Dozens of Aussie families have lost thousands, had their dream holidays ruined and even left stranded overseas after a major travel company collapsed.
Online travel agency Traveldream went into administration and ceased trading on April 28. The collapse caused flights, accommodation, cruises and tour bookings for its customers to be canned at the last minute.
A mother and her two daughters lost $33,000 while a group of travellers, currently overseas, found there was no booking under their name after arriving at a hotel.
Donna Lamberth and her husband lost $15,500 from the fall-out of the collapse.
The couple saved for two years to go on the trip, which started in Vancouver, followed by a cruise from Alaska before they finished in Las Vegas. In December, they finally paid off all of the trip.
‘I’m going to have to save again. It’s a lot of money to lose,’ she told news.com.au.
When Ms Lamberth rang the cruise company, she learned the devastating news that only $250 had been paid as a deposit on the cruise.
‘They said there was still $7,000 to pay. I burst into tears,’ she said.
The Lamberths had to cancel their holiday because they couldn’t afford to pay for the accommodation and the cruise again.
Michelle Brown, along with her husband and friends, arrived in Vancouver last Friday after spending 21 hours flying from .
‘We turn up there at whatever time of night. They said “sorry we don’t have a booking”,’ Ms Brown told news.com.au.
She was one of at least 75 people who lost out on the collapse according to the administrator Bill Karageozis, from insolvency firm Mcleods.
Mr Karageozis said the company’s debts were unlikely to exceed $1million and that there were no ‘available tangible assets’ of the company.
The administrator encouraged customers to try to find out who their travel ‘wholesaler’ was – the company the travel agency paid to secure services.
The list of some of the suppliers customers were told to contact were Royal Caribbean Cruises, Holland America Cruises, Qantas, Air Canada, United Airlines, American Airlines, Singapore Airlines, Westjet and Canada Rockeries Keywest Tours.
Christopher Banson is the sole director of n Travel Deals Pty Ltd, the name under which Traveldream is registered. It has been in business since 2016.
He runs also Salt Water Hotels and Resorts, which has 30 properties around but was unaffected by the collapse of Traveldream.
Another shareholder, Travel Dream Pty Ltd, owes Traveldream $49,000, according to the administrators.
This company is directed by Paul Mercuri, who co-founded Traveldream but was not working at the company when it collapsed. Nor did Mercuri have any involvement with the collapse.
Traveldream and Mcleods were contacted by Daily Mail for comment.