It is a well-known fact that travel is considered a high-risk industry by PSPs, and this is because customers generally pay months before receiving the service. This type of situation creates elevated chargeback and refund exposure for the payment service providers.
When the underwriters review a travel business website, they basically look for evidence that the company is legitimate, has established transparency, and is also capable of delivering the services that they advertise. A travel merchant may face rejection if the website shows very little evidence of real business activities.
As per the experience of the team at QuadraPay, we have seen many merchants like that. Such merchants generally have very low or absolutely no measurable online traffic. They have no active social media presence and no customer reviews, and they also present very limited company information on their website.
They use stock or generic content on the website, which reduces customer and payment processor trust. Such websites also lack verifiable travel industry affiliations. Underwriters generally expect to see signs that indicate that the customers are actively engaging with the travel business and the business has some kind of credible operating history.
The website quality and the compliance issues can also create significant concerns for the underwriters. For example, if the policies are poorly written or they are copied or they are generic legal content, or if the website has inconsistent business information like a dummy address, like a John Doe address or a dummy phone number; missing terms and conditions; unclear refund policies; outdated pages; or broken links, or if, in any way, the content appears unprofessional. All of these can indicate to the underwriters that the business owner does not have adequate operational control, and that is why such business models may be perceived as very high risk by the underwriters, and such accounts are generally declined.
Another major factor is the inability to verify actual travel fulfillment. For example, if the merchant claims to offer flight tickets, hotels, cruises, yacht charter, and vacation packages but does not clearly disclose the supplier relationship, accreditation details, booking processes, customer support procedures, proof of travel industry participation, or relevant API connectivity with industry-recognized travel aggregators, then the payment processors and the merchant acquirers may question how the services are being delivered and whether the customers are protected.
It is important to know that ultimately the payment processor evaluates the total risk profile of a merchant. A combination of zero online visibility, absolutely no social proof, a very weak website, compliance, poor-quality legal documents, and very limited evidence of genuine business operation can certainly motivate underwriters to simply decline the application or request substantial additional due diligence before approval.
Merchant processors commonly decline travel websites due to specific red flags.
- No visible travel industry accreditation or memberships. No IATA certification
- Very generic About Us page content with no identifiable team members.
- Very limited business history and company credibility indicators.
- No visible customer reviews or testimonials. No TrustPilot page
- No active social media links. No Facebook or Instagram Links
- Generic photo gallery with very little proof of actual operations.
- Poorly drafted privacy policy, refund policy, and disclaimer content.
- Grammar, spelling, or formatting errors all these can be red flags.
- No references to properly processing card transactions. It creates data security concerns.
- Very limited transparency regarding travel suppliers and fulfillment partners. Global air ticket and hotel and cruise bookings can not happen immediately without direct integration. If a merchant does that, then it involves manual intervention, and that may raise security risks and delay in delivery.
- No clear evidence of online presence or consumer engagement. No Backlinks or No Citations. No Google my business page.
- Heavy reliance on phone and WhatsApp sales can increase card-not-present risk concerns.
- Travel services are offered without sufficient detail regarding licensing, accreditation, or booking authority.
For a payment processor or acquiring bank, all of the above listed signals do not automatically mean fraud, but they certainly display that the merchant has some kind of personal uncertainty attached to the business model. In any of the high-risk verticals, including travel, the uncertainty factor itself is generally off enough to trigger a decline decision.
If you are looking for a travel merchant account, then it’s important for you to understand the above-mentioned factors and optimize your website as well as business model as per the best industry practices. This will help you to increase the possibility of account approval and will also help you to get favorable commercial terms from the payment service provider.
QuadraPay offers travel merchant accounts in various countries and regions, including the US, Canada, the European Union, the European Economic Area, Australia, and Singapore. Apply now.