Last year my parents booked a holiday with openholidays, they enjoyed the villa and on their return they were offered a 25% discount on next years holiday at the same villa providing they booked and paid in full by the end of June 2006.
This was too good an opportunity to miss so they booked again.
Openholidays then went bust in August 2006.
My parents tried to reclaim the money back but because they are from the old school way of thinking, they do not borrow money unnecessarily, they own no credits cards and paid direct from their bank £900, they were told by their bank... "nothing they can do", my parents worked hard for what little money they have saved and now retired £900 is a large chunk of money.
Openholidays UK Limited, (Company number: 2234971) went into administration and KPMG (administrators) sold the assets to SKYBARGAINS Limited (Company number: 05243122).
So, my folks contacted Skybargains who said they would "honour the booking".. great! "providing you pay again".. erm no thanks.
The receivers (KPMG) sent a full report of their findings stating that the new people Skybargains (who bought the assets) have absolutely nothing to do with Openholidays, they also sent a list of the creditors stating that no money would be made available for people like my parents. It turns out that the money my parents paid was not used to book their Villa??? fine OK.. so at this point my folks gave up in a quagmire of ifs and maybes.
I decided to look into this further.
Part of my job means I am quite aufait with the Internet and the footprints that people can leave behind
First of all I looked at the Openholidays website which stayed online for some months after it apparently went bankrupt, it did state that Skybargains had taken over but the sales number for Openholidays remained online so I called it... "Hello.." the woman answered then silence? it turned out to be the old Openholidays number with the old staff some of whom were apparently to be axed and others kept on by Skybargains? I was confused as to why no company name was mentioned when the woman answered, she appeared cautious and I felt suspicious?.
I then checked back a few months later to see if the old openholidays site had dissapeared, nope it was still there at the time I looked, however the direct link to Skybargains.co.uk had gone and there was now a direct link now to Villasabroad.com.
Villasabroad.com looked and worked exactly the same as the old Openholidays site but with different sales number, different colour scheme and logo, it had the same features, functions and even the same style of buttons. Maybe a coincidence but I noted it never the less.
I have looked again just now and openholidays.co.uk is no longer there but the domain directs you straight to skybargains.co.uk again?
Villasabroad is still there but now seemingky with no connection to either Skybargains.co.uk or Openholidays.co.uk. I was slightly pereplexed by this.
I have discovered the following information:
OPEN HOLIDAYS LIMITED (company number - 02234971) of Worthing, West Sussex was owned and run by Jeff Nutbeam.
The domain name Openholidays.co.uk was first registered on 02-Jun-2000, it was renewed on 06-Jun-2006 and expires 02-Jun-2008
The company went into administration in August and is no longer trading although the domain name still points to skybargains.co.uk.
The webspace used to host openholidays web site was firstserv.co.uk who were listed in the openholidays creditors list.
SKYBARGAINS LIMITED (company number - 05243122) of BOURNEMOUTH, DORSET, Status: Active, Company Type: Private Limited Company, Nature of Business (SIC(03)): 7499 - Non-trading company.
The domain name Skybargains.com was registered by max iglesias on Tue, Jul 24, 2001 and updated on : Fri, Feb 24, 2006.
SKYBARGAINS.COM LTD (company number - 04330876) of SOUTHAMPTON was dissolved on 31/08/2004, Company Type: Private Limited Company,
Nature of Business (SIC(03)): 6330 - Travel agencies etc; tourist.
The old Villas Abroad website was owned by:
WORLDWIDE LEISURE GROUP LIMITED (company number - 03572985) of BOURNEMOUTH DORSET who were mentioned in the KPMG administration document.
The new Villas Abroad website makes no reference to WWLGL, it is now simply:
VILLASABROAD (villasabroad.com) of Bournmouth Dorset.
The domain name Villasabroad.com was first registered by Jeff Nutbeem, on 1999-06-25 and expires on 2008-06-25. The web space for this domain is currently provided by firstserv.co.uk
I also found the following company numbers relating to Villas Abroad of Bournemouth, Dorset:
NL 02528520
NL 01967129
Are Openholidays still trading? 
