Holidaymakers hit by Lowcost collapse turn to crowdfunding
Holidaymakers hit by the failure of Lowcost Travel Group have turned to crowdfunding to help raise money to replace their lost holidays.
According to crowdfunding website GoFundMe, several pages have been set up by desperate customers since the news broke last Friday.
Around 140,000 customers have lost out, just over half of them British, but are likely to receive just over £7.50 each compensation each, according to the administrators.
The Palma-based company had lodged a bond of only €1.3 million with the Spanish travel agency regulator, even though it had a turnover of around £500 million a year
Thousands of people have been left out of pocket, some of them having to pay twice for their accommodation while in resort.
Lowcost was still taking money from customers just hours before it collapsed, and was even promoting a late-deals sale on social media.
Beverley Smith has set up a GoFundMe page for her sister and brother-in-law as they were due to go on their honeymoon with their children this month.
She wrote on the page: "After paying £,3700 in good faith the company have effectively stolen all the money and they have lost their honeymoon and my two nephews’ holiday and all the money is gone with no chance of a refund. I just want to give them some form of honeymoon."
Steph Leese set up a page after saving for two years for a family holiday to Lanzarote. She wrote on the page: "Lowcostholidays have screwed us over with no insurance. We have lost a holiday we saved two years for. The flights are safe but the hotel is not paid for. Any offers to help [are] gratefully received to get my family on that well-earned holiday."
Melanie Lewis booked her family holiday on Christmas Eve and was devastated to tell her children they may no longer be able to go. She wrote on her GoFundMe page: "We are totally gutted as you can imagine. Like most people these days we have no rainy day money put aside for emergencies."
Stacey Stevens has set up a GoFundMe page to help her daughter who had to re-pay for a hotel while abroad.
"Maisey and her friends are on holiday and Lowcostholidays have gone bust. She has hardly any money left and she isn’t covered for this in her insurance," she wrote.
GoFundMe provides a platform for people to raise money for personal causes and life events and invite those in their community to support their fundraising.
ABTA chief executive Mark Tanzer said he hopes the company’s failure will, at the very least, serve to remind people of why it is so important to book with ABTA Member companies.
"That is a message that we are taking out strongly to the public," he said.
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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