Hotels listing company wound-up

A BUSINESS claiming to offer a hotels listings service  has been wound up by the High Court for misleading customers and failing to provide services it said it would.

Tycoon Media, which was based in Peter House, Oxford Street in Manchester city centre, was wound-up on January 9 after a probe by the Insolvency Service.

The investigation found that the company, trading under the names “Seek & Sleep” and “Seek & Dine”, charged customers a monthly fee of between £29.99 plus VAT and £49.99 plus VAT to list their hotel or bed and breakfast business on its online booking agency.

Tycoon Media was incorporated in January 2011.  Its only director was Anthony John Tomlinson. While Tycoon Media was registered at Peter House, although the company had not occupied the address since February 2013.

The Insolvency Service  said Tycoon Media falsely claimed to offer a money-back refund guarantee of the monthly fee if the client did not get at least one booking per month. No such refunds appear to have been made.

The investigation also found many other examples of misconduct by the company including failing to provide the pre-paid service, taking unauthorised payments from clients, failing to make good on refunds due to clients, failing to maintain adequate accounting records and trading whilst insolvent.

Clients who provided information to the investigators stated they did not receive any bookings nor a refund of the monthly fee paid.

Alex Deane, an investigation supervisor with the Insolvency Service, said “This company operated with flagrant disregard for the general rules of running a business and failed to co-operate fully with the investigation.

“The company consistently failed to provide the services it offered, purporting to be the ‘UK’s fastest growing accommodation portal’, when in fact its customer base was minimal and remained as such throughout its trading period.”