How do I know a small travel company is genuine?

[sachertorte]

Basically I´d like to book a holiday with a family company, paid by bank transfer, but there is no offical name on their site (ABTA??) to show they are a genuine travel company. How do I check this? Thanks!

abta - you can search by company name

if they are not listed then your money won't be protected

paying by credit card will give you some protection I think

ATOL is for air travel

hmm, not listed, but the business is in France though they clearly want the UK market. Not looking good then?

Can you book it any other way? Or pay by cc?

Yes can pay by cc.. What would that entitle me too if the business failed?

usually cc provides protection if the company fails to provide the goods or service

if you check your credit card co website it should have more info

Look under the section Protection for some relevant info:
www.moneysavingexpert.com/cards/credit-cards-main-guide