Despite 90% sales drop, firm holds off on pay cuts, layoffs

St. Petersburg based Squaremouth, which pioneered a comparison engine for travel insurance and built it into a $18 million business, is about to embark on what could be its biggest journey yet: maintaining full payroll of some 40 people for at least a year in the face of a 90% revenue drop — no layoffs or salary cuts.

Like most others in travel, Squaremouth has seen most of its business disappear during the coronavirus pandemic. One example: sales, which include the company’s own travel insurance product, Tin Leg, went from more than 500 a day to as little as 12, company officials say. “As soon as we saw the shift, we took cost-cutting steps that have allowed us to keep every member on staff at their full salary,” Chief Marketing Officer Megan Moncrief says in a statement.