Travel giants to ringfence customer deposits to speed up refunds

Companies commonly use holiday deposits as a very important part of funding their business enterprise. The vacation marketplace lifeboat Atol was developed in 1971 to step in if a corporation unsuccessful and the funds was missing.

Ringfencing customer funds, a frequent follow in other industries these types of as banking and gambling, would suggest companies would not be capable to use the funds handed above when reserving.

Companies presently reapplying for their once-a-year renewals will have to established up segregated accounts, sources said. Providers will be restricted to a number of bookings primarily based on the volume of funds they agree to keep in believe in.

Martin Alcock, a director at the Travel Trade Consultancy, said that whilst there had been a lot of positives to segregating customer deposits, they had been “not a panacea”. “They can be painful to established up, and they tie up a large amount of funds… Quite a few vacation businesses will be not able to manage them,” he said.

The plans are aimed to also handle fears that the taxpayer-backed Atol plan is insufficiently capitalised.

Labour MP Meg Hillier, chairman of Parliament’s community accounts committee, said: “The flaws in the vacation marketplace design have left shoppers at the bottom of the heap for too very long. When a business enterprise goes bust or a flight or holiday is cancelled, shoppers often battle to get their really hard-gained funds again in any acceptable time.

“A new design that guards customer funds is overdue. It will adjust the functioning design of a lot of vacation companies but it will deliver significantly-essential customer protection. The collapse of businesses and Covid have highlighted what can go completely wrong.”

The CAA did not comment.