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The pitfalls of bonding won’t go away – TravelMole guest comment by David Speakman, Travel Counsellors
The collapse of Travelscene means the issue of bonding – and how it is currently failing the customer – is going to run and run whether we in the travel industry like it or not.
It was only a matter of time before there was a high profile collapse that left customers in the lurch – ironically John Harding himself knew this only too well – although it seems he thought it would be a low cost airline, rather than his own tour operation, that would bring it to the public’s attention.
It is because it has been so obvious that there were glaring loopholes in current protection arrangements that for the past six months we have been putting in place our Financial Trust with the Barclays Bank Trust Company.
Coincidentally the Trust came into effect on Wednesday (September 1), the very week that bonding has been thrust into the public domain like never before.
But let’s be clear here – even without the Trust we would have paid out to our customers who had been left out of pocket due to the collapse of Travelscene through no fault of their own.
We would have paid out, even though we didn’t have to, because we want to keep our good name and our customers to trust us and come back to us again.
Which is why I also think ABTA has a moral obligation to pay out – even though technically customers who booked through Travelscene’s unbonded subsidiary Citybedz are not entitled to their money back.
The issue of bonding is complex – and hard enough for most people in the travel industry to understand. It was not only customers, but also travel agents, who thought that Travelscene’s accommodation only was bonded – whatever the small print of the booking conditions said.
ABTA should have checked the booking conditions so my view is it now has a moral obligation to pay up.
Why should the customer – who after all was looking forward to an enjoyable holiday – suddenly find they are caught up in a technical minefield the end result of which is that they lose their hard earned cash?
We have over 400 agents throughout the country and thanks to our Trust they can now give a simple message to their customers – book with us and your money is 100% protected, end of story. It also protects our payments to suppliers.
Happily for our customers they don’t have to know what is – and what is not – covered by ABTA or ATOL.
Phil Davies
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