Hoteliers furious over debt threat

By Christina Golding

Independent hoteliers are furious over threats made by a debt collecting firm taken on by a hotel bookings agency to recover outstanding subscription payments.

As many as 100 hoteliers have been threatened with court action over money owed to HotelWorld, which could mean their businesses are blacklisted for further credit with other companies.

Angie Petkovic, proprietor of the Hallery House Hotel in Cheltenham, said she was outraged when a letter arrived from Pegasus International, employed by HotelWorld, an Internet-based reservations company.

Petkovic claimed that last year she had agreed to pay by direct debit but found that her bank account showed that HotelWorld had not taken the payments as authorised.

"We received no statements," she said. "When I phoned, [Pegasus] were extremely rude and aggressive. They are justified in asking for the money, I am just furious at the way they have gone about it."

Carolyn Lloyd, company manager for the Stratford Victoria in Stratford-upon-Avon and the Lansdown Grove Hotel in Bath, said: "We were unaware that we owed anything. We had a good relationship with HotelWorld until they handed their accounts over to this company."

HotelWorld's Emma Fairbrother confirmed that as many as 100 hotels could have received similar letters. "There have been big problems with direct debits," she said.

Clients, she claimed, had been contacted prior to the legal threats, but she said that she would look into the complaints about Pegasus.