Snowfall employees hit back at CEO’s claims of stability

A group of current and former employees of travel tech company Snowfall has hit back at CEO Stefan Cars’ claims in a recent interview with BTN Europe that the company is “back on track”, stating that staff are owed months’ of pay.

Cars recently addressed accusations of missed payments, financial instability and poor management that came to a head last year, but a lengthy statement provided to BTN Europe on behalf of a group of 25 current and former employees this week asserts that all Snowfall employees “have been affected in one way or another by pay issues”.

The statement continued: “We feel, as a group, it is imperative for us to reveal what has been going on within the company and shine a light on the behaviour of senior management, namely Stefan Cars, and refute the statements he has made publicly about the financial health of the company related to employee pay, which is fundamentally false.”

According to information provided to BTN Europe by the group, Snowfall staff in Canada have gone unpaid since July last year and employees in the US since November. Current UK-based staff have not been paid their wages for December, nor had their pension contributions paid since March 2024. Furthermore, four former UK employees have opened tribunals with the UK government “in reference to the illegal garnishment of pensions and missed garden leave payments.”

Cars admitted in the interview, conducted in mid-November, that Snowfall is in dispute with some former employees and claimed current employees were paid up to date.

In addition, the group says that when the company’s Armenia-based staff were made redundant last year, they were owed six months of back pay. “Snowfall has refused to address this with them, choosing to ignore rather than acknowledge their outstanding debts,” said the statement provided by the group.

Meanwhile, in the US, workers’ health insurance has been revoked and in the UK employees no longer have access to their health insurance provider despite paying contributions to it. The group alleges that both incidents are due to Snowfall defaulting on payments to providers.

It added: “Snowfall has also at various times missed critical vendor payments which have resulted in setbacks or failures from a product perspective.” These included payments to ATPCO, ARC, Sabre and content providers “like Benerail and Travelfusion, resulting in a lack of content, even while operating actively with customers”.

Addressing comments about Junction One’s shortcomings, the group highlighted lapsed payments to vendors “which have caused significant delays in any relevant upkeep, maintenance and road mapping”, as well as missed salary payments to the development team, largely based in Canada, and Cars' focus on Snowfall’s API-based content platform rather than on its booking tool. This combination of circumstances “has essentially crippled the growth of the product, as is commensurate with the comments from previous TMC and corporate customers BTN has cited,” it said.

The group also said employees were told some salary payments would be made in December but did not come to fruition. “The most recent promises were a bevy of assuring messages that some pay would reach the staff by Christmas, which it didn’t.”

Its statement concluded: “It has been evident for some time that the severe mismanagement of funds, lack of transparency and sub-standard management skills have driven Snowfall to where it is today. Rudderless and strategically aloof.”

BTN Europe also received communications from multiple independent sources corroborating the group's claims and expressing their frustrations with the running of the company following publication of the interview earlier this week.

Snowfall responds

Responding to the group's claims, a statement from Snowfall read: “We are speaking to our employees around the world on a very regular basis, keeping them abreast of developments and reassuring them that with the new funding round now complete, we are getting back on track.

“We understand there are frustrations – that is the nature of being a disruptor – launching transformative technologies into the global travel industry is intensive in every sense; it is not the work of a moment.

“We have significant backing and support in place, with impressive global experience in our company, and we will be making significant announcements this month about the exciting future of our business. And as always, our employees will be the first to know.”

The company did not directly address the group's assertions of missed payments.

In addition, Antoine Dresch, founding partner of Korelya Capital, said in a written statement: “Korelya is investing significantly in Snowfall and we are fully committed to the future of the business. Launching transformative technologies into the global travel industry isn’t easy, and there have been challenges along the journey, no doubt. 

“Refocusing the business on the core innovations and principles that are revenue-generating and genuinely transformative – which is exactly the process we are supporting the executive management with right now – means that we are on a path that will lead us to stability immediately and ultimately to growth through 2025 and beyond.”

Shortly before publication of this article, BTN Europe additionally received a statement signed by 23 current Snowfall employees expressing their support for its leadership team.

Excerpts from the statement said: “It hasn't been an easy ride, this is fair to say, but we are effectively a tech startup working to disrupt a long-established travel industry with new technologies, platforms and approaches to operating in the travel business.

“It can also be frustrating, and it is not a straightforward 9-5 job. However, we believe in what we are doing, we believe in the company's vision, and in the management team's ability to lead and deliver on the vision.”

It added that while employees “didn't sign up for delayed payments and frustrations”, the group appreciates the “dynamic and exciting working environment” of a disruptor and “stands by the leadership team through this difficult time, looking ahead positively to 2025.”