CUSTOMERS OF 1800hotels.ie, the Irish-founded hotel reservation website have been left confused after its collapse.

A statement on their website reads:

“1800Hotels has been forced by two suppliers into bankruptcy proceedings to restructure its debt. Some customers may experience room cancellations. All customers should contact their hotel directly to make sure that their reservation is not affected.

“1800Hotels is pursuing a legal injunction to prevent any further disruption of customer travel. We will work diligently to resolve this matter as soon as possible and will provide more information as it becomes available.”

Yesterday, there was nothing on the site.

However, callers to RTE’s Radio 1′s Liveline today said: they’d been left high and dry by 1800hotels. Some say they had spent years of savings, another said they lost €800 while one group is left with no hotel reservations for their honeymoon and no recourse after booking with the site using Laser.

Philip Boucher-Hayes, who filled in for Joe Duffy fielded calls from customers who had contacted their credit card companies, who said they would be able to refund them. One caller said he had called MBMA – his credit card company and was told, once he submitted a claim at the end of the holiday period there would be no problem.

Another caller said his bank wanted a letter from the hotel, stating his booking was cancelled, in addition to an email he had sent to 1800hotels complaining of the cancellation. The bank said, they too would compensate the caller.

However, others had less positive experiences. One credit card company said they could do nothing. Customers who booked with their laser card have also been told the same.

Meanwhile The Irish Travel Agents Association (ITAA) called for more regulations of online hotel reservation companies.

1,8000 hotels was founded by Graham Peakin in Dublin in 2003 but has been based in Tampa in recent years. It employed 12 staff in Dublin who were told on Tuesday that the company was to be liquidated. The company is said to have had 150 bookings a day from Irish customers.