By Nicole Foster, Director of Legal
Affairs at Travel Industry Solutions.
A chargeback
letter arrives on a Tuesday morning. The booking was eight months ago. You pull
up the record. The client signed your terms and conditions. You have the
timestamp. You have the email trail. And then you start reading the dispute —
and you realize the document you were counting on isn’t going to be enough.
This happens
more than most advisors expect. The document existed. The client signed it. It
still wasn’t enough. Signed is not the same as protected, and the gap between
those two things is what I want to talk about.
I grew up in
the travel industry before I became a lawyer. I’ve seen both sides of this.
Advisors are not drafting contracts for a living — they are planning trips.
They piece together terms from templates found online, language borrowed from
colleagues, or documents they’ve been using for years without anyone reviewing
them. None of that is careless. It’s practical. But practical and protected are
not the same thing.
The language problem
The most common
failure isn't a missing document — it's a clause that sounds like coverage but
doesn't hold up to scrutiny. A clause that sounds protective on its surface may
not survive once a dispute tests it against the specific facts and the consumer
protection laws in your client's jurisdiction. Attorneys who review these
agreements consistently flag vague language as the first place things go wrong,
because in a dispute, ambiguous terms rarely get the benefit of the doubt in
favor of the person who wrote them. In a dispute, that's rarely you.
Most agreements
also fail to specify the role the advisor actually plays in the transaction.
Agreements that have held up in disputes tend to include language stating that
the advisor is acting solely as a booking agent for disclosed principal
suppliers — that the cruise line, the tour operator or the hotel is the source
and provider of the services. Without something like that, the advisor's role
is undefined going into any dispute, and undefined tends to mean broader
exposure, not less.
Governing law
is another area worth discussing with your attorney. When you and your client
are in different states or provinces, which jurisdiction's laws govern the
agreement can affect how certain clauses are read — and whether they hold up at
all. Advisors who've had to navigate a dispute without a governing law clause
in their agreement will tell you that silence on that question rarely works in
their favor.
Timing and the consent record
Good language
in the wrong sequence still creates problems. When terms go out with the quote,
the client reviews and signs before the deposit is collected, and the booking
follows — that’s the sequence advisors and their attorneys describe as the
cleanest foundation for a consent record. Most advisors working this way are
already doing it right.
The breakdown
happens when the sequence flips. The client says yes verbally, the deposit gets
collected, and the paperwork goes out after the fact as a formality. By then,
the client is financially in and emotionally committed to the trip. A document
signed in that moment is harder to lean on, because the client's financial and
emotional commitment to the trip preceded the paperwork — and that sequence is
visible in the record.
What your terms can’t do on their own
Terms and
conditions set the rules for the relationship. They don’t identify the specific
trip, the amount the client agreed to pay, or the supplier’s cancellation terms
for that booking. That’s what the accompanying invoice and card authorization
are for — they’re the documents that connect the framework to the actual
transaction.
This
distinction matters most when a dispute arises. In travel, the most common
chargeback isn't a stolen card — though true card fraud is rising as well —
it's a client who authorized a booking, wants out of a non-refundable
commitment, and finds that disputing through their bank is easier than
accepting the supplier's answer. The reason codes "services not as
described" and "credit not processed" are how that plays out on
paper. A bank analyst reviewing either of those needs to see what was actually
sold, what the client agreed to, and the cancellation terms. A signed terms
page tells part of that story. The invoice and the communication trail tell the
rest.
A CRM-generated
placeholder doesn't come close. "I authorize you to charge my card on
file" was put there by the system. It doesn't reference the trip, the
amount, or the terms. It doesn't show the client read or agree to anything
specific. When an analyst sees that sentence next to a $6,000 dispute, it can
read as a system default — not as evidence of informed consent.
What a complete record actually requires
Advisors whose
records tend to hold up in disputes generally have the same things in place:
signed terms, a booking-specific invoice, and a card authorization — all in the
client's hands before the deposit is collected. The terms cover the
relationship. The invoice names the trip, the amount, and the supplier terms
that apply. Card authorization links the client's payment method to the
specific booking. Together, they give the analyst reviewing the dispute the
clearest possible picture of what was sold, what was agreed to, and what the
client authorized.
Beyond the
signed documents, evidence that tends to support a strong representation
includes the full communication trail from the first conversation through the
booking confirmation, written documentation that travel insurance was offered
and either accepted or declined, and supplier confirmation of the services and
the cancellation terms that applied. The representment window is typically 30
to 45 days. That's not much time to reconstruct a record that should have been
built from the start.
What to do with this
If you haven't
had your agreement prepared or reviewed by attorneys who work specifically in
travel, that's worth doing. Some advisors work with firms that specialize in
travel industry transactions — attorneys who see these agreements every day and
know where the gaps tend to live. That kind of specialized familiarity is worth
looking for, whether that's a firm like Ment Law Group or another practice with
a travel industry focus. There's a lot of variation in how these documents are
written, and the gaps that most often show up in disputes — undefined advisor
role, silence on governing law, language that doesn't survive scrutiny in the
client's jurisdiction — aren't always visible without someone who knows what to
look for. One area that tends to get overlooked entirely is how electronic
acceptance is captured and recorded. A PDF emailed to a client and returned
with a reply that says "sounds good" is not the same as a documented
electronic signature. If you're relying on digital acceptance of your terms, the
method you use to capture and record that acceptance is what an attorney or
analyst will look at when the acceptance itself is questioned.
After that, the
most practical thing is also the simplest: send your terms with every quote,
get the signature before you collect the deposit, and build the record from
there. A signed document is the foundation. Everything around it is what makes
it hold.
Disclaimer: This commentary is
provided for your information only—it is not legal advice, it is not a
substitute for legal advice, and it does not create attorney-client privilege.
If you seek legal advice, please consult with a qualified attorney. You are
responsible for using the information appropriately, and neither Travel
Industry Solutions nor TravelPulse is responsible for your use of it.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Nicole Foster is the Director of Legal
Affairs at Travel Industry Solutions, where she helps travel advisors and
agencies operate with clarity, compliance, and confidence. She is a licensed
lawyer in Ontario and brings a client-first legal perspective shaped by her
background in private legal practice. Having grown up in the travel industry,
Nicole offers a unique dual perspective that blends legal rigor with an
insider’s understanding of how travel businesses operate day to day. She
focuses on translating legal requirements into practical, plain-English
solutions—streamlining contracts, strengthening documentation, and improving
processes so advisors can spend less time managing risk and more time serving
travelers. For more information on Travel Industry Solutions, visit
www.travelindustrysolutions.com, email [email protected], or
follow us on social media: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, or YouTube.
For the latest travel news, updates and deals, subscribe to the daily TravelPulse newsletter.
Topics From This Article to Explore
