Online holiday supplier Xcape With Us has gone belly up. With no forewarning for website publishers to remove their banners and ads, they just ceased trading and sent out the announcement about it today. I wonder at what point they stopped taking bookings because I know I was informed of bookings made just last week.
If you visit their website you will see the following message:
We regret to inform you that XcapeWithUs.com has ceased trading as of 30 April 2009.
If you have a confirmed booking and we have your email address you will receive an email shortly explaining what steps you can take.
If your arrival date is 30 April 2009 or 1 May 2009 please email: customersupport@xcapewithus.com with full contact details including your reference number.
At the moment I have no further information but would presume that holiday makers should be able to continue with their plans by contacting Xcape through the channels specified above.
Whether or not affiliates who in good faith helped this company accept holiday bookings will receive their commission is another story.
I’m pretty sure, based on what has happened with other companies, affiliates won’t get anything from recent bookings unfortunately.
Hi Xcape took £800 pounds off me 29 April 2009
I’m pretty sure you are right, Rob.
I am totally shocked to hear how close to the wire they were taking money. The people I dealt with there were always very straight and honest. I can’tr imagine they knew anything about this either and possibly came in yesterday to be told they had no job.
I would hope and expect that those holidays already paid for would be completely protected. I’d like to know what you are supposed to do now Chris, so I can post it for others. If you are given specific instructions after parting with your booking number then I’d really appreciate you getting back to me on that.
no im afraid i paid in march also and i am told hotel is not paid for
so holidays already paid for are not getting protected
such a shame as they have always been so good to deal with
WHAT DO WE DO NOW! DO WE STILL HAVE ACCOMODATION ARE SHOULD WE LOOK FOR SOMETHING ELSE? DISASTER DONT KNOW WHAT TO DO!
hi there chris iam going on hilday on sunday coming so will let you know what i had to do
Rosie, your first step must be to do what Xcape instructed in their message(see original post). I think (though this is only conjecture on my part) that some people will have protection via their credit card and others maybe via the kind of travel insurenace they had). You won’t know where you stand until you follow the first steps outlined for you by Xcape themselves.
hi, i have booked with xcape with us at a cost of £500 for 25th may…. im dreading what is gonna happen, the hotel says we are booked in? but are we?? what do we do
Hi Tara,
If I were you I would ask the hotel to send a booking confirmation including dates and money received by email. That way you have something written down and can feel less stressed in the lead up to your holiday.
hi there tara and rosie i phoned the hotel up as i was due to go tomoz sunday and no hotels are booked they have told me to claim it back tho the bank if you payed by debit card get on to the bank about a claimback but could take 3 to 6 months
Hi If booked on credit card and visa debit you can claim money back
if bank transfare you have lost your money i have done both 2 different holidays
our hotel have told us to come on tuesday 5th may so we are all going
hi they had my last bank transfer on the 25th April for £540 i even phoned them to make sure all was still good at the hotel and they said nothing to me they just had my money……
this is for a trip with 14 guys on the 13th May what do you think we will get our money back?
i have phoned the hotel and they said they had a call to cancel my rooms but that was from Serhsonline not xcape who are they ?
I dont think so i think we have all lost if paid by transfer
Sorry to hear this guys. I’m also booked through them for majorca on 12 June. 7 people all inclusive over £1,200!!
That’s just the accomodation costs, flights seperate.
It appears that you’ll have to find the money from somewhere to pay the hotel direct, get a print out from the hotel to show that the xcape booking wasn’t honoured, then take it up with your Visa card supplier.
If you’ve paid by solo or switch you’ve lost the money, simple as.
Sorry and all that but better to know the truth at the moment probably
Mark Hampshire UK
hi my second holiday 14th June payment wasn’t due and they took it off my debit card early ( should be 5 weeks before )
so a lot of people will have been robbed by this company and government sits back and lets it happen …………………..
unbelievable
If that’s a visa debit card Chris you’ll have ‘chargeback’ protection though?
I agree with you tho it’s an absolute disgrace that these companies can take the money and not have to bank it into a neutral holding account that can only be accessed to pay hotels directly.
A word of advice – Xcape used various agencies (in Mallorca at any rate) to make their hotel bookings (such as Serhs and Hotelbeds) and they cancel direct with the hotel. Therefore the hotel cancel the booking, so please use the channels on the Xcape website, as otherwise you may turn up at your hotel to find there is no room. The hotels DO NOT get paid in advance (only after the holiday, sometimes as much as 3 months after) by the agents, and therefore they have no obligation to honour your booking. Sorry to disappoint but I work in reservations in a hotel, and know that we have had direct cancellations from agencies for bookings made originally with Xcape, and we have no way of informing a client as we don’t have their details. CHECK FIRST is all the advice I can offer
[...] addition to the above, the comment copied below was posted by Jenny in the Xcape Goes Bust thread: A word of advice – Xcape used various agencies (in Mallorca at any rate) to make their [...]
Thanks Jenny. That is good advice. Xcape have also updated their page to say:
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
Please contact your accommodation provider directly to check that your booking will still be honoured by sending an email to customersupport@xcapewithus.com
PAYMENT BY CREDIT CARD or VISA DEBIT:
If the provider confirms that the booking will not be honoured, and your booking was made with a Mastercard or Visa credit card or a Visa Debit card, you will need to contact your card issuer for a refund. Please note that your card issuer will require proof that the booking will not be honoured.
PAYMENT BY DEBIT CARD or BANK TRANSFER:
If you have paid by Maestro, Switch, Solo or bank transfer we suggest that you check your travel insurance policy to see if you can make a claim.
If you are unable to reclaim your money through your travel insurance then please send an email to claims@xcapewithus.com (with the subject line: ‘Xcape With Us Claim’), please include your reference number. There is little likelihood of there being sufficient funds to enable these claims to be met.
I work in an agency in Costa Dorada-Salou. On Thursday we got the advice that Xcape had ceased trading. As we do not get paid the bookings of Xcape in advance, we had to cancel all the bookings from this company. We just have the names of the customer and no way to contact them so we just send the cancellations to all the hotels with a short explanation of the reason why we were cancelling the reservation. Today I’ve been talking with some hotels explaining the situation, and we have received some phone calls from clients but there’s not much we could do that recommend them to follow the instructions from Xcape site.
I only found out yesterday and I have booked for a hen week for 5th June – feel sick and gutted like I have let everyone down, paid by Visa Debit and they have all the paperwork this morning via the bank that they need just fingers crossed money all comes back although I expect doubtful before we go to be able to book something else. The thing that annoyed me is that I phoned the hotel where we are goingto in Spain and he said that the booking hasnt gone through and if we still want to come we have to pay more money in line with the hotels room rates.
You no doubt scoured the internet looking for the very best deal you could get for you and your friends and it is absolutely not your fault that Xcape have left you in the lurch. Xcape prices were hard to beat. Unfortunately we have all learned a hard lesson from that. Not least, I hope, those behind the failed company who have let down countless numbers of people.
Having paid with Visa at least you should be able to get your money back. What are you going to do about the hotel/holiday?
I booked a hotel through xcape in January (1800 euro). When booking asked deposit only to be taken but they took the full amount of me credit card. I e-mailed them on several occassions querying why they did this but got no reply. Got e-mail on 30th April, to say they had ceased business and it went into my spam mail. I do’nt know what made me check spam mail but if I had not I would be off to Spain in June thinking my hotel booking was ok. If we steal something we would probably go to gaol but the likes of these people get away with it, it disgraceful. I have been informed by by credit card company I will get my money back but not until after date of booking has expired.
I paid my daughter’s family holiday on my credit card in March.My credit card paid out to Jumbo Tours in Palma Majorca. When she arrived yesterday she was told her accomodation had not been paid and I had to repay it. Has Jumbo Tours gone bust along with Xcape?
I would be grateful for any information.
Hi Guys
Just come back off holiday 1
was told on telephone to hotel booking was ok on arrival had to pay 1650 Euro for my family
i did tell them i had paid and give voucher but they say if you dont pay we call spanish police so double check hotels as this has happened to a few people
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Hello phyliss
totally agree with you but our government allows this to happen to us
alot of people lost money on this nothing will be done
i found out xcape with us had gone bust 2 days b4 mt hen party ~:( they had gone bust a week before and i hadnt heard anything at all!!!!! i had to book again with alpharooms and pay for everyone (this time on my cc for protection) when we arrived at the hotel i asked them if they had anything booked or heard of these and they said they hadnt…i wont get my money back as we paid bank transfer which i will never do again!!! still had a fab time though…just think its terrible how they were still taking money on the run up!! i too felt sick and was gutted at the time
i have just returned from majorca, after booking with xscape with us. to find out that when we arrived at the hotel that we had no rooms for the 6 of us that had paid £1200.
i didnt even know that xscape with us had gone bust and have received no correspondance from them. What a shoddy disappoinment. and a disgrace to have to find out in such an embarrassing way.
Booked accomadation with xscape with us to hotel Aquarium Lloret de mar,11May-18 May.Found out they had gone bust by chance after recommending them to my daughter who was looking for a holiday to rome.this was on the 8th,I am one of the lucky ones who found out in time and was able to make other arrangements.Can I get my money back, paid on Visa debit card not credit card.
Just got back from Benidorm booked with Xscape in March and did not receive any notice that they had gone bust, we had to pay 600euros for our room which we had already paid for in March
My partner and myself arrived at our hotel in Costa Adeje – Tenerife last Sunday (17th May) only to be told that there was no booking arrangements for us. I’m sure you can imagine how we both felt. We had received NO notification of any financial problems with Xcapewithus, even when they had the cheek to except my balance payment and confirmed my holiday as honoured on 2nd April 09!
We therefore, had to pay the hotel for a weeks half board accommodation, yet again which in total was nearly double what we originally paid to Xcapewithus!
Have just arrived home now and need to decide what action to take first. I feel very angry about all of this as I always use the internet for booking my holidays but now feel I have been taken for a mug!
Congratulations, you just earned yourself an entry in my feed reader, great blog.
We have just returned from a family holoday in salou – had booked our accom throu two companies and did’nt find out until we got there that scape had gone belly up and our money has been “lost” due to their cease of trading. The hotel we were at is a regular, we have been going there for several times a year for last couple of years – the hotel was disgusted that we have a confirmed booking reference, paid for 7th april – and then no room – we had to pay again in resort – well sick… we run a business ourselves… this wasn’t a limited company – there must be the owners still about – how can we find who they are – they ruined our holiday with there devious trading ways – we booked on our business credit card, cannot get money back through them as was personal use, travel insurance will not pay up – we all need to find these people responsible, we must have some comeback surely??? we have just returned from spain – salou – seems to have been affected badly – know there were others there that were also involved – has this been on tv here??? has anyone from the media taken up our plight??? Any info would be appreciated. Thanks!
Hi,have just been informed of xcape with us administration, dispite booking my accomodation in December last year!!! i payed by debit card and dont think my insurance covers this problem.. arrrrrgh!!!! looks like im losing nearly £500 as well as the cost of booking a new hotel! what a downer :0(
I have received the administrators report with a covering letter stating a full list of trade creditors is attached to the report. However, there is no attachment. Anthony Batty & Co must have somehow forgotten to attach it.
Anthony Batty request information for the investigation of Xcapewithus directors. When this is received they make assurances that this will be submitted to the Department for Business. I hope they don’t forget to do this like they forgot to attach the trade creditor list to the administrators report.
Can I use the freedom of information act to check that the Dept for Business do receive my information on Xcapewithus’ pricing policy prior to their demise (my company has historical pricing data that shows that they were consistently undercutting all other travel companies and I suspect selling hotels for close to cost price to get money into the company quickly) and do carry out a full investigation of Andrew Miles and Xcapewithus?