The admission came as managing director Steve Byrne revealed that the collapse of Lowcost last month had “probably been the biggest failure to affect Travel Counsellors” since the company set up the financial protection trust in 2004.
Travel Counsellors had 1,500 bookings and 4,000 passengers affected by the collapse of Lowcost last month, which overall left tens of thousands of British holidaymakers in the lurch.
Byrne told TTG that “with the benefit of hindsight” there were indications that things “weren’t quite right” with Lowcosttravelgroup prior to its failure.“We did hear rumours that all was not well with Lowcost, but you have to be careful responding to rumours,” he said.
“The fact they moved their operations outside of the UK and weren’t covered by Atol were probably warning signals, in hindsight.
“Maybe they didn’t want the cost of that, or didn’t pay due credit to its use.
“A business’s cash flow would be another indicator, and their reputation for paying hotels on time,” Byrne said, but he added: “I wasn’t aware of anything amiss in that respect.”
Byrne said Travel Counsellors would learn from the collapse of Lowcost’s impact and would take steps to try and avoid a similar situation in future.
“In business, when anything goes awry you have to use it as a learning opportunity.
“We will be reviewing our relationships with all the wholesalers we use and doing further due diligence with them.
Travel Counsellors is ‘reviewing relationships’
Register for free to continue reading
Get unlimited access to the latest travel industry news and analysis, comment on articles and sign up to newsletters.
Register for free
Already registered? Login here or below.
Having difficulty logging in? Try these tips, or contact support@flymy.co.uk
