HOLIDAY DREAMS IN TATTERS
Anger over lost rental deposits as company ceases trading
CLIENTS of Costa Blanca rental company Direct Villa Holidays have taken to social media to vent their anger over lost deposits and ruined plans when the family business seemingly vanished.
Speculation ran rife after the website was suddenly taken down last month and emails went unanswered.
People who had booked holidays in Moraira and Jávea were potentially left thousands of pounds out of pocket after booking vacations for later this year. Alarm bells started ringing when people were unable to contact the family run business and saw the villas they had booked advertised on other sites. Victims took to social media for news, forming Facebook group ‘direct villa holidays – Moraira gone bust’ to share information accusing the company of ‘doing a runner’, while Direct Villa Holidays, which described itself as ‘one of the leading villa holiday companies operating on the Costa Blanca’ had apparently ‘disappeared off the face of the earth’.
Many people have now received a long overdue email explaining they had ceased trading, an apology, and informed they would not receive a refund.
Direct Villa Holidays was initially based on the Costa Blanca but is now run by a parent company in the UK.
Registered with Companies House in January 2019, Premier Villa Escapes Ltd was first based in Chislehurst, Kent, undertaking ‘travel agent activities’.
Family names might be familiar to clients. Vivian and Stuart Nice were listed as directors and Kevin Nice as company secretary. On March 1, the company officially moved to London’s Hatton Garden.
Vivian, 66, resigned as a director and 46-year-old Stuart replacing her as the ‘person of significant control’.
Costa Blanca News was contacted by Graham Prentice, a former Metropolitan Police officer who was due to visit Moraira with seven friends in September after being forced to cancel last year’s break because of the pandemic.
Having taken breaks in the village since the 1990s and describing himself as a ‘Moraira lover’ and a regular customer of Direct Villa Holidays, he said the news was ‘devastating’. Graham, who lives in Berkshire, is owed £2,000 and said for years things went ‘very well’ and he visited several times a year but was forced to cancel a trip last April and also booked a different villa for September.
“We were prevented from travelling by UK government advice and the law and I contacted Vivian by phone and she agreed to move the booking to equivalent dates this September,” he said. “I was given a discount on this booking without even asking, apparently due to me losing my previous holiday and being a long-term customer. Now I ask, was I being sucked in and set up for a fall?”
Graham found the website had gone and saw the villa he had booked offered on another company’s website for the same dates.
“After joining the Facebook group, it became evident what had happened,” he said.
He noted that he had now received an email from the company but his bank and insurance company each claimed the other was responsible for the refund and he had requested proof from Direct Villa Holidays they had gone under to continue a claim.
“If Direct Villa Holidays had written and said they were winding up, it would be simple to claim one’s money back but the wording in the email has done the opposite – how can they be wound up if they are offering to help you if you have no claim from the insurance or bank,” he said.
He hit out at the company for taking down its website, ‘thus preventing customers from accessing booking documents, etc’, when ‘technically, it would have been easier to have announced it on the website’.
Graham confirmed that Direct Villa Holidays was once a Spanish company. He paid in euros, more recently the site became more automated.
“One could log into the website, download any documents needed and the payments were taken in sterling,” he stated.
In its email to clients, the company said: “As you may already be aware, after 15 years in business, Direct Villa Holidays has had to cease trading with immediate effect.
“We deeply regret this situation, but sadly due to the Covid crisis, we are unable to continue in business. We have not been able to get any kind of government assistance over the past 12 months. We would like to apologise for not keeping our customers updated on the situation while we have been working out the options available to us moving forward.”
It continued: “If you possess travel insurance or paid with a card, then we recommend that you make a claim with your travel insurance company and we can assist you with any necessary paperwork to show that we are unable to provide the holiday for which you paid.
“If you do not have travel insurance and didn’t pay with a credit card, then we may still be able to help. While we are not in a position to offer refunds, we may be able to negotiate with the owner of the villa you have booked to facilitate your holiday still going ahead on summer 21.”
The email ends: “To our many loyal customers over the years, we would again apologise and assure you we will do everything in our power to ensure a positive outcome despite the situation we face.”