020 7190 9988
ask@protectedtrustservices.com
As one of the most widely recognised forms of financial protection, it’s easy to assume that your travel business must have bonding. (It’s also way easier than having to choose yourself, and sometimes you just want a job complete). Despite that, it is not necessarily the right form of financial protection to help your business thrive.
There are many elements of your business that could affect what financial protection is right for you. This could include budget, suppliers, holiday types, employees, and more. When you are choosing financial protection like bonding, trust accounts, or insurance, it is important to keep the whole business in mind, not just the required Package Travel Regulations compliance.
In saying that, let’s start with how the PTRs dictate what financial protection you can choose from.
Financial Protection and The PTRs
If your travel business is selling package holidays, it’s important to understand your legal options. Under the PTRs, being bonded is only one option. This comes alongside insurance and trust account protection.
Package Travel Regulations apply to both ground-based and flight-inclusive holidays. Packages including flights would simply require an ATOL as well. Despite a package being considered the safest way to book, things can still go wrong. This is why financial protection is so vital. This is not just for your customers either, financial protection is about supporting your business when the thing that goes wrong is out of your control.
How To Be PTR Compliant
The government has outlined three acceptable routes for travel businesses to ensure compliance.
- Joining an independent trust account solution, such as Protected Trust Services (that’s us!).
- Financial Failure Insurance – an insurance that is generally paid on a per passenger basis.
- Bonding – having a bond in place in correlation with the size of your travel firm. Bonds tend to start from £50k and as such is an incredibly expensive option.
From this perspective, bonding is generally used as a means to appease the PTRs and little more. That is not to say that it might not be a good fit for you with the right provider, however, considering that many travel businesses only choose it to satisfy regulations, it is incredibly expensive and can fall short of true protection in a crisis.
Why Could a Trust Solution Be Better For You Than Bonding?
The independent trust solution is not only far more affordable (and therefore friendly to a variety of travel businesses), but, if run properly, it is also far more beneficial to you and your travellers as a flexible, transparent, and efficient solution.
As it is run by independent trustees, the PTS trust account is not only protecting consumer monies, but keeps those monies safe and out of even our hands until it is time to pay suppliers, provide a refund, or release your profits (which you can claim as soon as the supplier is paid). The monies are reconciled daily and separated by booking, so you and your travellers can see exactly where those monies are down to the penny.
With financial protection like PTS, the event of something going wrong, isn’t much of an event at all! When something happens, consumer monies can be delivered directly back to the consumer quickly. This means that if a refund is necessary, you’re not paying out of pocket. This allows your business to continue to grow with confidence.
What Does Financial Protection Mean to You?
In essence, there are different vehicles to ensure PTR compliance and bonding is just one. Each vehicle is available to ensure that a suitable fit is provided for every travel business. However, not all financial protection is created to do more than comply with regulation, so it’s important to research the right fit for you.
PTS are pleased to offer one of the most cost-effective solutions to you and your travel business in the industry. If this sounds interesting to you, please call 020 7190 9988 to discuss your business requirements, or send us an email to hellopts@protectedtrustservices.com.
