Christmas parties at New Bingley Hall in Birmingham cancelled
About 800 people in the West Midlands have had to cancel or re-book Christmas parties after their events company failed to pay the Birmingham venue.
Many businesses had booked New Bingley Hall through Solihull-based firm Special Events and Parties.
Elaine Reeves, from the party firm, said in an email: "We simply cannot cover the cost of... these events."
One company that had a booking with the firm said it had lost just under £3,000 but added "it's not about the money".
Lorraine Hosey, from Complete Imaging Ltd which was due to have its party at the venue later, said: "We had to tell our staff there's no party [there] and I know people have gone out and spent money on new outfits too.
"It's not about the money, we were really looking forward to it."
Complete Imaging later said it had managed to book another venue.
The email Miss Hosey received from Ms Reeves said: "Please be assured that we will be issuing refunds to the customers who have paid as soon as possible and we will be offering compensation for this great inconvenience.
"Suppliers will be compensated according to their contracts as soon as possible.
"I can only say how sorry I am to give you this news."
Miss Hosey said: "I like to keep faith that we will be reimbursed for it but we'll have to see."
'Our public reputation'
New Bingley Hall said Special Events and Parties had booked parties for Friday 2, Friday 9 and Saturday 10 December.
Dolly Sahota, the sales director for New Bingley Hall, said: "We're... concerned about the customers and our public reputation.
"We had a good relationship with Ms Reeves so if she had explained there were problems then we were willing to help."
She said the payment from Special Events and Parties for last week's event had gone smoothly.
She said: "It's this week that we've had problems with the money - the cheques owed to us were stopped on Thursday and we have reported it to the police.
"Without being able to contact the clients directly there's every chance people still might turn up later."