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Hotels and CAA seek millions from The Holiday Place collapse

Hotels and the CAA are among a list of unsecured creditors owed a total of £11.7m by collapsed travel firm The Holiday Place, according to an administrators report.

The Cuba Holidays parent ceased trading on May 29 with 450 customers abroad and 2,500 forward bookings.

It collapsed owing £3.5m to the CAA, £2.4m to merchant acquirer First Data and £2.1m to hotels.

Company records show just over £19m was owed to hotels for reservations and block bookings made up to 2021. However, administrators Begbies Traynor said the majority of these will be cancelled.


More:‘Summer heatwave and Brexit’ led to Cuba Holidays failure

Cuba Holidays parent The Holiday Place ceases trading


Other unsecured creditors listed include Iata which is owed more than half a million pounds.

The airline body has asserted money for airline tickets was held on trust by The Holiday Place and it is owed the money “immediately”.

The directors of the business have a claim for £336,247, as well as HMRC, which is owed £45,000.

The report says the business was about to run out of cash following months of poor trading and would not have been able to meet Atol and Abta bonding requirements.

Profits decreased from £812,000 in 2015 to £371,000 in 2018.

Last summer’s heatwave and Brexit uncertainty were cited as reasons for the company’s demise.

The company had invested in projects to add more destinations and hotels but “the company’s sales figures didn’t hit the targets required to keep the business going”, the report said.

Begbies said the sale of the company’s assets, including websites and customer databases, are being finalised.

“We consider that the company has sufficient property to enable a distribution to unsecured creditors,” it added.

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