Mountain Paradise holiday scam

Mayfair321

Hi
We booked a week’s ski holiday to Slovakia through Mountain Paradise and were due to travel in February half term. They were very helpful initially and are ATOL protected, plus had been featured in many of the newspaper travel sections over the years, so we believed them to be trustworthy. However they became increasingly difficult to get hold of and in the last few weeks it has become totally impossible to get in touch with them. Their phone line just says’Mailbox is full’ and they are not responding to any emails. We have contacted the airline and hotel and although Mountain Paradise had initially made the group bookings, these have long since been voided as Mountain Paradise never paid for them. We fully regret it now but we paid by bank transfer as there was no credit card option. Does anyone have any advice on how to get our money back? The bank have said they can’t guarantee anything and it could be a long process. I have spoken to ATOL but it turns out they provide no help at all as the company has not officially failed! We naively assumed that if a travel agent was ATOL protected then our holiday/money would be safe! We are totally devastated to have not only lost so much money but to also miss out on a long awaited holiday. We know of at least 5 other families who have been affected by this con artist! We are not sure where to turn. Can anyone advise?

bradders1983

You paid by bank transfer? Oh dear.

Did that not set alarm bells ringing?

Mayfair321

Yes but as the company looked totally legitimate and had ATOL protection we thought we would there would be nothing to worry about. I know now that it was stupid

gardner1

"we paid by bank transfer as there was no credit card option.".......that would be enough for me not to pay them no matter how well known they were

daveyjp

I notice their website states credit cards will be accepted for a 4% surcharge - that in itself is no longer permitted.

They state debit card payments incur no extra charge, so why pay by transfer and remove chances of a chargeback?

If they removed credit card payments due to the cost of fees fair enough, but not updating booking terms and conditions suggest a shoddy outfit.

Just hope their reluctance to communicate is an indication they are going under and ATOL will kick in at some point.

The Companies House entries make interesting reading. Looks like they like receiving Notices to be Struck Off from Companies House.

sheramber

Their Facebook page is not available.

Can your travel insurance help?

Isa_Ford

We had an email this morning from Mountain Paradise saying they are in administration and we are covered by ATOL. They also gave email address of administrators. We are pursuing ATOL process and hope all families are covered. This company has been operating for years and came recommended from friends.

Isa_Ford

We had an email this morning from Mountain Paradise saying they are in administration and we are covered by ATOL. They also gave email address of administrators. We are pursuing ATOL process and hope all families are covered. This company has been operating for years and came recommended from friends. We hope you manage to at least get your money back.

Westin

Strange that the CAA have yet to list the company as failed.

https://www.caa.co.uk/ATOL-protection/Make-an-ATOL-claim/Latest-ATOL-holder-failures/

Mayfair321

Thanks everyone. We have also now received an email saying they are going into liquidation but I am not sure how easy it will be to get our money back. Do ATOL payout if the flights etc were never actually booked? At one stage I think provisional group bookings were made but as they were never paid for by MP the bookings were voided.

bagand96

Strange that the CAA have yet to list the company as failed.

https://www.caa.co.uk/ATOL-protection/Make-an-ATOL-claim/Latest-ATOL-holder-failures/

The CAA working on a weekend?

Thanks everyone. We have also now received an email saying they are going into liquidation but I am not sure how easy it will be to get our money back. Do ATOL payout if the flights etc were never actually booked? At one stage I think provisional group bookings were made but as they were never paid for by MP the bookings were voided.

If your booking was ATOL protected then you will receive a refund for monies paid to Mountain Paradise. Be aware though that this might take some time - but you do get your money. In the past it has taken people almost a year to receive refunds - although that was when big companies like XL or Monarch failed. With a smaller company it might be quicker as there'll be far less claims to process.

If your holiday was ATOL protected then you should have received an ATOL certificate when you booked - usually a PDF document by email.