15 February 2008

Holidaymakers left confused by operator failure

Comment by Jeremy Skidmore (www.jeremyskidmore.com)

The aftermath of the Leisure Direction collapse has led to some serious questions about what should happen when a company goes into administration.

Alan Potts built up Leisure Direction over 20 years and, in my experience, is a thoroughly decent bloke. He worked his nuts off, ran a profitable company, and was brought down by some accounting issues.

He's lost his livelihood but unfortunately these things happen. As he himself is big enough to say, '˜at least nobody died'. I'm sure he will be back.

Erna Low and Leger picked up some of the bookings after the company went into administration, which is all fairly normal practice.

But the website was never taken down and within days the administrators had sold it to a company called Entee, who set up Leisure Direction Travel.

Initially (although this has now been corrected), the website carried an ABTA number and the '˜about us' page claimed that Leisure Direction Travel was one of Britain's biggest specialist tour operators.

The home page has now got a new search engine but the whole site looks so identical to the original Leisure Direction website that it could be used in a '˜spot the difference' competition.

After Leisure Direction, the word Travel has been inserted, but the images and pictures are identical.

The Leisure Direction failure did not get much national coverage and there is no question that to the casual observer 'âœ which is what holidaymakers are 'âœ nothing has changed.

And that's the intention. Entee is able to cleverly use the goodwill that has been built up over 20 years by Leisure Direction.

No doubt past passengers of Leisure Direction are booking on the site not realising they are buying holidays off a different company. Who knows whether they would still buy if they knew what had happened.

Can this be right? Well, firstly, it is important to state that Entee has done nothing wrong and is perfectly within its rights to act like this. It is not making any false claims on the site.

In fact, you have to give them credit and say that they've really been pretty smart and a lot of people will be wishing they'd had the idea to set up Leisure Direction Travel.

The travel business is tough and if you can gain any advantage and stay within the law, then that's fair enough. So, I've got no problem with Entee at all. But I think the system that allows a company to do that is wrong because the bottom line is that some customers will still think they are booking with the old Leisure Direction.

At the very least, the new website should be forced to carry a banner on its home page stating that Leisure Direction Travel has no connection with Leisure Direction, which ceased trading on x date.

What's your view?

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Your Comments (6)

Many thanks...

Thanks to everyone for the kind words. It has indeed been a traumatic few months and the sad end to years of hard work for the whole LD team who fought tirelessly right to the end. For the record, the website was sold by the administrators and the Directors of LD have had no part in either its purchase or its ongoing management. The choice of name used by the new owners is bound to mislead unwary customers into thinking that the old LD lives on, no doubt an intentional ploy to extract as much value as possible from the excellent online brand we'd built. Jeremy's right... no ABTA member could have got away with such a ploy, so it's a loophole that non-ABTA companies can! Alan

By alan potts, Friday, February 22, 2008
What a farce

I feel really saddened for Alan & Debbie whom I have known for many years and also for their staff. They are indeed good people and deserved better - no doubt they will resurface soon. They must be absolutely gutted to see Entee picking up all that goodwill they have built though. Entee is not doing anything wrong? The company was registered at companies house 2 days ago and their website carries testimonials like: 'I will certainly use Leisure Direction Travel again if I go again to Disneyland Paris. I think you offer great value for money and we really enjoyed our trip. All your staff on the phones were very helpful. Mrs. Davies, Ipswich' This seems on the very limit of the law to me. The administrators are to blame though. To sell the website in these conditions to make a larger fee for themselves is appaling.

By Xavier Schouller, Tuesday, February 19, 2008
One rule for us....

Yes, but nobody was pointing the finger at Mytravel when they were trading insolvently for a year, and as for Eurotunnel, best not even to talk about them - apart from the fact that they like to prejudice private businesspeople. So, as I say, its one rule for them, another rule for the small guy who is jsut trying his best to make a living.

By Gary Phillips, Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Abta or not Abta

I also had the pleasure of working with Alan and Debbie at the beginning of LD. I'm sure they'll bounce back with something better. In the meanwhile, yes business is business, but surely for an Abta operator to be taken over by a non-Abta company and for this not to be made clear to the customer is wrong and misleading?

By nathalie roberts, Monday, February 18, 2008
20 hardworking years

I had the pleasure of meeting Alan over 30 years ago when we were both Club 18-30 reps. He was always an honest hardworking Geordie lad with a smile on his face. He gave so much to this industry; let’s hope he bounces back really quickly.

By costas costantinou, Friday, February 15, 2008
No Moral Maze in Business

It would have been a total waste for the LD site to be pulled down completely. As you say Entee are taking advantage of the goodwill, and the site is just as much a part of that as any other aspect of the LD business. There is no room for naiivety in such situations. It was shrewd to keep the site live. I would also like to send my best wishes to Alan and Debbie in the aftermath of this event.

By Gary Phillips, Thursday, February 14, 2008