Bonding… We bang on about it a lot…
…and for very good reason.
We talk about the bonding authority, we talk about what it means for the financials at our end, we talk about the difference between TAANZ and IATA… that’s a lot of high end information! But what does it mean in relation to YOUR previous experiences and YOUR thought processes at more basic level?
To peel it down to a simple conversation, what we’d like to talk about today is what it doesn’t mean.
It doesn’t mean we charge you more…
A common misconception – being bonded doesn’t mean we add more to your tour costs to cover our financials at this end. We have had these processes in place for so many years that it is just a normal part of our business process and it has absolutely no effect on your costs.
It doesn’t mean that your tour deposits can be accessed for fulfilling just any tours (no matter who’s) …
Being held in a bonded account doesn’t mean that it is just protected from operational costs (like rent, wages, coffee and the Christmas party)… it also cannot be used for ANY tour costs that aren’t directly related to fulfilling YOUR tour. The funds need to be there and ready to go when your bills come due…so to speak. It’s a bit a building company, we can’t take the money you pay for roof, and use it to pay for another build’s foundations.
We can’t pay for Paul’s tour with your tour deposits (it’s ok Peter, we got you covered).
It doesn’t mean that should your tour cancel, that you will watch as tour thousands go spiralling down the drain
This is literally the MAIN point of why we bang on so much about bonding. 2020 in particular saw families across the country shellshocked as they learnt the hard the way that not all companies are created equal. So if you’ve seen funds held in “credit” by other companies after a cancelled tour… this is a thing you will not experience with us. It’s cash refunds wherever possible…and lets be honest here, sometimes we are unable to get paid deposits back from our suppliers, but we promise that if it’s non-refundable we will be 100% transparent and you won’t be left with a “tour credit” that you’ll never use. We won’t promise the world and then fail to deliver.
It doesn’t mean that we will go under…
Shuffling all these funds aside does not mean that we have no operational cash to stay in business. We won’t vanish in a puff of smoke with your tour funds. As we said, we have been doing this for so many years now that it’s all par for the course. We saved for this rainy day (and gosh, wasn’t it rainy). But rest assured, we will still be in another 30 years doing the same if we have anything to say about it!
So, that’s a different perspective on bonding for you. We trust it shows that you’re in good hands, and makes it a bit more relatable… we’re here for the long haul, and so are your tour funds.
