Aussies’ dream holidays up in the air after travel agent collapses

Dozens of Australians have had their dream holidays ruined and are tens of thousands of dollars out of pocket after a travel agency collapsed.

Dozens of Australians have had their dream holidays ruined and are tens of thousands of dollars out of pocket after a travel agency collapsed.

At the end of last month Traveldream, which operates as an online travel agency, plunged into administration.

The business ceased trading immediately on April 28, causing the flight, accommodation, cruise and tour bookings of their customers to go up in smoke.

News.com.au knows of a mother and her two daughters who have lost $33,000 from the debacle and a group of Aussie travellers currently overseas who arrived at their hotel after a long journey only to learn there was no booking under their name.

Insiders told news.com.au that in the months before Traveldream’s collapse, the business had been laying staff off in redundancy rounds but was still accepting new bookings. The company went from having eight staff to no one by the time it crumbled.

Donna Lamberth and her husband, 53, lost out on $15,500 because of company’s sudden collapse.

“I’m going to have to save again. It’s a lot of money to lose,” she told news.com.au.

The Traveldream website warns that it is now under control of administrators.

The Lamberths are $15,000 worse off as a result of Traveldream’s collapse.

Ms Lamberth, from Injune, Queensland, has been saving up for two years to go on the trip of a lifetime starting in Vancouver, then a cruise from Alaska, ending up in Las Vegas as well as seeing the Grand Canyon.

In December, she paid off 100 per cent of the trip.

“I was devastated,” she said when she heard Traveldream had gone bust.

“Then I was thinking I would just pay the extra because my flights and cruise (should be) paid for.”

She was happy to learn her money had been put towards securing plane tickets.

But when she rang up the cruise company, they informed her that only $250 had been paid by way of a deposit. “They said there was still $7000 to pay. I burst into tears.”

The Lamberths had to pull the pin on their holiday trip and cancel their two months of leave.

Ms Lamberth said she was unable to afford to pay for the accommodation and the cruise all over again.

“My bags were packed. I haven’t even unpacked my bags yet,” she lamented.

At least 75 people are in Ms Lamberth’s position, according to the appointed administrator, Bill Karageozis of insolvency firm Mcleods.

So far 75 creditors have come forward but the administrator expects there may be as many as 100 creditors for the compay which was registered as Australian Travel Deals Pty Ltd, but traded under the name Traveldream.

Mr Karageozis told news.com.au that the company’s debts are unlikely to exceed $1 million.

“There are no available tangible assets of the company,” he added.

The administrator has encouraged customers to try to find out who their travel ‘wholesaler’ is – meaning the company the travel agency paid to secure services.

For instance, some customers have managed to salvage plane tickets with airline carriers.

It’s possible that some services were prepaid using customer money, making it possible that some trips can still go ahead.

The list of some of the suppliers customers are recommended to contact include Royal Caribbean Cruises, Holland America Cruises, Qantas, Air Canada, United Airlines, American Airlines, Singapore Airlines, Westjet and Canada Rockeries Keywest Tours.

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It appears that at least 300 people may have been impacted on a single tour, indicating more than 100 creditors might be affected.

The number of impacted customers might be more – a whopping 300 people reportedly signed up to a tour starting next Monday, May 19, according to an email Traveldream sent.

The trip is to the same destinations Ms Lamberth was planning to visit, in North America.

Lorraine Micairan is one of the 300 leaving next week and has luckily scrambled to save her trip.

But the Sydneysider had to fork out thousands of extra dollars to fill the gaps left behind by Traveldream.

“We’re still afloat,” Ms Micairan, a mum-of-five, told news.com.au.

“I received an itinerary, flight details. When I checked in online it says it’s cancelled. When I rang Qantas about it, they said there’s no payment.”

She and her husband paid $12,000 altogether for their much-anticipated vacation along with a group of six other friends.

They also discovered the only accommodation that had been prepaid using their money was for a few days in Las Vegas.

Luckily Ms Micairan, 37, and their friends pooled their resources and have booked AirBnbs, which has worked out cheaper than each couple booking individual hotel rooms.

She was despairing about having to book a last minute plane ticket which was around $5000. Luckily, she said a plane ticket had been reserved at a $1400 price point, so she was able to pay that to secure it.

The trip “is still very expensive”, she said, and has cost her a lot more than it should have.

The Micairans have been left scrambling to salvage what they can of their trip.

Lorraine Micairan, a mum-of-five, has lost out on thousands because of Traveldream’s failure.

Melbourne-based Christopher Banson is the sole director of Australian Travel Deals Pty Ltd. It’s been a registered business since 2016.

News.com.au has contacted him for comment.

Mr Banson also runs another travel-related business called Salt Water Hotels and Resorts, which has 30 properties around Australia available to stay in. This business is unaffected by the collapse of Traveldream.

The Salt Water Hotel business is a shareholder of the Traveldream company.

Another shareholder, Travel Dream Australia Pty Ltd, owes Traveldream $49,000, according to administrators.

This company is solely directed by Paul Mercuri. Mr Mercuri co-founded Traveldream but was not working at the company by the time it collapsed. News.com.au attempted to contact Mr Mercuri for comment.

Michelle Brown and her husband were left with no accomodation while they were overseas as a result of Traveldream’s collapse.

For Michelle Brown and Tammy Meurant, their Traveldream experience has been the opposite of a dream.

The friends, along with their husbands, arrived in Vancouver last Friday after spending 21 hours flying to begin their holiday.

“We turn up there at whatever time of night. They said: ‘sorry we don’t have a booking’,” Ms Brown recounted to news.com.au.

The group of friends, in their 50s, had been worried something like that might happen. They had rung up the hotel multiple times and the hotel had assured them their rooms were confirmed.

They had even received confirmation emails and details about check-in.

It turned out that someone had rung up and cancelled their booking three days before they arrived, presumably because Traveldream had failed to pay for their rooms.

“We arrived on Friday the 9th. It was cancelled on the 6th. Someone rang the hotel and cancelled it. It had to be a third party.”

The two couples are pushing on with their holiday but have been “scrambling” to find accommodation. They have booked Airbnbs between the four of them for several locations and are bracing for other hotels to be cancelled last minute.

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