THE SUDDEN closure of one of the State’s largest self-catering companies has left the holiday plans of thousands of people in disarray and will do “huge and long-term damage” to an already struggling sector, industry sources have warned.
Following the collapse of selfcatering.ieon Thursday, there have also been calls for the sector to be overhauled in order to introduce an insurance scheme to protect consumers who have paid up front for holidays.
The chief executive of the Consumers’ Association of Ireland, Dermott Jewell, and the chairman of the Irish Self Catering Federation, Patrick Hanrahan, both said the self-catering sector needed to be bonded so consumers’ money was not at risk.
Selfcatering.ie, which sold self-catering holidays in Ireland, Britain, Europe and the US, contacted customers saying it had ceased trading with immediate effect.
In the letter it acknowledged that customers would be “inconvenienced and also may be impacted financially” and apologised “unreservedly”.
The company, based in Kilrane, Rosslare Harbour, is not a member of the self-catering federation, but Mr Hanrahan said many of his members would be negatively affected by the closure.
Typically, such agencies take full payment from holidaymakers but do not pay accommodation owners for up to a month after a holiday ends. As a result holiday home providers will be out of pocket for guests already accommodated since the start of the summer.
“They were a big player and their closure will do huge damage to the industry,” Mr Hanrahan said. He criticised the company’s suggestion that people with accommodation booked and paid for should contact holiday home owners.
"It may well be that it will come down to local negotiations between accommodation owners and those who have booked with them, and it is true that nobody gets anything if the property is left empty, but I don't like this idea that selfcatering.iecan simply suggest this as a solution and then walk away," he said. "There is no question but that this company should not have been allowed to operate like this without any form of protection in place."
Fáilte Ireland director Aidan Pender said his organisation had discussed the company’s closure with the National Consumer Agency yesterday and that it would have to examine the issue of bonding within the domestic sector. He accepted that the company’s closure had done “significant damage” to the industry here.
The Irish Times has learned that selfcatering.iehad been asking customers to pay using cash transfers in recent weeks because it claimed it was unable to process credit-card payments. This policy will make it very difficult for people to seek redress.
Anyone who paid using a credit card would be able to claim money back from their credit card provider under section 14 of the Sale of Goods Act, but those who paid using transfers will automatically become creditors and are unlikely to get anything back if the company goes bankrupt.
Attempts by this newspaper to contact company director Thomas Power yesterday were unsuccessful. Fáilte Ireland said that it had also been unsuccessful in making contact with the company yesterday.
