Do you work in part of the travel industry? Or do you want to? If so, it’s good to know a bit about Travel Merchant Accounts. This is because, frankly, they’re pretty much vital to a number of travel industry related businesses. Travel agencies selling vacation packages use them, tour operators use them, and so do time share businesses and hotel companies. But why are these travel merchant accounts so crucial? What are they actually there for? To put it shortly, the answer to both questions is credit cards. Almost every kind of business needs to be able to process credit cards, right? It’s what the customers expect. They practically count on the convenience. Therefore, it’s the businesses’ job to make sure their clientele get what they want, isn’t it? The problem is, the majority of people with a travel industry business have a harder time getting an account to provide them with the use of credit cards. For them it’s a lot more difficult than, say, a restaurant owner or a retail storeowner. Without going into too much detail, restaurants and retail stores are rather low risk according to merchant account providers, while, businesses in the travel industry are said to have a risk ten times higher. But why are travel merchant accounts so much riskier for providers? To begin with, travel businesses have a high loss ratio when compared with businesses in other categories. Basically, that means the account provider companies are much more likely to lose money if backing a travel-related business than if they assisted a restaurant business or other low risk business group. If you’re wondering, the high loss ratio of travel industry businesses can be attributed mostly to their elevated chargeback risk. This kind of risk refers to the process of reimbursing customers even when the business doesn’t have the funds to do so. Let’s say, for instance, a family bought a vacation package seven months in advance, but between the time the family bought the package and the actual date the trip was supposed to start, something went wrong. Perhaps the family could no longer go on the vacation due to some conflicts in their schedule or maybe the tour company stopped offering the specific package that was bought. Now, the family wants their money back but the travel agency business can’t afford to give it to them. In such cases, the company providing the merchant account has to pay back the money. Obviously, merchant account providers don’t really like doing this. Not one bit. This is why travel merchant account providers are harder to find and sometimes a challenge to get approved for. It’s no wonder they are required to assess the risk of each individual travel industry business that applies. They need some reassurance that by giving a business an account, they won’t be flushing money down the toilet. So, don’t be surprised when you are asked for security deposits, rolling reserves and personal guarantees. These are the types of things travel merchant account providers call for to protect themselves from money loss. If you are looking into getting a travel merchant account for your business, Ultimate Merchant Account Providers is a company worth checking out. They can offer you what you need in order to get your business taking credit cards and giving the gift of convenience to your clientele!