The airline industry has done a great job at eliminating the risk of third party non-payment after a booking has been placed. By enforcing that all payments (traveller to agency and agency to airline) happen in essentially real time at the time of booking, risk is drastically mitigated. In the worst case scenario, if the agency or the airline goes out of business, assuming the traveller booked with a credit card, the card scheme protects the traveller.

The situation in the hospitality space is quite different. A much more complex distribution chain along with the industry-wide adoption of cancellation policies and credit terms between the contracting parties are responsible for a wide spectrum of payment scenarios where non-payment risks may arise. In addition to this, the market volatility caused by the outbreak of Covid-19 has created a new context where accepting a booking without proper protection measures may become an extremely risky business.