Although the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) announced that Thomas Cook had gone bust in the early hours of Monday morning, Susan Pullen-Booy, 52, still got ready to go to work as usual at the group’s high-street outlet in Bath.
It was only when her manager phoned to tell her not to come in that the news really sank in.
“We thought it couldn’t happen. I’ve worked for the company for 31 years, and one of my colleagues was about to reach 40 years’ service next month, and another 20 years. We gave really good service to everyone.”
The five staff who worked at the branch are upset they couldn’t say goodbye to their many loyal customers.
“We’d known people for years, watched them grow up. Many clients who came in here are older and they can’t use the internet, so we did everything for them. If we’d known about it earlier, we could have put notices in the shop and had a tea party for everyone.”
Pullen-Booy said she and her colleagues sobbed when they collected their belongings. She said: “It was absolutely awful. We took our last picture outside the shop. I always loved going into work. There was nothing better.”
For customers still stranded overseas, the lack of Thomas Cook reps is causing difficulties. One holidaymaker described the situation in his hotel as a “giant self-help group” after guests were forced to sort out demands for payment from hoteliers without help.
Robert Rowe, 67, is staying at Hotel More, a family-run hotel in Alcúdia, Mallorca. He said hotel guests had notes put under their doors on Monday morning asking for money. He contacted the CAA and was told that they were Atol-protected and shouldn’t pay.
Many guests were unsure about what to do, he said. “Ninety-five percent of people here are pensioners and only a few can use smartphones so many weren’t getting information as there were no reps around. They were upset.
“Guests were offering support by passing on information. It was like a giant self-help group.”
Rowe said that he felt sorry that Thomas Cook had put small traders in this position but he thinks the hotel handled the situation badly.
There are many other accounts of Thomas Cook customers being asked for extra money by hotels.
Liam Archer and his partner, Ciara Edwards, from Gloucestershire, were asked by staff at their hotel on Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands to pay more than £800.
Mr Archer said: “We had a note through our door asking us to go to reception. We were then told we had one hour to pay €942 [£831] otherwise we would have been kicked out of the hotel.
“We rang the CAA and they told us to pay and keep receipts.” He said it had been “very stressful as we have had to ring around to find the money”.
Dame Deirdre Hutton, the chair of the CAA, said every hotel with an Atol-protected customer has been sent a letter guaranteeing that they would be paid, but acknowledged: “There is some confusion in hotels.”
