First massive Brexit cock up - Low Cost Holidays have gone bust!

[catbasilio]

See here
I have a booking with them for £1400.
I am not looking forward to losing my holidays and claiming Section 75 with my credit card company and probably encountering losses anyway among 110,000+ other travellers.
What have you done, Leavers??

It will make a (nice) change to blame Brexit for everything for the foreseeable future and not the EU.

(Tongue firmly in cheek - I suspect Brexit was not the only, or perhaps even the main, factor at work here)

Sorry to hear about your holiday Catbasilio.

Brexit they haven't been meeting their financial obligations to secure the hotel bookings in advance, probably for quite a while. After all customers will have paid in full some time ago, certainly pre-referendum.

A local restaurant has closed on the excuse of Brexit. Nothing to do with erratic opening hours and being a niche establishment in a random area.

The failure of any business usually involves a number of factors. Well run businesses don't go bust because foreseeable risks come to pass.

This company was obviously a poorly-run business, operating on low margins and without adequate risk-mitigation strategies. Nothing to do with brexit.

But something happened in the last month to tip it over the edge into insolvency. That might have happened anyway, but losing a big chunk of revenue due to consumers postponing travel and due to currency fluctuations won't have helped.

Brexit was almost certainly a factor in the timing of the company's demise, but it's certainly possible that it would have gone bust anyway.

There certainly will be plenty of travel-related businesses suffering now. My best friend works in Belgium in a retail outlet whose primary business is selling to the booze-'n'-fag cruise market. Most of their business is transacted in sterling. The bottom has fallen out of their sales in the last month.

3 weeks ago thix company was flourishing ??

There certainly will be plenty of travel-related businesses suffering now. My best friend works in Belgium in a retail outlet whose primary business is selling to the booze-'n'-fag cruise market.

If your business is predicated solely on arbitrage between tax and exchange rates in adjacent countries then you have to accept it may not last. It's an inherently short-term game because there are 100s of reasons why such price differentials will not last indefinitely.

I didn't say some companies have seen a surge, Studious, I said countries / resorts. Majorca, for example, was drawing up a plan because such high numbers of holiday makers had diverted there instead regions they felt were less safe. This was in the Spring, gearing up for the summer. So: same number of people going on holiday, but choosing different places. Spain and Portugal instead of turkey / Tunisia, for example.

Many companies, well run and otherwise, operate close to the edge at times, and trade out of it. Companies buying services in Europe using Income inn sterling have seen a 10% drop in their income against expenditure. 10% is a lot.

Of course Brexit won't be the ONLY factor. But even the most vehement Brxiters, economy-wise, conceded that there will be a difficult period while the UK's future trading is established, so why wouldn't you expect to see companies suffer and fold in the immediate (2 year) slipstream of the referendum? It was expected by ALL sides. What is in greater dispute is the long term prospect.

If your business is predicated solely on arbitrage between tax and exchange rates in adjacent countries then you have to accept it may not last.

Yes, of course. But the companies most affected will be the ones using relatively unsophisticated business models - smaller businesses, and companies like lowcostholidays which run on shoe-string margins.

And it was a very large and very sudden exchange rate movement, on top of what was already significant depreciation over the last year.

Large businesses have already stated their will be price increases in the next 18 months due to them having finances sorted until then.

What will people try and blames prices increases in in 18 months time rather than brexit? Thus will have an affect on the population of UK in various ways.

We only produce 40% of our own food 60% is imported so by Christmas price increases will be in place as the pound is weaker than the euro. Clothing is nearly 90% imported and there for in 2017 clothing prices will increase as most is charged in dollars not euros and it will increase further than food.

Inflation will increase, companies can't plan and keep prices lower forever.

It may not be palatable but it is fact not even the best run companies can prevent this from happening.

It is fact those travelling to euro this year can expect to spent 10-15% more than last year die to the pound being weak and the reason is due to brexit

" and companies like lowcostholidays which run on shoe-string margins."

Which, because they stay cheap by having low margins, are the ones that individual families not wealthy enough to manage a 10% increase in the price of a holiday (me!) use!

Which, because they stay cheap by having low margins, are the ones that individual families not wealthy enough to manage a 10% increase in the price of a holiday (me!) use!

The biggest losers from brexit will definitely be the least well off :(

It is fact those travelling to euro this year can expect to spent 10-15% more than last year die to the pound being weak and the reason is due to brexit

It's more than that ...

When we were in the UK last year, sterling was trading close to €1.50. We spent a couple of weeks in Ireland and it made sense to drive south over the border to buy things like fuel in euros.

Now a pound is only worth €1.15-1.20!

Brexit is the gift which keeps giving!
Every spate of redundancies, every closed business, every political upheaval and every blip in our cultural landscape will inevitably be blamed on Brexit. It's a political gift!

Just like the EU used to be!

Shows we use events to support our belief system and when it doesn't correlate then we dissect the causes to look for alternative reasons.

Papayas: undoubtedly there will be cases of spurious Brexit Blame, but surely it is unrealistic to scoff at Brexit as the cause of problems in UK / EU businesses? Is it a consequence-free process?

I got back from a low cost holiday on Wed - I finally got round to booking it the day after the referendum and was surprised that it was the same price....
I made sure I had the higher rate of insurance (cost £10 more for the family) but it covered the cost of the whole holiday. I looked at the ATOL thing but if you are insured you should be fine - on their website now they are saying claim back from your insurance...
The reason I used them was their website was the most straight forward to use - I used them last year for the same reason. I just wanted it to be as simple as possible...a lazy all inclusive family holiday in the sun, once you get there you don't need to make decisions etc unless you want to. No needing to find somewhere to eat, or worry about budgets. I'll miss them...
I got an email from them yesterday morning advertising a 60% sale ...until Tuesday - maybe that was their last attempt to drum up business/get some income.

The biggest losers from brexit will definitely be the least well off

Well, perhaps they should have thought of that before voting for it. It's not as though they weren't warned.

LCH may well tell people to claim on their insurance, but in reality not many standard travel policies cover the supplier going bust.

The alternative is for the BOE to put up interest rates and this will of course strengthen the pound and make imports cheaper and holidays.

Of course higher interest rates will again be much more painful for the poor and younger than 55s

I agree with others regarding the effects of terrorism on the travel industry. The awful attacks on the Tunisian beaches and the threats of similar attacks on foreign tourists in Europe have made many reluctant to book the kind of holiday destination sold through LCH. Brexit and currency woes possibly tipped it over the edge but it wasn't the only factor.

OP
They are (were) based in Spain to avoid ATOL. You can't blame BREXIT for that.
You chose cheap, don't whinge when it all goes wrong.

You mean only people who can afford expensive holidays have the right to whinge when they go wrong?

Well terrorism affects holiday destinations that's for sure but for that reason I looked in Spain & Portugal only so you would have thought that that direction was generating more income than ever.

Catbasilio
I believe the threat level for Spain is described as 'High' together with France, Germany, Italy and Belgium. Specific threats have been made against foreign tourists visiting Spanish resorts and I know many friends that have avoided Spain and France this year. Greece has also been hit due to negativity surrounding the migrant crisis. So it's not a great time for the travel industry.

I agree terrorism and the migrant crisis is influencing peoples holiday choices - it influenced my choice. I'm sure more people are staying in the UK because of it.
More effect than Brexit - the drop in the £/Euro hasn't made that much difference...a 1000 euro hotel bill for a family of 4 would be about £60 more - £15 per person....hardly make or break on a £2000 + holiday...

Egypt is no no, as is Turkey (even before the 'attempted coup' -loads of cheap holidays available ) but actually Spain is rated the same by the Foreign office - as is the UK and France.
I was thinking about going to Bulgaria or Croatia or Portugal -as they are lower risk - Greece iirc was medium risk.
Actually found a link to the map www.express.co.uk/news/world/587227/Holiday-terror-threat-level-Spain-Tunisia-and-France-on-high-alert
I went to Crete because I've been before so know where to go and was running out of time to book - the other safer places I was dithering too much (I nearly booked somewhere in Bulgaria - then found out it is really touristy - I wouldn't like it...).
Last time I went I didn't risk going to Athens for a few days (as the original plan) because the economy was so fragile - a chance we may get stranded there - this time I didn't go because of the migrant crisis. When I told someone we were going to Crete they said we were mad -what about all the migrants - bodies being washed up on beaches etc ? Was it wise to take my children there? They wouldn't go. (I know the area and knew it should be ok)