Dell worker loses job and hotel wedding deposit
Thursday January 29 2009
A man due to be married next year who is being made redundant by Dell is trying to get his €2,000 wedding deposit back from a hotel under the threat of closure.
Simon Conlan (28) and Miriam Hirad (25) were engaged four years ago and paid a deposit of €2,000 to Castletroy Park Hotel, Limerick, for their wedding reception in July 2010.
But the hotel has refused to refund three couples the wedding deposits they paid to have their receptions in the hotel.
More than 130 members of staff at the Castletroy Park Hotel will learn their fate tomorrow after the hotel's management informed them they were suffering trading difficulties.
Mr Conlan works in Dell in the city and is due to be made redundant next January.
"We signed a contract, which states that the deposit is non-refundable," Mr Conlan said.
"Consumer Rights have informed us that we're entitled to our money back. We need our money back so we can look for other hotels, but if the company goes into liquidation, we would be classed as unsecure creditors and secure creditors would be paid first," he added.
Mr Conlan said €2,000 was a lot of money.
"I'm working in Dell and still have a wedding to pay for. Their attitude has not been one bit nice. We have just been fobbed off. They hid us away in the back at first and got us a coffee, but we came back out to the reception and asked to speak to someone four times," he recalled.
A spokesperson for the hotel confirmed that letters were handed to three couples who approached staff on Tuesday regarding their deposits. The letter stated that it would not be possible at this time to return the deposit, but that further information on the hotel's status should be available later in the week.
- Barry Duggan
