In these uncertain times, it is more important than ever to ensure that, if your travel provider goes bust, you will not be left stranded abroad or have your holiday cancelled. Thankfully, there are a number of things that you can do to ensure that your holiday will go to plan, regardless of the current or future financial status of your travel provider. The simplest and best way to make sure that you have some protection against bankruptcy is by booking your holiday through a reputable, licensed travel operator.

There are a number of schemes in operation worldwide that provide customers with some fallback if their tour operator goes under. The most common scheme used by travel companies in the UK is called ATOL, which stands for Air Travel Organisers Licensing, and is operated by the Civil Aviation Authority(CAA). Membership of this scheme protects the customers of a tour operator from being stranded or losing out on money if the operator goes under.

In order to claim membership of the scheme, operators have to lodge a certain amount of money in the form of bonds with the CAA in order to cover the costs of refunding their outstanding flights in the event of a bankruptcy. It then falls to the Civil Aviation Authority to sort out replacement flights for customers that have been left in the lurch by the bankruptcy. If the amount of money that the operator has left with the CAA is insufficient, then it falls to another government organisation, the Air Travel Trust, to pay the rest.

You should receive an ATOL receipt, containing the name of the travel company and their ATOL ID number, every time you give money to a travel company, even if it is only in the form of a refundable deposit. If you do not receive one, you are well within your rights to demand one, as this acts as an insurance policy document for the money you have already paid. If your flights have been booked through an agency that goes out of business, then the ATOL registered operator that they booked your flights through has to pick up the tab.