OPERATORS have reacted angrily to being asked by retailers to return deposits after the cancellation of up to 50,000 summer 2000 holidays.
Travel Weekly revealed last week how ‘buy now pay later deals’ had rebounded on multiples as customers who booked in the autumn cancelled and chose cheaper alternatives.
It left agents, who had paid the full deposit to operators while taking nothing or just £5 from customers, out of pocket.
One specialist operator said:”We have been contacted by a multiple asking for the deposit back. They can sing for it. It takes time for my staff to process a booking which costs us money. It was the agents’ campaign to offer no deposit yet they now want the operator to pay for it.”
Going Places, Lunn Poly and Thomas Cook declined to comment.