Travellers out of pocket after holiday wholesaler vanishes
Award-winning Sydney based travel wholesaler Excite Holidays has left travellers and travel agents furious after becoming strangely unreachable citing “platform issues”.
NSW
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Holiday-makers have been left stranded and others out-of-pocket after a major online travel wholesaler has become strangely unreachable citing “platform issues”.
The Sydney-based Excite Holidays works exclusively with travel agents to provide “competitive rates” for more than 400,000 hotels and apartments as well as 100,000 activities and transfer services, according to its website.
The award-winning company — founded in 2002 by George Papaioannou and Nicholas Stavropolous — also has offices in the US, UK, New Zealand, Thailand, Greece and Singapore.
Its website says it has “enjoyed strong year-on-year growth”.
But agents claim Excite Holidays has not been answering their calls after it began to experience “system issues” in December, leading some to question whether the company is still solvent.
They say that in some instances client bookings have already been paid in full but are being cancelled because payments are not being received by third-party providers.
When contacted by The Daily Telegraph, an automated message said: “We regret to advise Excite is currently experiencing some platform issues and bookings have been affected.
“Our operations team are currently working to identify and rectify affected bookings.
“We recommend you advise your client to pay the travel provider, keep their receipts and lodge a service complaint within the next 30 days.”
The Telegraph was not able to speak to an Excite employee after waiting on hold for an hour-and-a-half.
One NSW travel agency owner, who asked not to be named, said her company had been forced to pay hotels directly after clients arrived to find accommodation booked through Excite had not been paid for.
“We are out of pocket until we get money back from Excite,” she said.
“At this stage we’ve got clients stranded … Excite isn’t answering our emails or phones so it does look suspicious.” A travel agent from WA, who also requested her name not be used, said the issue was “causing a lot of pain, frustration and sleepless nights”.
Excite and its directors have not responded to requests for comment.