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Shearings' parent company enter administration

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Flange Squeal

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The Specialist Leisure Group, which among various hotel chains also owns coach operators Shearings and National Holidays, officially entered administration today.

Specialist Leisure Group Limited and certain subsidiaries* (in Administration) (‘the Specialist Leisure Group’)


The Specialist Leisure Group entered Administration on 22 May 2020.



All tours, cruises, holidays and hotel breaks booked with the Specialist Leisure Group have been cancelled and will not be rescheduled.


The Specialist Leisure Group operated several businesses that sold holidays and other travel arrangements under the following brand names, which have all ceased to trade, due to the impact of COVID-19.





MultiLogo




All hotels trading as Bay Hotels, Coast & Country Hotels and Country Living Hotels will not reopen. Click here for a full list of hotels that have ceased to trade.



All Wallace Arnold Travel shops are now permanently closed. If you booked a holiday through a travel agent that was not Wallace Arnold Travel, please contact your travel agent in the first instance.



Customers who have booked with one of the above brands should read and follow the advice below.


Click here for Package holiday bookings
Click here for all other holiday bookings
Click here for additional customer information



Package holiday bookings
All package holiday bookings, including organised tours and cruises, have been cancelled and will not be rescheduled.



All customers with cancelled package holiday bookings, which include organised travel, are expected to have financial protection. Customers with Holiday Credit Notes, issued for package holidays cancelled since March 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, may have the same financial protection as under their original booking.



It is important that customers read and follow the advice below to confirm if and how they can claim a refund for their cancelled holiday.



Travel by Coach, Rail and River Cruises

If your package holiday / tour included travel by coach or rail, or you booked a cruise, with overnight accommodation, your holiday is expected to be covered by The Confederation of Passenger Transport, Bonded Coach Holidays Scheme or by your credit / debit card issuer.



Visit http://www.bch-uk.org/ for further information and advice on making a claim for a refund. Claims will be accepted through this website from Tuesday 26 May 2020.



Flight Inclusive Package Holidays

If you booked a flight inclusive package, your holiday may be covered by the ATOL scheme.



The Specialist Leisure Group sold flight inclusive ATOL protected package holidays through Shearings Holdings Ltd – ATOL 1666. Please check your holiday booking documentation for an ATOL certificate to confirm if your holiday is covered.



Customers with ATOL protected bookings will be contacted by the UK Civil Aviation Authority in due course, either directly or via their booking / travel agent, with further information and advice on making a claim for a refund.



Please visit https://www.caa.co.uk/ATOL-protection/Make-an-ATOL-claim/Latest-ATOL-holder-failures/ for additional information.



Holidays booked through Travel Agents



Specialist Leisure Group bookings through Wallace Arnold Travel


  • All Wallace Arnold Travel shops are now permanently closed.
  • If you purchased a Shearings, National Holidays or UK Breakaways holiday through Wallace Arnold Travel, please refer to the information on this page to confirm your options to claim a refund for your cancelled holiday.


Other Wallace Arnold Travel bookings


  • Only holidays operated by tour operators in the Specialist Leisure Group have been cancelled, as a result of the Administration.
  • If you booked your holiday through Wallace Arnold Travel, for a trip arranged by a tour operator not in the Specialist Leisure Group, your holiday booking should be unaffected.
  • Tour operators that are not part of the Specialist Leisure Group include, but are not limited to, Jet2 Holidays, Tui, P&O Cruises and Butlins. To confirm the tour operator you have booked with, check your paperwork or ATOL Certificate for a flight inclusive package.
  • If your holiday is with a different tour operator (not the Specialist Leisure Group) please contact them directly regarding your booking.

Bookings through other travel agents

  • If you booked a holiday through a travel agent that was not Wallace Arnold Travel, please contact your travel agent in the first instance.
Visit www.abta.com/wallace-arnold-travel-limited for further information and advice if you booked your holiday through Wallace Arnold Travel.


All other holiday bookings

If you do not have financial protection for your holiday booking, other options to claim may be available to you. The options available to you will depend on your method of payment and insurance cover as outlined below.

Holiday bookings without financial protection may include:

  • Self-drive holidays;
  • Hotel reservations with Bay Hotels, Coast & Country Hotels and Country Living Hotels (click here for a full list of these hotels);
  • Activity only bookings, without organised coach travel; and
  • Some Holiday Credit Notes, e.g. those issued for self-drive holidays and hotel breaks cancelled since March 2020.
Customers with Holiday Credit Notes, issued for package holidays cancelled since March 2020, may have the same financial protection as under their original booking. Please follow the guidance for “Package holiday bookings” in the first instance.

Credit Card

If you paid any part of your booking on credit card, please contact your card issuer to confirm if you are eligible to claim a refund. If your booking was ATOL protected, you will be able to claim for a refund through ATOL. The UK Civil Aviation Authority is contacting consumers directly or through their travel agent with further information.

The contact number for your card issuer is likely to be located on the reverse of your card (otherwise it can be found online).

Please note that the card issuer is the bank which issued the card to you, not the payment processor. For example, if you have a HSBC MasterCard, the card issuer is HSBC (not MasterCard).


Debit Card

If you paid any part of your booking on debit card, please contact your card issuer to understand if you have any financial protection under the chargeback scheme.


Travel Insurance

Depending on your policy, you may be able to claim on your travel insurance.

Please contact your travel insurance provider to discuss the options available to you.


Claim in the Administration

If you are not eligible for a refund in any of the ways mentioned above, you may be entitled to submit a claim in the Administration of the Specialist Leisure Group, as an unsecured creditor.

You should only make a claim as an unsecured creditor if you have exhausted all other options. At this early stage, it is not known if any money will be available to meet such claims.

You can register your unsecured creditor claim by emailing [email protected] or writing to the Joint Administrators at the following address: c/o S J Woodward and C P Dempster, Ernst & Young LLP, 2 St Peter’s Square, Manchester, M2 3EY, United Kingdom.

Please include in your email / letter the following information:
  • Your name and address;
  • Total claim amount, i.e. the amount paid for your holiday;
  • Details of your booking, including booking reference number, destination, dates, number of travellers; and
  • Evidence of purchase, i.e. your booking confirmation.

Additional customer information
If you are a customer and have a query that is not answered above, please refer to the Frequently Asked Questions (‘FAQs’) on the Administrators website at https://www.ey.com/en_uk/ey-slg-administration which will be updated regularly.

If your question is not answered in the information above or the Administrators’ FAQs you can contact the Administrators at:
  • [email protected] if your booking was with Shearings Holidays, Wallace Arnold Travel, Bay Hotels, Coast & Country Hotels or Country Living Hotels; or
  • [email protected] if your holiday was with National Holidays, UK Breakaways, Caledonian Travel or Sporting Breaks

Creditors and suppliers
The Administrators will be contacting all known creditors of the Specialist Leisure Group in due course.

If you were a supplier to the Specialist Leisure Group, and you require further details in relation to the Administration, please direct your enquiries to the Administrators’ office by email at [email protected]

Employees

All employees of companies in the Specialist Leisure Group are being contacted separately by the Administrators.


Media
For media enquiries please contact [email protected]


Hotels previously operated by the Specialist Leisure Group

Bay Hotels

  • Bay Dilkhusa Grand Hotel, Ilfracombe
  • Bay Carlton Hotel, Great Yarmouth
  • Bay Prince of Wales Hotel, Berkeley
  • Bay Great Western Hotel, Oban
  • Bay Highland Hotel, Strathpeffer
  • Bay Royal Whitby Hotel, Whitby
  • Bay Tarbet Hotel, Loch Lomond
  • Bay Broadway Park Hotel, Sandown
  • Bay Marina Hotel, Newquay
  • Bay Majestic Bournemouth Hotel, Bournemouth
  • Bay Eden Arms Hotel, Rushyford
  • Bay Majestic Eastbourne Hotel, Eastbourne
  • Bay Grand Hotel, Exmouth
  • Bay Marine Hotel, Llandudno
  • Bay Royal Weymouth Hotel, Weymouth
  • Bay Caledonian Hotel, Fort William
  • Bay New Southlands Hotel, Scarborough
  • Bay Libertys Hotel, Blackpool
  • Bay Norbreck Hotel, Scarborough
  • Bay Torbay Hotel, Torquay
  • Bay Esplanade Hotel, Paignton
  • Bay St Ives Bay Hotel, St Ives
  • Bay Tor Park Hotel, Torquay
  • Bay Waverley Castle Hotel, Melrose
  • Bay Burlington Hotel, Eastbourne
  • Bay County Hotel, Llandudno
  • Bay Valley of Rocks Hotel, Lynton
  • Bay Beresford Hotel, Newquay
  • Bay Strathmore Hotel, Morecambe
  • Bay Savoy Hotel, Bournemouth
  • Bay Grand Atlantic Hotel, Weston-super-Mare
Coast & Country Hotels
  • The George Hotel, Chollerford
  • The Imperial Exmouth Hotel, Exmouth
  • The Golden Lion, Hunstanton
  • The Derwentwater Hotel, Keswick
  • The Pitlochry Hydro Hotel, Pitlochry
  • The Portpatrick Hotel, Portpatrick
  • The Ship & Castle Hotel, St Mawes
  • The Charlecote Pheasant, Stratford upon Avon
  • The Imperial Tenby, Tenby
  • The Grand Atlantic, Weston-super-Mare
  • The Windermere Hotel, Windermere
Country Living Hotels
  • Country Living Lansdown Grove, Bath
  • Country Living St George, Harrogate
This page was last updated on 22 May 2020.
 
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Alexbus12

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Their brand is quite reputable isn't it? I wonder if someone nabs it from the administrators
 

westv

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We've been on several National Holiday trips. We did have to dig deep to find ones that used decent hotels though.
 

Tetchytyke

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A shame they couldn't hang on just a bit longer, as this summer and autumn have a fair chance of being a bumper British holiday season.

Not at the sort of hotels National Holidays used (Britannia, mainly). Their own hotels were also well past their best, if their hotels in Scarborough and Whitby were anything to go by.

Sad to see the Wallace Arnold name go. They used to run the supporters coaches for Bradford City and took me to loads of games in the late 90s.

Also sad for those who lose their jobs.
 
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Swimbar

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42 hotels and a fleet on about 230 coaches + their own travel agencies.
2600 staff
64000 forward bookings to get refunded.
I hope somebody will rescue the business but can't realistically see it.
Sympathy with all involved.
 

Robertj21a

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A shame they couldn't hang on just a bit longer, as this summer and autumn have a fair chance of being a bumper British holiday season.

No profit in running coaches that can only take about 15 people ( a few more if from the same household).
 
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Bletchleyite

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Eh, I think you might be underestimating the ‘rona!

I think there is a very high chance that England will, in August, allow domestic holidays where distancing can be maintained, which pretty much means anything other than dormitory youth hostels (though things like campsites will need to think hard about toilet provision, possibly hiring in additional polybogs and taking bookings for shower times to avoid crowding). You'll likely have to get room service or takeaway for your food, but I think people will be able to handle that.

Self catering properties like Airbnb would seem particularly suitable, and could be required to be left empty for say 3 days and deep cleaned between hirers.
 

Stan Drews

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I think there is a very high chance that England will, in August, allow domestic holidays where distancing can be maintained, which pretty much means anything other than dormitory youth hostels (though things like campsites will need to think hard about toilet provision, possibly hiring in additional polybogs and taking bookings for shower times to avoid crowding). You'll likely have to get room service or takeaway for your food, but I think people will be able to handle that.

Self catering properties like Airbnb would seem particularly suitable, and could be required to be left empty for say 3 days and deep cleaned between hirers.
So, it’s going to be anything but a bumper British holiday season.
There will be many more casualties (large and small) in the tourism business before we see the end of 2020.
 

Robertj21a

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This sort of holiday mostly appeals to couples, so quite possibly twice that. The issue is that a good many of them would be shielding.

I was allowing for a few of those. Given that an ordinary single deck bus is now expected to only take 10-11 individual passengers, I doubt that a coach will be much different. Even if they were all couples (unlikely) you'd still only get about 20 on a coach.
 

Robertj21a

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I think there is a very high chance that England will, in August, allow domestic holidays where distancing can be maintained, which pretty much means anything other than dormitory youth hostels (though things like campsites will need to think hard about toilet provision, possibly hiring in additional polybogs and taking bookings for shower times to avoid crowding). You'll likely have to get room service or takeaway for your food, but I think people will be able to handle that.

Self catering properties like Airbnb would seem particularly suitable, and could be required to be left empty for say 3 days and deep cleaned between hirers.

Many hoteliers/B&B's have already said that an August start (which still seems unlikely) is not worth the bother as, for many, the season ends in the UK during September (apart from Blackpool etc)
 

Trackman

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Very sad, Shearings provided the coaches for Wigan RLFC.
It is very sad, I feel for the people involved.
Did a other coach company go bust recently, or was that Shearings as in coaches not hotels etc..
 

Bletchleyite

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Not from the poìnt of view of Coronvirus - but that doesn't alter the fact that our weather deters holidays from October anyway. Presumably the hoteliers have recognised that.

It might normally, but who knows what people will do when they can have a holiday after months of not being able to have one?
 

MotCO

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If around 230 high spec coaches are going to find their way on to the second hand market, it will depress the cost of second hand coaches and will probably have an impact on new sales - who would want to pay top dollar for a new coach when there are reasonable second hand coaches available.
 

Eyersey468

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It is very sad, I feel for the people involved.
Did a other coach company go bust recently, or was that Shearings as in coaches not hotels etc..
There have been several others go bust recently or are on the brink
 

Starmill

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It might normally, but who knows what people will do when they can have a holiday after months of not being able to have one?
I think the issue is that if enough is done to genuinely keep people safe from infection, the operation of resorts and hotels will be so expensive and bring in so little revenue that it's difficult to see any profit. The Job Retention Scheme will be available to all all of June and July and some of August. It will be available in a form even after that, until the dead end of the holiday season. Why pay your staff to operate at a loss for months on end?

Of course, they could cut corners, sanctioned by government incompetence / inaction or by breaking the rules. They'd be extremely foolhardy to do so - if the British leisure industry is seen as even contributing to the cause of a late-year peak and mass deaths as we've seen in March and April, they will be in a far worse place than if they'd remained closed, and they know it.
 

Flange Squeal

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Did a other coach company go bust recently, or was that Shearings as in coaches not hotels etc..
  • Swallow, Rainham - 31st March
  • Sea View, Poole - April
  • Dan's Luxury, Waltham Abbey - April
  • Alexcars, Cirencester - 7th April
  • Nova Tours, Chesterfield - 16th April
  • Truemans, Ash Vale - 24th April
  • Diamond Coaches, Rushden - 30th April
  • Shearings & National Holidays - 22nd May
Halifax bus company TJ Walsh also ceased trading in late March.
 

carlberry

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A shame they couldn't hang on just a bit longer, as this summer and autumn have a fair chance of being a bumper British holiday season.
Not for the major part of their market and not without they could reclassify their coaches as aircraft (which appear to be allowed to ignore the social distancing rules).
 

PG

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If around 230 high spec coaches are going to find their way on to the second hand market, it will depress the cost of second hand coaches and will probably have an impact on new sales - who would want to pay top dollar for a new coach when there are reasonable second hand coaches available.
It is likely that this will lower prices in the used market even if the vehicles involved were on lease agreements as the owners face either lowering lease payments or having vehicles sat in a yard depreciating. If the owners decide to sell the vehicles on they too are likely to have to take a heavy hit which would most certainly affect the market.

Thoughts to all those whose livelihoods are in jeopardy.
 

richw

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It is very sad, I feel for the people involved.
Did a other coach company go bust recently, or was that Shearings as in coaches not hotels etc..
  • Swallow, Rainham - 31st March
  • Sea View, Poole - April
  • Dan's Luxury, Waltham Abbey - April
  • Alexcars, Cirencester - 7th April
  • Nova Tours, Chesterfield - 16th April
  • Truemans, Ash Vale - 24th April
  • Diamond Coaches, Rushden - 30th April
  • Shearings & National Holidays - 22nd May
Halifax bus company TJ Walsh also ceased trading in late March.

David Urquahart being the high profile one in Shearings competition to fail in e last fortnight
 

Eyersey468

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  • Swallow, Rainham - 31st March
  • Sea View, Poole - April
  • Dan's Luxury, Waltham Abbey - April
  • Alexcars, Cirencester - 7th April
  • Nova Tours, Chesterfield - 16th April
  • Truemans, Ash Vale - 24th April
  • Diamond Coaches, Rushden - 30th April
  • Shearings & National Holidays - 22nd May
Halifax bus company TJ Walsh also ceased trading in late March.
TJ Walsh was due to retirement
 

richw

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Yes, but David Urquhart only contracted in coaches from other operators, they didn't own any.
Technically Shearings didn’t own any neither to be pedantic. All on lease. Will be straight back to finance Co
 
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