Bookings.com

Francisnicholls

We have just acquired a hotel . When we had completed all the transfer forms for Bookings.com they advised us that they would not put the hotel back on their system as there was a debt from the previous company !! . The debt is very large going back for the last 3 months . Why on earth should we as a new owner , new company , be responsible for the debts of the previous company who we acquired the hotel from . We actually only purchased the assets not the business. ?? Can anyone assist / comment please  

Le_Kirk

This seems like a business transaction (unless you mean you've just acquired a hotel booking!) so probably need to have a word with the solicitor who carried out the transaction.

user1977

This has nothing to do with consumer rights. Can't the solicitor you used for the purchase assist? If you had bought the business rather than merely the assets, then it would have been dealt with in the contract. You're not liable for the debt, but you also don't have any right to become a client of bookings.com.

Lomast

As said its b2b so no consumer rights.
Although you have no legal obligation for this bill if you genuinely only purchased the assets of the previous business, however booking.com can chose weather or not to do business with you, all you can do is appeal to their goodwill 

JJ_Egan

As above , you did not purchase anything from bookings .com and rely on their goodwill .

But really your solicitor should be the one giving you business advice ,not random members of a Consumer Forum .

bris

All Booking.com see is a hotel name and address that has failed to pay a debt, they don't know or care who owns it. 

You might want to write to them and come to some kind of agreement, it's a business decision you need to make as having your hotel on Booking.com is important.

ThumbRemote

If you only acquired the assets, then booking.com cannot "put the hotel back on their system" as yours is a new business. 

It seems you want to benefit from the goodwill of the old hotel name, but not pay the old hotels debts. You can't have it both ways. If you are a new hotel, change the name and sign up to booking.com as a new business. If you are the same hotel, wanting to use the existing reviews and name recognition, do what booking.com require to take over the old hotel's listing. 

MattMattMattUK

Francisnicholls said:

We have just acquired a hotel . When we had completed all the transfer forms for Bookings.com they advised us that they would not put the hotel back on their system as there was a debt from the previous company !! . The debt is very large going back for the last 3 months . Why on earth should we as a new owner , new company , be responsible for the debts of the previous company who we acquired the hotel from . We actually only purchased the assets not the business. ?? Can anyone assist / comment please  

Did you aquire the Ltd which owns and operate the hotel, or did you buy the premises and start operating as wither a sole trader or a new Ltd? How was the purchase actually structured?

I would assume that the issue is that you just took over the old booking.com account. If you were a separate legal entity you probably should have created a new account.