By Steve Huettel, Times Staff Writer
Friday, November 12, 2010
A Tampa Internet hotel booking company whose fight with suppliers left thousands of customers stranded without rooms this summer will be sold to pay creditors.
Bankruptcy Judge Caryl Delano on Wednesday approved a Nov. 29 auction of 1800Hotels. The company filed for bankruptcy reorganization in July but last month asked the court to liquidate its assets.
Dubliner Graham Peakin founded 1800Hotels to sell discount hotel rooms — first by phone, then online — to Irish travelers. The company expanded to Tampa in 2008 to tap the U.S. market with the website 1800Hotels.com.
Owners got in a battle over unpaid bills with consolidators who supplied 1800Hotels the rooms it sold to travelers online. Days before the bankruptcy filing, 1800Hotels learned that suppliers Gullivers Travel Associates and Tourico Holidays had canceled as many as 3,600 of its customers' reservations.
The company filed for reorganization, but was unable to persuade the judge to stop suppliers from canceling more reservations.
The 1800Hotels.com website is still operating under an affiliate of Expedia, said attorney Steven Berman, who represented the company until a bankruptcy trustee overseeing the liquidation took over.
Trustee Lauren Green negotiated a sale of assets, including the 1800Hotels.com domain name and customer lists, to Travel Leaders Group for $220,000. The minimum bid to qualify for the auction is $240,000.
Steve Huettel can be reached at huettel@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8128.