A hotel firm with various sites across the UK has gone into administration, with angry staff claiming to have been left without pay "for weeks".
Hashtag Hotels, whose portfolio of sites includes one inside the Collegiate Fontenoy Apartments student accommodation building in Liverpool city centre , has told many employees this week they have been made redundant - but that they will not be offered redundancy payments.
On Wednesday, the Twitter, Facebook and Instagram pages for the firm, which launched on Fontenoy Street in Liverpool in June, were unavailable, as BusinessLive reports .
An email to various employees and seen by the ECHO , said that due to the hotel chain's financial position, it was "not able" to make payments to staff for arrears of pay, holiday pay, redundancy pay or compensatory notice pay.
It said their employment had ended on August 28 "by reason of redundancy".
The letter added that if staff want to receive any due payments, they should make a claim online using the government website, adding that Leonard Curtis had been appointed as administrators.
A spokeswoman for Leonard Curtis confirmed the company had been appointed as administrators, and has been asked for a further comment.
On Wednesday, staff told the ECHO that not all employees had been made redundant - around half of staff at the 69-room Liverpool hotel had kept their jobs - although had "no idea" what would happen next.
As well as six locations in London, other Hashtag Hotel locations include Bangor, Dublin, Newcastle, Edinburgh and Nottingham. According to its website, there are 17 in total.
Sean Mullan, 22, left the firm at the end of July.
But he said he was friends with various staff still working at the hotel until this week - many of whom had gone "for weeks" without pay.
He told the ECHO: "When I started in June, we were getting a good salary and it was great.
"But things slowly got worse and I decided to leave.
"I have friends in there now who I know have not been paid in two or three weeks. Today they have been told the company is closed.
"Everyone is freaking out."
Meadbh Erne is another ex-employee to have left the firm's Liverpool branch at the end of July - before it entered administration.
She described her experience of working there as an "absolute nightmare", adding that it was constantly understaffed and the firm "was not paying people properly".
Ms Erne said news the firm had entered administration had been met with "anger" by staff who claim to have gone without pay, and that many are fearing they will now not be able to keep up with living payments.
According to the Hashtag Hotels website, the firm was founded by Nash Cohen and Simon Gilbert, who had "become frustrated" with existing hotels "built on archaic technology and systems which lead to poor customer service and a laborious customer experience".
It promised to use "simple but unique tech themes and elements, which allows us to scale our solutions across a wide geographic area, alongside a large number of sites and guests".
Attempts were made to contact the Hashtag Hotel.
For more great business content from across Liverpool and the rest of the UK, visit BusinessLive .
