Morairaway.com: the victims

After revealing the story of runaway website Morairaway.com on Timesonline, we have received many emails from customers affected. While not publishing their contact details, we are happy to put individuals in touch with each other if the parties agree. Contact us here

Here are some of the stories of people who have lost their holidays - and thousands of pounds

BRITAIN

"I have just read your story about morairaway and unfortunately I know how the other holidaymakers feel as I have lost around £2,000 for a two week holiday in Spain. I have the flights booked and I have had to find another villa as I was determined not to spoil the kids' holiday. It does mean that we will not be able to go and see my mum at Christmas like we do every year but we just have to try to put it behind us. I am struggling to come to terms with what has happened and I still have not managed to eat a full meal and have a good night sleep but I am sure with time we will get over it. I don't want anyone else to have to go through this." - Ana Suarez-Miles

"We’ve lost money on this as well – we are a party of 16 people ranging from 11 to 75 – kids parents, grandparents who booked two villas through this website. We’ve lost nearly £6,000. We are due to go in August and have arranged car hire and flights." - Anthony McKenna

"My husband and I have just read your article on Morairaway and are completely shocked. We have recently paid £1,250 for a one week stay at a villa in Javea, Alicante. We had booked to go with friends in August. My friend, who had been corresponding with the company, received a receipt yesterday for the amount paid. Along with the receipt was a set of instructions telling us how to access the keys on arrival. So, not only have we lost a lot of money, they are still telling us to go on the holiday. Could you imagine turning up with four young children to no villa? We can't believe it, but are relieved that we saw your article." - Tracy O'Neill

"I read with interest your recent article "Britons lose Spanish villa holidays as morairaway.com shuts down". In March 2009 I enquired about a property (number 415724, Villa Ibiza) which was being advertised on the holiday-rentals.co.uk site. My enquiry was forwarded to an agent called Tony Duncan-Smith of Morairaway.com. Subsequently I decided to book the property for a holiday between 11-25 July 2009. I made the full payment of €2,438 by bank transfer in March and I received a confirmation email from the agent with the promise of arrival details being provided 2 weeks before the holiday. I tried contacting this agent a few days ago and heard nothing. It is now apparent after trying to contact the company Morairaway, and from a recent Homeaway travel warning email and browsing the internet that I have now lost all my money." - Dr Richard Jackson

IRELAND

"It's not just Britons. We are an Irish family who lost €4,000 through the same site - I will be writing in the Sunday Independent in Ireland this week about it." - Ciara Kelly

"Just read your article, we were due to fly out on July 11 and stay in a villa booked with this crowd. My sister booked off a website, however, she had lots of emails and phone calls before any money was transferred. We have now booked another villa but were very scared when doing so however, the lady gave us her ID card, she was recommended and we can only hope that she is reputable. We have also filed a complaint with the Alicante police and will be visiting them once we get to Spain also" - C. Dunne

HOLLAND

"Last April we booked a villa which we found on www.holiday-rentals.co.uk.The villa is called The Alhambra and is located in Moraira, Spain. Our contact person was Tony Duncan-Smit of Morairaway.com. Last Friday we received an e-mail from Holiday-rentals which said that this owner is suspicious and was being investigated. Friends who live nearby Moraira went to check the adress we had received from Morairaway and found out the adress doen't even exist. It now looks like we lost €1,424. Holiday-rentals offers a free Rental Guarantee Program, so we hoped we would receive a refund. Now, however, they say we should have registered before making the payments. We feel this is not fair, because the option to register for the free rental guarantee program is only offered on there site in English. On the Dutch version of the site, www.homeaway.nl this option is not mentioned. Of course, we made our inquiries via the Dutch site. I would really like to know if the people who registered will receive a refund. We will definitely take further steps in this regard. We have little hope of getting the money back." - Leonie Waardeloo, The Netherlands

BELGIUM

"We are a Belgian family who is also a victim of Morairaway.com. We have three small children and booked a villa in Moraira for two weeks. We lost more than €2,300. We contacted the Belgian police, but we have litlle faith that we will get our money back" - Bart Strouven and Sophie Gilles

"Thanks for the interesting though depressing article about the scandalous Moraiaway.com. We, a Danish family of 4 living in Belgium plus a grandmother flying down from Denmark, planned to have two lovely weeks in August in Denia and the final bank tranfer was made on Monday 15 June €2,300, but the day before yesterday we, like many others realised that we were targets. The company has simply vanished from the surface and we have never even received a confirmation that the money we paid have been received, in accordance with procedure they clearly commited to in the "Rental agreement" we signed. We will of course bring this to the attention of the local police where we are residing, but there is probably only little hope that we will ever see any traces of the money or the summer house for that matter. We would appreciate it if your news company could follow this case closely so that others are not falling into the same trap - Henrik Laursen

We have booked for a villa in Moraira. (Villa Alhambre in El Portet -Moraira). We are in the same case, the owners are uncontactable. We had a French contact person who had signed a work contract for the company MorairWay.com as travel agent. This person gives us the establishment documents of the company and an Excel file with all her "clients" and there is 75 persons on this list. All are from France or Belgium. What are your information about this case? There is a lot of Britons losing their holiday? - Nicolas Huybrechts

FRANCE

I am a French victim of the morairaway story - I wrote on the expatforum as Rxrk and I now try to make a list of all the french/polish/belgian victims. You may knew that morairaway have an office in Paris - with 1 worker who is now unemployed and without any news from her boss. - Eric Rzepka, Paris

POLAND

We are 4 families from Poland (8 adults and 4 children) who booked a villa via www.moraira.com (agent Tony Duncan-Smith) in Javea. We signed the agreement, made money transfer (deposit of Euros 450 only as we planned to go in September), received a cnfirmation and instructions on villa code via post." - Anna Czasak