Company changed after I had booked - Does this seem strange?

Batfink123_2

Hi,

This is a bit of a strange one I booked a lads holiday with a company which at the time of booking was called "Red Seven Leisure". I have just recently checked the T&C's on their website again and they have totally changed - now the company is called "Bargain Travel Bureau".

I've checked the company numbers of these two companies to see if it was just a name company name change, but this doesn't seem to be the case - they seem to be two totally seperate companies - with company numbers 03465479 (redseven) and 01713965 (Bargain Travel Bureau).

They haven't notified me about this and I haven't seen anything in the press/internet about the company being bought out or anything, and the sales staff don't seem to know anything about it when I asked.

This seems a bit odd that a company can just turn from one company you have a contract with to a totally different company? - I assume there are lots of legal implications.

Can anyone explain in laymen terms what is going on?

McAzrael

It's a franchise. Bargain Travel Bureau operates the Redseven brand under licence.

From http://www.redsevenleisure.co.uk/about-us.php
Award Winning Stag & Hen Party Organisers
© Redseven • 1997 - 2011. The redseven logo and R7 device are registered trademarks
Operated under license by Bargan Travel Bureau Ltd. Redseven is a trading style of Bargain Travel Bureau
Registered in England & Wales. Company No. 01713965. Registered Office: Maria House, 35 Millers Road, Brighton, BN1 5NP
VAT No. 620948243
Data Protection: We are notified as a data controller with the Information Commissioner's Office, under number Z1907917

I haven't looked ever so deeply, but it could be that the Redseven brand and Bargain Travel Bureau are both in the same or similar ownership.

Big_Zee

Ummm you may want to check this thread https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3176924

You'll need a sleuth to unravel this but from the looks like Red seven have had their credit rating suspended .....

Alan_Bowen

Neither ABTA nor the CAA ATOL schemes allow their membership to be licenced to anyone, either you book and pay the licence holder and get protection or you don't. For this company to appear twice on this board in a few days, when no one had ever heard of them before makes me very suspicious. Bargain Travel is the licenced company, if your documents are from them, you should be OK

bagand96

In principle, especially in the travel industry, one company being a "trading style" of another is not unusual, even for the larger tour operators.

However, as Alan says, it all depends who is on your paperwork, and specifically your invoice. Is it "Red Seven Leisure", or is it "Bargain Travel Bureau" trading as Red Seven? If it is Bargain Travel Bureau then you are ATOL protected and they are an ABTA member, so all is ok.

If it is the former, then I would begin to worry as you are neither ATOL or ABTA protected. Then the whole thing becomes very dodgy as it seems in that eventuality they have been duping people into thinking they are booking protected holidays.

bagand96

This got me thinking, so I've looked a bit more. I've used the Internet Archive to pull up a historic Red Seven website from February 2009.

http://replay.web.archive.org/20090218231815/http://www.redsevenleisure.co.uk/redseven/index.php

This 2009 website also makes references to "Red Seven Bargain Travel Bureau", and the ATOL they quote back then is indeed the Bargain Travel Bureau ATOL. I looked for 2006 as well and the website from back then also states Redseven Bargain Travel Bureau.

It seems like the company has operated like this for some time, and it is not something that has changed recently (could it be that you've only just noticed it now that you have been reading the small print?) There shouldn't be anything to worry about, even the large tour operators have "Trading Styles". And the ATOL 3802 for Bargain Travel Bureau does list Redseven under trading names.

However, still check your invoice to insure it is with Bargain Travel Bureau, and therefore protected.