re: Corona Virus is bankrupting my parent’s and sister’s small travel business

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I’m not familiar with the travel business model, but do travel agents really put up their own money to cover their client’s cancellations? That seems too risky unless they keep insurance or cash reserves to keep them from going bankrupt.

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I’m not sure how most travel agents do business but the are a small niche business that goes on the trips themselves to act as guides, especially for people who have never traveled.
They plan the logistics months in advance and have everything organized. They make their money by (not sure their rate) making sure there are no problems and with bookings for flights and hotels. It really is a demanding job for large groups. They started with just a few clients and it blew up.
They offer prices on different trip packages and clients have to send a non-refundable deposit or fee by certain dates.
Any money they save by constantly negotiating hotel, transportation and flights, becomes profit along with the price of the trip packages.
If the clients cancels at the last minute, it hurts their pocket for each one.
Now clients that had requested upgrades that required booking non-refundable rooms, have now started demanding my family return it of their own pockets even though the requested it. Saying they couldn’t do that destroyed any hope for later trips with them.
It’s a mess and not much time left to work something out.