Customers at a Bradford travel firm which last night went into liquidation claim it was asking for cash payments for holidays in the weeks before it went bust.

Holidaymakers, who were due to go on breaks with Gain Travel Experience Ltd, of Wibsey, say the firm was requesting payment by cash or cheque because it was unable to accept card payments for the trips, which have now been cancelled.

Some have been left in tears after learning that they are unlikely to get any of their money back.

A retired couple from Odsal, who did not want to be named, said the company had taken their last payment for a £1,200 holiday only last week.

A message on the Fair Road firm’s website said it would close due to “very difficult trading conditions” and hoped it had been able to bring customers “treasured memories”.

Accountancy firm Rushtons in Shipley, which has placed Gain Travel into liquidation, said a letter would be sent to customers and creditors in the next few days.

Customer, Susan Lavelle, of Shelf, told the Telegraph & Argus she had been told by the insolvency firm it was “highly unlikely” she would get any money back for a cancelled four-day trip to Kent, which was due to leave yesterday.

She believes the firm had been asking customers to make payments by cash or cheque because they were changing banks since January.

“I paid for a trip to London and had to go out and get money from a cash machine. When I made my final payment for the trip to Kent at the start of April I was told they still didn’t have their bank details,” she said.

“The administrators have said we can still go to the hotel, but coaches wouldn’t be able to take us there. Customers haven’t been left with treasured memories at all.”

Another woman, who did not want to be named, said she paid the firm about £300 for a four-day break to the Lake District, making her last payment by cheque at the end of April.

She said: “It’s unbelievable. It may not seem like much, but this holiday meant a lot to me. I’ve had a difficult time recently and was looking forward to a break.”

Denise Foskett, owner of The Seabury Hotel in Torbay, said she had been expecting a Gain Travel trip of 42 people to fill up her 23-room hotel and had now been left with a “big hole” in her bookings.

She said: “We’ve don’t get our money until five weeks or so after the trip. We’ve only just been paid for one that was in March.

“If customers who were supposed to come here contact us, we will see if any arrangements can be made.”

Simon Robinson, of Rushtons, confirmed it had been consulted by Gain Travel regarding its “financial affairs”, but not yet able to place a figure on its level of debt or if customers would get their money back.

He said the company had been in existence for 28 years with a lot of repeat customers and added: “We need to look into a combination of things to work out what has happened.”

A spokesman from ABTA, the UK trade association for tour operators and travel agents, said Gain Travel was not accredited with it but said customers who had paid by credit card or a Visa debit card should contact their bank if they are unable to get money back through the administrators.

Customers who had booked trips to The Seabury Hotel can contact Mrs Foskett on (01803) 327255.