Hi Shirley, haven't had any experience of the company but they are Abta bonded. Here's their website (but am sure you've seen it) http://www.travelwasp.co.uk/

On their 'about us' gubbins it says they are part of Qwerty travel.

I don't see an ABTA logo on either site, it says ATOL and TTA.

This company has only been around for a few months, see http://www.travelweekly.co.uk/Articles/2010/03/11/33232/qwerty-travel-launches-new-website.html

Sorry my mistake Steve (thanks) I saw the ATOL logo but brain typed ABTA

Hi both, thanks for your replies- not sure of the difference between ATOL and ABTA to be honest. I know I've read recently that ABTA aren't much use when customers take their complaints to them Can anyone tell me why it's important that we use companies that are ABTA bonded. I'm willing to try new companies as long as I know the risks aren't too great.

Does anybody have any advice with regards to booking with a company such as travelwasp?

MMMM, how can i put this.

Ok

ATOL: hugely important if you are booking a flight and accommodation together as if your airline goes bust, they will look after you and get you home.
Now, the problem is, although some companies hold an ATOL license you need to make sure that the holiday you are purchasing is atol protected as not all holidays are, for example if you the agent sells you a ryanair flight and accommodation separate, then low cost airlines do not come under atol regulations but there is the option to purchase airline failure insurance or supplier failure insurance. The whole atol thing is highly confusing even to us sometimes and is currently under going major scrutiny within the industry so hopefully this will all soon become much clearer to the public and industry.

ABTA: they are an association that agents can belong to which ensure that agents obide by strict codes of conduct and rules to ensure quality to the customer but they do not protect clients monies. This is another big thing people don't always know about, basically joe blogs travel sets up, sells loads of holidays cheap and then closes down with no operators being paid, whilst abta require agents to have some kind of insurance bond, this is not always enough although most agents would have to be under a direct debit scheme but not all supliers work this way. ABTA are now more of a lobbying group on certain issues within the industry but really serve little purpose to the customer so if a company isn't abta registered, doesn't mean it is a bad one.

Travel Trust Association (TTA): This i believe is the only organisation that can give 100% protection to clients due to the way that they operate, they are very strict whereby monies is held in a trust account which is regulated by the TTA and any payments have to be documented with the relevant paperwork before money is released to the operator. The agent does not generally see their commission until you have travelled. If your booking involves a low cost airline whereby payment is made direct to the airline then you need to have addittional cover to cover that part unless the whole package is through a tour operator who would then be responsible. Basically, if a TTA member ceased trading, the money is still in the trust account so there should be no need to make any other payments unless of course you still owe on the balance.
Also, agents have to pay an insurance cost on each person travelling which guarantees clients monies held in the trust account.

Hope this helps a little further

Thanks