UK: Bristol-based holiday rental firm Rental Republic, trading under the online brand Travelopo, has confirmed that it has ceased trading with immediate effect.
A statement posted on its website reads: “Rental Republic Ltd t/a Travelopo.com has ceased trading with immediate effect. Steps have been taken to appoint a liquidator, whose details will be released in due course.
“We would like to say a big thank you to all of our customers and partners with whom we’ve created so many special memories since the journey begun in 2007. Sincere apologies for any inconvenience caused,” it concludes.
Last year, the company was criticised and had an advert removed by the Advertising Standards Authority [ASA] for claiming to be “the number one holiday website on the planet”.
Regarding claims that Travelopo had misled the public, the ASA said that it was “concerned by Rental Republic Ltd’s lack of response and apparent disregard for the [advertising] code” and that it had “reminded them of their responsibility to provide a substantive response” to its enquiries in future.
The allegation of misleading the public resulted from the fact that Travelopo held a rating of three stars out of five on consumer review website Trustpilot, although the impression it gave on its website was that it held the same rating on other review platforms such as Tripadvisor, Facebook and HomeAway.
The ASA added: “The ad must not appear again in the form complained of. We told Rental Republic Ltd to ensure that they did not to state that they were the number one holiday website globally unless they held adequate comparative evidence.
“We also told them to ensure that their future marketing communications contained up-to-date scores from third-party review websites,” it added.
Founded in 2011, Travelopo’s portfolio included villas and chalets in popular destinations around the world, also allowing customers to book flights, car rental and airport transfers through its service.