It is horribly sad when a company like  XL holiday company goes under.  The ripples are far reaching and are not just restricted to the people who have had their much longed for holiday snatched away from them at the last minute and leaving them with very little chance of rearranging their plans.

Luckily there are many ways for most people to get their money back  - especially if they purchased their holiday or tickets using credit cards and spent more than £100 in a transaction - as they are then protected under the consumer credit act (Section 75) which is legislation regarding credit card purchases between £100 and £3000 to protect people from not getting the services or goods for which they have paid.

But how can people be more confident in future when booking holidays?

Also if you are a holiday villa or flat owner and have previously 'sold on' your vacancies via a large holiday company like XL you may have been badly hit by this sort of collapse.  There are many small holiday accommodation owners who have done this and now found that they may have lost an entire year's income as it has been swallowed up in the big company's demise.  This can hit small local economies quite badly and cause little mini economic depressions in already struggling areas.

One of the reasons that we are very keen to get our Letalife Holiday website up and running is exactly this.  We have always arranged our own personal holidays directly with accommodation owners and bought flights directly online.  Although the purchasers of XL flights who bought directly online from XL.com are not covered by ATOL, they are covered if they bought tickets for more than £100 and bought using a credit card.

We have always found that by buying accommodation and flight seperately it means that we spread the risk of potential difficulties.  If there is a problem with the accommodation (and we insure separately for this and/or pay by credit card where possible) and not the flight then we can always find alternative accommodation and if the flight goes wrong then we still have accommodation and can arrange alternative travel - or rely on insurance to cover the costs.

If you are an accommodation owner then it makes more sense to deal directly with holiday makers if you can.  That way you are also spreading the risk.  If one person's holiday fall through, it is a loss but it won't break you.  If you have booked all your availability out via one big company, you are then in a strangle hold.  Not only at risk of financial disaster should they fail like XL, but also at their mercy when they decide what percentage of the cost they have charged the holiday maker they will pass across to you.

Cutting out the middle man, can cut risks to both parties if done sensibly and with precautions, and can also mean that the holiday maker can get a cheaper holiday while the accommodation owner makes more money from the rental.  A complete Win-Win situation.

Just as LetaLife came out of our own personal experiences as tenants and landlords, so we hope that Holiday LetaLife will turn out to be just as useful a resource for holiday makers having come from our own experiences as holiday makers ourselves.

All best wishes from Michele at LetaLife.com