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Companies That You Expect to Disappear Soon

dgl

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The problem with sites like air bnb is that not only can it push up rental prices in areas where there is a lot of people doing short term lets (i.e. why wouldn't someone rent out their house for a week for the price most people would pay for a month) making it even more difficult for locals to get housing (even more so in a place like Weymouth where way too many houses seem to be holiday cottages), further increasing the housing shortage.

Also people who use these services don't have anywhere near the costs that a hotel/holiday park has. Where I work we have to go through a lot of online and in person training (that they pay us to do) and if we don't complete it within a certain time we don't get paid. Plus we have to have the proper insurance (which I bet a lot of air bnb properties don't have), robust heath and safety policies (i.e. for COSHH, asbestos, maintenance and the like) and of course we have to pay tax on our earnings

Another thing is that people don't always realise that if something goes wrong and for some reason the persons house that you have booked is no longer available you are stuck, a hotel/holiday park will 99% of the time have somewhere else to put you.
Plus you see all to many horror stories of people going abroad on holiday only to find that the villa that they have booked is already occupied and they now have nowhere to stay.

Lastly what happens if you book through a site that is either fraudulent or is displaying a fraudulent listing? Booking directly with a hotel/holiday park is a lot safer in these regards.
 
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R

RailUK Forums

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Regarding booking.com, my wife and I used it to book a short break at a hotel in Sandwich. Arrived after a long journey to find the hotel had received no notification about us whatsoever, and had no vacant rooms (they did manage to find us a room in a pub in a village a couple of miles away). No apologies or compo from booking.com, and no further business from us.
 

bramling

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Hertfordshire / Teesdale
Regarding booking.com, my wife and I used it to book a short break at a hotel in Sandwich. Arrived after a long journey to find the hotel had received no notification about us whatsoever, and had no vacant rooms (they did manage to find us a room in a pub in a village a couple of miles away). No apologies or compo from booking.com, and no further business from us.

Can’t claim to have had any problems myself, but there’s always a first time I suppose...
 

cactustwirly

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UK
Regarding booking.com, my wife and I used it to book a short break at a hotel in Sandwich. Arrived after a long journey to find the hotel had received no notification about us whatsoever, and had no vacant rooms (they did manage to find us a room in a pub in a village a couple of miles away). No apologies or compo from booking.com, and no further business from us.

Booking.com have normally been pretty decent when I've used them
 

cactustwirly

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The problem with sites like air bnb is that not only can it push up rental prices in areas where there is a lot of people doing short term lets (i.e. why wouldn't someone rent out their house for a week for the price most people would pay for a month) making it even more difficult for locals to get housing (even more so in a place like Weymouth where way too many houses seem to be holiday cottages), further increasing the housing shortage.

Also people who use these services don't have anywhere near the costs that a hotel/holiday park has. Where I work we have to go through a lot of online and in person training (that they pay us to do) and if we don't complete it within a certain time we don't get paid. Plus we have to have the proper insurance (which I bet a lot of air bnb properties don't have), robust heath and safety policies (i.e. for COSHH, asbestos, maintenance and the like) and of course we have to pay tax on our earnings

Another thing is that people don't always realise that if something goes wrong and for some reason the persons house that you have booked is no longer available you are stuck, a hotel/holiday park will 99% of the time have somewhere else to put you.
Plus you see all to many horror stories of people going abroad on holiday only to find that the villa that they have booked is already occupied and they now have nowhere to stay.

Lastly what happens if you book through a site that is either fraudulent or is displaying a fraudulent listing? Booking directly with a hotel/holiday park is a lot safer in these regards.

I work in a holiday park, and during the high season we are fully booked, so if there is a problem we can't move people around, so if you are stuck then it is quite a problem!
 

dgl

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I work in a holiday park, and during the high season we are fully booked, so if there is a problem we can't move people around, so if you are stuck then it is quite a problem!
well that is true (I work on a holiday park too), but if we have a real problem then we will sometimes ask one of the owners who does not let through us or is not on let at the moment if we can use their van.
But yes a few years ago we did accidentally overbook, but luckily I'm just a minion and that's not my department.
 

DavidGrain

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I use Booking.com a lot both in the UK and abroad so that I now get a good frequent user discount. I do have a worry that hotels where I have not been before and may not go again are having to pay for these discounts.
 

cactustwirly

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well that is true (I work on a holiday park too), but if we have a real problem then we will sometimes ask one of the owners who does not let through us or is not on let at the moment if we can use their van.
But yes a few years ago we did accidentally overbook, but luckily I'm just a minion and that's not my department.

That's not possible on my site, and if there was an over booking (thankfully hasn't happened to me) then I would be the one picking up the pieces :lol::rolleyes:
 

SteveP29

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The problem with sites like air bnb is that not only can it push up rental prices in areas where there is a lot of people doing short term lets (i.e. why wouldn't someone rent out their house for a week for the price most people would pay for a month) making it even more difficult for locals to get housing (even more so in a place like Weymouth where way too many houses seem to be holiday cottages), further increasing the housing shortage.

Dream Cottages have far too many houses for holiday rental on Trinity Road in Weymouth and at prices that are too expensive for what they are.

2 years ago, we booked a week in a house on Franchise Street, £750 for 7 nights, yes, it was a 4 bedroom, sleeps 6 house.
Last year and in 2 weeks time, we're paying £4 more for 2 weeks b&b (even though there's only 2 of us instead of 5)
 

cactustwirly

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Dream Cottages have far too many houses for holiday rental on Trinity Road in Weymouth and at prices that are too expensive for what they are.

2 years ago, we booked a week in a house on Franchise Street, £750 for 7 nights, yes, it was a 4 bedroom, sleeps 6 house.
Last year and in 2 weeks time, we're paying £4 more for 2 weeks b&b (even though there's only 2 of us instead of 5)

Was this in high season though?
 

Dai Corner

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Dream Cottages have far too many houses for holiday rental on Trinity Road in Weymouth and at prices that are too expensive for what they are.

2 years ago, we booked a week in a house on Franchise Street, £750 for 7 nights, yes, it was a 4 bedroom, sleeps 6 house.
Last year and in 2 weeks time, we're paying £4 more for 2 weeks b&b (even though there's only 2 of us instead of 5)

I make that £17.86 each per night for 6 in the house and £26.93 each per night in the B&B. £9 should be plenty to buy a decent breakfast.
 

adrock1976

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What's it called? It's called Cumbernauld
Bury Football Club

I do recall Bolton Wanderers being in financial difficulty towards the end of last season. It was so serious that they could not play their last couple of fixtures, which if I remember, the last match was against Charlton Athletic who were awarded an automatic 3-0 win and 3 points.

Unsure if Bolton Wanderers FC are still functioning or gone into liquidation or not.
 

158756

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I do recall Bolton Wanderers being in financial difficulty towards the end of last season. It was so serious that they could not play their last couple of fixtures, which if I remember, the last match was against Charlton Athletic who were awarded an automatic 3-0 win and 3 points.

Unsure if Bolton Wanderers FC are still functioning or gone into liquidation or not.

Bolton are I think still in administration right now. There is a prospective buyer, though what I've heard about them doesn't exactly fill me with confidence. They are going to play this weekend, but will be relying on youth players unless they get things sorted and sign some players soon.
 

richw

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Bolton satisfied the financial evidence requested by the league. Bury failed to do so.
 

SteveP29

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I do recall Bolton Wanderers being in financial difficulty towards the end of last season. It was so serious that they could not play their last couple of fixtures, which if I remember, the last match was against Charlton Athletic who were awarded an automatic 3-0 win and 3 points.

Couldn't have been Charlton, they were in the division below them
 

Cloud Strife

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I find booking.com wonderful, although it’s not so wonderful for small businesses who have to pay hefty commission fees.

I know someone who runs a wonderful and large apartment in Slovenia, and he has an excellent way of doing things: he encourages his customers to refer guests directly, and for every successful referral in high season (May-late September/December-March), he gives a week free (except utility costs) during the low season. As a result, his place is almost always occupied, and as he puts it, the revenue from 8 months a year is enough, and that the apartment would likely be empty during those 4 low season months anyway.

For me, booking.com is a godsend with free cancellation. It really helps if you're planning a holiday but you don't want to commit to one destination - I went to Montenegro last year and had about 40 apartments reserved, before narrowing them down one by one. However, I prefer Airbnb for low season bookings, because you can negotiate heavily with apartment owners, many of whom are happy to have anyone reserving then. I had one bad experience with them, and Airbnb were quick to offer a huge credit in order to find alternative accommodation.
 

Typhoon

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I do recall Bolton Wanderers being in financial difficulty towards the end of last season. It was so serious that they could not play their last couple of fixtures, which if I remember, the last match was against Charlton Athletic who were awarded an automatic 3-0 win and 3 points.
Couldn't have been Charlton, they were in the division below them
You are right, it was Brentford and they were awarded a 1-0 win. The game was called off because the players went on strike as they had not been paid for some time.
 

Iskra

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Laterooms and Superbreaks have ceased trading according to LNER twitter. A bit of strange one. Laterooms website is down.
 

theblackwatch

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Laterooms and Superbreaks have ceased trading according to LNER twitter. A bit of strange one. Laterooms website is down.

I used Superbreak a few times as sometimes they had good deals on hotels in London. I'm not sure how many people still used them for the 'package' deals they offered of train travel plue hotel. I think I am right in saying they originated from 'Golden Rail' which was British Rail's holidays in the 1970s and 1980s.
 

Clip

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I used Superbreak a few times as sometimes they had good deals on hotels in London. I'm not sure how many people still used them for the 'package' deals they offered of train travel plue hotel. I think I am right in saying they originated from 'Golden Rail' which was British Rail's holidays in the 1970s and 1980s.


I've had friends who used them for their city breaks on the train and got great value including 1st class on the train.
 
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lyndhurst25

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I used Superbreak a few times as sometimes they had good deals on hotels in London. I'm not sure how many people still used them for the 'package' deals they offered of train travel plue hotel. I think I am right in saying they originated from 'Golden Rail' which was British Rail's holidays in the 1970s and 1980s.

BR's Golden Rail Holidays was merged into SuperBreak when it got sold off in 1989. I see that SuperBreak is still based in York, where Golden Rail was also run from, so that is probably why.

As a kid I remember going on a few inclusive train plus chalet/static caravan family seaside holidays. I suppose that these must have been booked using Golden Rail.
 

Gemz91

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Homebase judging by how many emails I've been getting from them this week about their sales. I know they've been int rouble lately, but seem to be getting at least daily emails from them trying to push their sales.
 

Typhoon

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Homebase judging by how many emails I've been getting from them this week about their sales. I know they've been int rouble lately, but seem to be getting at least daily emails from them trying to push their sales.
I would agree. Our local Homebase became a Bunnings. Instant improvement, alert staff, more stuff I might actually buy, actual bargains (ie not stuff that is just reduced to the same price as everyone else sells it for). Bunnings apparently didn't work out so we're back to Homebase - I went in a couple of months ago, came out 10 minutes later, bought nothing. I looked at the plants - too expensive and half dead. I haven't a clue what their purpose is and I suspect neither do they.
 

Busaholic

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I would agree. Our local Homebase became a Bunnings. Instant improvement, alert staff, more stuff I might actually buy, actual bargains (ie not stuff that is just reduced to the same price as everyone else sells it for). Bunnings apparently didn't work out so we're back to Homebase - I went in a couple of months ago, came out 10 minutes later, bought nothing. I looked at the plants - too expensive and half dead. I haven't a clue what their purpose is and I suspect neither do they.
Strange goings-on - it seems if Homebase had just kept that name after the Bunnings takeover they'd have been alright, word would have got around that the stores had changed for the better and they'd probably have thrived. Instead, they seemed to decide that everyone would look the name up on the internet and discover they had a great reputation in Australia, or wherever, and, certainly in my area, suspend all advertising. Reminds me rather of the French super/hypermarket chain Carrefour here decades ago: the assumption being that everyone would know what a superior store it was and instantly start using it. French arrogance!
 

Typhoon

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Strange goings-on - it seems if Homebase had just kept that name after the Bunnings takeover they'd have been alright, word would have got around that the stores had changed for the better and they'd probably have thrived. Instead, they seemed to decide that everyone would look the name up on the internet and discover they had a great reputation in Australia, or wherever, and, certainly in my area, suspend all advertising. Reminds me rather of the French super/hypermarket chain Carrefour here decades ago: the assumption being that everyone would know what a superior store it was and instantly start using it. French arrogance!
Or in the case of Bunnings, Aussie arrogance (now that's a first)!

We did have advertising advising of the change to Bunnings, together with details of offers. I suppose I was intrigued because there was a large store not so far away that became one of the first Bunnings and was featured in local news programmes.

I wouldn't be surprised at store closures!
 

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