Customers have been unable to make or amend bookings with Brittany Ferries for the past five days, after a fire broke out in an IBM data centre late last week.
The company has been unable to access its reservations systems, which has affected both online bookings and those made through its contact centre.
Brittany Ferries said the system was expected to be back up and running by Tuesday morning, but it was still down at the end of the day yesterday.
The ongoing disruption has left Channel Islands tour operators in limbo, like Grant Miller from Preston Holidays, the largest and longest-established tour operator bringing guests to the islands.
‘It’s beyond a joke now,’ he said yesterday.
‘We haven’t been able to book anything since around midday on Friday.
‘There’s no back-up or manual system to take any forward bookings.
‘They won’t even take a copy of the booking, ready for when it comes back online.’
UK-based Preston Holidays sells short stays and package holidays to Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Herm and Sark. It was one of the founding members of Channel Islands Tour Operators Group, with the largest accommodation portfolio across the islands.
‘We only do ferry-based holidays, so it’s wiped out any trade we do to Guernsey currently,’ said Mr Miller.
‘We’ve probably turned away around £20,000 worth of bookings so far.
‘Either those customers will have chosen to fly to Guernsey instead, or they’ll book another destination – which is a troubling point, because they might not bother coming back to Guernsey again.’
Mr Miller said he had received a blanket email by way of correspondence from Brittany Ferries. The company has acknowledged the issue and said IBM is working to resolve it and it expects to regain access shortly.
Mr Miller said that there had been no mention of any potential compensation.
‘I didn’t even get a signed email,’ he said.
‘It’s just from someone in their trade support department.’
In the meantime, Preston Holidays is working to hold its local hotel bookings, ‘on the off chance’ that the issue will be resolved in time for its package customers to travel.
Brittany Ferries is continuing to operate but port staff have had to produce boarding cards by hand.
The company was approached for comment but a spokesman said it was unable to provide an update yesterday.