Breaking: Is HotelQuickly about to go bust?

It appears that hotel booking provider, HotelQuickly, could be in financial trouble as the company issues emails to thousands of travellers, cancelling their hotel bookings.

In the past 48 hours, more than 100 negative reviews have been uploaded to the UK Trustpilot website, with more being added every minute. All reviewers are sharing the same story.

Customers had woken up to an email from HotelQuickly stating their reservation had been cancelled. Over the past couple of weeks, thousands of travellers have received the same email, which stated:

"We are very sorry to have to inform you that due to an unforeseen issue with our main provider which has affected many reservations, your booking for the accommodation dates of your planned stay has been cancelled."

Travellers who have had their plans cancelled at short notice are not only facing the prospect of trips with no accommodation; they are also struggling to get their money back from the agency.

All customers have claimed to have been offered 'vouchers to the value of the booking', which will be worthless if the company does indeed fold. Not only that, but said vouchers have an expiry data of six months' time.

By rights, consumers should be receiving full refunds for their booking to their original payment method.

Disgruntled travellers have launched a campaign to begin a class action lawsuit against HotelQuickly in order to recover their funds, if there are any left.

Who are HotelQuickly?

Founded in 2012, HotelQuickly is a hotel booking website with accompanying mobile app for Android and iOS. They offer access to almost half a million hotels and offer services in 17 languages.

Checked this morning, HotelQuickly's website is no longer taking bookings. They also appear to have deleted accounts on social media such as Twitter and Facebook.

Most bookers are redirected to HotelQuickly via search comparison sites like Trivago and TripAdvisor.

Questions are being raised over the responsibility of such comparison sites to properly vet the organisations to which they are sending customers, to avoid this type of situation in future.

Your rights if you booked with HotelQuickly

If you made a hotel reservation through HotelQuickly and have received the cancellation email, here's what you need to know and what you should do next.

• Check your booking has actually been cancelled: The first port of call should be your hotel. Call them directly to see if the booking has actually been cancelled by the travel agent.
• The risk of non-bonded travel agents: Travel agents can be part of a number of schemes such as ATOL (for air travel), ABTA (British standard) and TTA (booking protection scheme) which will protect your money if the company goes bust. Unfortunately, HotelQuickly were members of none of these schemes.
• Section 75 refund: Under section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974, the money you paid is protected as long as you paid more than £100 and used a credit card to do so. Contact your credit card company for more information.
• Chargeback scheme: If you paid for your hotel on a debit card, you may be able to claim back the money through the Mastercard and Visa Chargeback scheme. It's not a legal obligation for your card company to refund you, but most high street banks will.
• Travel insurance: If you have taken out travel insurance, check your policy to see what you're covered for. Not all providers will cover you against a supplier going bust, but some will so it's worth checking.