Travel has a structural problem that has nothing to do with how well the business is run: the customer pays today and travels in four months. Between those two dates sits every risk a payment provider cares about, and that gap is what the offer is priced against.
None of it makes travel unbankable. A merchant account for a travel agency is a vertical with its own rules, and the agencies that get approved quickly are the ones that arrive already speaking that language.
Contents
- Why the gap decides everything
- What the application is really asking
- What it costs
- Deposits, balances and the mixed model
- Cutting disputes in a vertical built for them
- Seasonality is part of the application
- Three questions worth asking first
- In short
Why the gap decides everything
- Delivery is months away. A card payment can be disputed long before the customer boards anything, and until departure the provider carries the exposure.
- Cancellations are normal, not exceptional. Plans change, airlines reschedule, and every refund runs through the same acceptance.
- The ticket is large. One disputed package can outweigh a week of clean sales.
- You often resell. The flight, the hotel and the transfer belong to other suppliers, and money frequently leaves before it settles.
Which band a business lands in, and why, is set out in our piece on what high-risk, middle-risk and low-risk payments are.
What the application is really asking
The company set is standard — registration, articles, beneficiaries. The part that decides the outcome is specific to travel.
- Licences, registrations and guarantees where the activity requires them. We work with licensed operators, and this is looked at first rather than last.
- Supplier agreements. Who actually provides the flight, the room, the transfer — and on what payment terms you settle with them.
- Your cancellation and refund policy, matching the checkout. If the site promises free cancellation for fourteen days and the checkout says nothing, the file goes back.
- How far ahead you sell. Average days between payment and departure is a number the provider will ask for; know it before you are asked.
- What happens if a supplier fails. The honest answer matters more than a reassuring one.
The rest of the file is the same as anywhere; the list is in our merchant approval checklist.
What it costs
MDR runs 3%–5% depending on the type of business, plus 0,50 EUR per transaction. Settlement in EUR over SEPA is 0,20%, the term is T+7, and the rolling reserve is 10% for 180 days — a share of turnover held back against future disputes and released on schedule. A refund costs 50,00 EUR, a chargeback 100,00 EUR on top of the returned amount. The exact figure is set per merchant and we consider individual solutions for your business.
In travel the reserve is the line to model, not the rate. Money is collected months before it is earned, and a percentage held for a period against a book full of future departures changes what you can pay suppliers with. What the whole picture looks like is in our piece on what card acceptance costs.
All published lines sit on the pricing page.
Deposits, balances and the mixed model
Most agencies converge on the same structure without being told to: a card deposit at booking, the balance by transfer closer to departure. It converts better, it costs less on the large half of the amount, and it reduces the window in which a large card payment can be disputed. Transfers into the company account run at 10 EUR + 0,30% on SEPA — the account side is described under business IBAN.
Cutting disputes in a vertical built for them
- Put the trip in the descriptor. A statement line the customer reads three months later must say something recognisable, not a holding company name.
- Send the confirmation and the terms together. Dates, names, what is included, what happens on cancellation — in one document the customer keeps.
- Remind before the balance is charged. The forgotten second payment is a dispute waiting to happen.
- Refund quickly when the trip falls through. Fifty euros beats a hundred, and a refund does not count against the dispute ratio the way a chargeback does.
- Keep the supplier confirmations. When a customer claims the service was never provided, the booking reference is the evidence that answers it.
Seasonality is part of the application
Travel volume is not flat, and a provider that expects a flat curve will treat your peak as an anomaly worth reviewing. Say in advance when your season runs and how much the volume multiplies. A declared peak is planning; an undeclared one is a spike, and spikes get looked at. How routing and settlement behave under load is described under payment processing.
Three questions worth asking first
- How is the reserve calculated on advance sales? On a book of future departures the same percentage produces very different held amounts depending on how it is applied.
- What happens to a booking when a supplier cancels? Who issues the refund, on what timeline, and out of which balance.
- How are group bookings treated? One large payment for twelve travellers behaves differently from twelve payments, and it is cheaper to agree that before the season than during it.
In short
Travel is priced for the gap between payment and departure, so the reserve and the settlement term matter more than the percentage. Bring licences and supplier agreements, match the refund policy to the checkout, declare the season, take a deposit by card and the balance by transfer, and keep every confirmation. Then the merchant account is a normal product with terms that reflect a real, understood risk.