creditors'. This means that if you're owed money, or goods, or a service, you are well down the list when it comes to getting compensated.
Where a holiday operator goes under, the situation can be more promising, depending on the type of business it is and whether they're bonded -- more on that below.
Red-flag terms to watch for with any company that has your money or goods are "receivership", "examinership" and "liquidation". These are court measures designed to protect companies from their debtors -- including you. But there are measures you can take to protect yourself from losing out to a company in trouble.
