Travel tip #114: Is this travel agency legitimate?
Published 30 days agoΒ β’Β 11 min read
Hi Reader,
How are you doing? Where are you?
I am enjoying a beautiful European summer filled with sunshine, sea, sand, aperitifs and time with friends.
Tomorrow I will meet with the next group of guests on our Barcelona tour, the last of our summer tour until September, for our welcome rooftop dinner π
β
β
On this week's travel tip I wanted to help you assess whether a travel agency you are considering for your trip, is legitimate or not.
What questions do you need to ask, what should you look for, what are some red flags and what shouldn't, etc.
.π Got a friend who would love to read ? Forward her this email!
We often get hear potential future guests, ask us a variety of questions with regards to our legitimacy and experience.
These are all super valid questions that everyone should ask.
With the proliferation of influencer-led trips and new travel agencies launching, you may have also found a trip offered by someone you aren't familiar with and would like to know how to find out if they are legitimate, have the right experience and set-up in place, the right financial backing and the right legal paperwork.
Anyone can launch a website or an Instagram page and start offering tours, but should you trust them with your precious vacation time and money?
Here is what you should be looking for or asking about from a potential travel agency your are considering for your vacation, solo or with others.
Independent reviews
Media coverage
Legal paperwork in place
Fit with your travel style
Liability insurance and financial backing / processes
Experience
Pre-tour support and customer service
1. Independent reviews
β
This is the most obvious and easiest way to check if an agency has experience in the field and with a specific destination / tour. The emphasis here is on independent.
You should be skeptical of reviews that are pasted on the website only and cannot be verified with third party services like Google Reviews, Trust Pilot, TripAdvisor, etc.
I want to be able to read independent reviews posted publicly on any channel that is not the company's website. Those could be faked too, but it is much harder and obvious.
What to look for:
Does the company have third party reviews? I would not trust a company that only has reviews on their website.
Does it have enough reviews? A company that has been in business for a couple of years should at least have reviews from 10-20% of their guests. If you see only a handful, that is not a good sign.
Do reviews have photos? These are hard to fake so give a lot of credibility. If none of the reviews have photos, I would question their veracity.
Do review go into detail? Eg "Guide A was amazing and I really loved that we did X and connected with Y to do B", rather than generic reviews like "I had a great time with X in Y".
Are reviews left by expert reviewers or by someone who has no other review? That is a red flag,
Do reviews mention repeat customers? Do reviewers mention they have booked more tours, or that a tour was their second or third? Repeat business is a great sign.
Do reviews have answers from the owners? Are they generic or personalised?
What is not a red flag:
Having reviews in only one platform. Companies choose where to request reviews based on their business model. We used to ask for them on Facebook, because this is where our community lives, but the amount of spam and zero support from Facebook in removing fake reviews made us move to Google because many potential guests find us there and most people have Google accounts. We don't like TripAdvisor because it is heavily manipulated, so we never created a profile there.
Having only positive reviews. I often hear that if a company does not have any reviews that are less than 5* they must be fake. In our case, we have a couple of 4* reviews and the rest are all 5*. They aren't fake, we just do a very good job and attract the right kind of guest who shares our mission. Reviews will also reflect the reaction and measures a company puts in place when things don't go according to plan. Even when we make a mistake, we rectify it straightaway so it does not lead to a negative review. Think about the last time you left a negative review, was it also because the way it was handles made you extra upset?
2. Media coverage
β
Has the company been featured online by any outlets? Are those respected and legitimate outlets? Can you read the coverage and see what they highlight?
Editorial media coverage of a company is extremely hard to get, and a good sign the company is legitimate.
The lack of it, especially if the company is new, is not necessary a red flag, but the existence of it should make you feel good about your choice.
3. Legal paperwork in place
I cannot stress this enough. It is so easy to start a travel agency, that many just donβt have the legal paperwork in place to do so, they simply launch a website or IG account and start offering tours.
This is extremely dangerous for you, and you should stay clear of ANY company that cannot provide you with the legal proof that they are set up as a company in their country.
I see so many individuals hosting trips without any company behind.
Are they paying taxes? Are you protected at all if they go bankrupt or simply disappear? This is a MUST and you should never book with a travel agency whose company registration details arenβt listed on their website as that is a legal requirement in almost every countries (look at the footer or the Privacy Policy).
Have a travel agency license. This changes country to country. For example, you canβt get one in Spain because they are no longer needed, but you will absolutely need it to operate in the UK as a travel agency. Just ask them about it.
Are part of a professional association. This also varies by country. In the UK anyone selling packages that include flights need to register with ATOL. This would protect you in case the company goes bankrupt and you lose your money or are stranded overseas. You should never buy a package from a UK company that is not registered with ATOL. Other associations for travel agencies include IATA (a must if the agency sells flights), ABTA in the UK for travel companies, ASTA for travel advisors in the US, etc. While these associations are not a must, their membership helps build credibility.
They hire only licensed guides. Almost every country will require guides to have a license, sometimes licenses are needed to tour official monuments like in Greece or Bali, sometimes they are needed to escort any kind of group around the country like in Italy, sometimes they are not needed at all, like in Germany. If the guide who will be hosting your tour is not a licensed one, that brings not only legal questions (it wouldnβt be the first time I see a group of tourists in Italy being stopped by the police because they were being escorted by a foreigner without a local license) but also liability concerns. If something happened to you, you wouldnβt be backed by any professional association or insurance company. The guide could also simply disappear and leave you there.
The guides and hosts are experienced. To me, tours led by someone without any experience leading tours raise serious questions around the ability of that person to handle challenges, know what to do in case something goes wrong and can keep you safe in case of an accident or illness. Guides go through lengthy and detailed training. In some counties, they need university-style degrees. They know how to manage personalities, they know what to do in case something goes wrong and they need to troubleshoot, they have contact, and they are trained to take care of you. Not everyone is suited for this job and a guide can make or break a tour. Knowing a tour is hosted by an experienced guide is paramount.
4. Good fit for you
β
When assessing a travel agency or trip, you should carefully look at the details to make sure it is a good fit for you.
Just because a tour was perfect for your friend, it does not mean it is what you need, like or enjoy doing on your holidays.
My biggest worry is getting a booking from a guest who has not understood what we stand for or how our tours are and should have booked with someone else.
For example, someone who cannot meet the physical requirement of a tour, or who is not a group tour person but rather prefers independent travel, or who likes to splurge on hotels and books a budget tour, or who wants comfort and needs things to go according to plan, and has selected a tour to Cuba where flexibility is a must, or who loves cleanliness and sterile environments and has booked to go on safari, or who does not care to support small, women-owned businesses and likes the predictability of international brands.
This is your responsibility.
You need to ensure that the company you selected aligns with your travel style and your values and the type of tour and destination is what you are looking for at the moment.
A company could be very legitimate for budget tours and be completely the wrong one for you if you prefer luxury.
Pay attention to the imagery, the people shown, the activities, the adjectives used, the company values and what previous gusts highlighted about a tour to see if it's for you.
5. Liability insurance and financial backing / processes
β
A legitimate company will meet its financial obligations and have insurance in place to safeguard your money in case of bankruptcy.
This should be your biggest worry and COVID brought out a lot of these issues to the front when companies that did not have all the legal paperwork in place left guests stranded.
Travel companies go bankrupt all the time.
German FTI Touristik, the 3rd largest travel company in Europe went bankrupt last year, British Great Little Escapes lost its license last week. During COVID, popular agencies like Flashpack had to file for bankruptcy too.
Travel agencies collect money well in advance of a trip and need to make partial payments as the trip approaches. The biggest worry for a traveler should be whether that money is protected.
The UK, which has suffered major bankruptcies such as the one of 178-year old Thomas Cook, has a mandatory system in place whereby any UK-registered travel agencies need to place all monies collected in escrow and can only access this money to pay for trip related costs. This guarantees that the travel agency won't run away with your money or use your payment to finance another trip.
Unfortunately, no other country has this requirement, so you can only ask the travel agency if they have any way to guarantee your pre-payments won't be used to pay for other trips or for company expenses.
For example, we keep payments for every tour separate in its own bank account and only use the money to pay for each trip's expenses.
An alternative to an escrow account is an insurance policy.
These kinds of insurance are often mandatory in many countries like Spain. But if you are not registered as a travel agency or at last have a legal entity, you won't be able to obtain it.
You will also be ineligible until your company is profitable, because no insurance company will want to guarantee financial viability of a company that is not profitable yet.
This means that having this insurance policy in place tells you the travel agency is profitable and your money is protected in case of bankruptcy.
Lastly, you should also ask about liability insurance which would cover you in case of negligence.
6. Experience
β
Needless to say, experience speaks volumes for a company, even though it should never replace the legal requirements and financial safeguards.
How long have they been in business?
How many tours have they run?
How many guests have traveled with them?
What is the rate of repeat, that is, what % of guests have traveled with them more than once?
Do their tours typically sell out? Do they have to cancel tours because of lack of interest?
You can ask all the above directly to the company, but you can also verify what they said is true:
Do you see stock images on their website and social media channels or photos from previous tours?
When group tour photos are published, are the sizes of the groups small or are they showing tours being sold out with groups at maximum numbers?
Can you find videos of previous tours with guests in them?
Do their social media channels show a variety of guests or are they stock images or photos of the same people?
Does the website show tours sold out or with few spots available or are they always largely available even last minute?
I am not saying new companies are bad, we started only 5 years ago ourselves, but lack of experience is a risk factor you need to account for.
If a company is new, all the rest of the elements above are extremely important, as is the CV of the team and founders, and making sure the legal aspect and financial backing are in place is key.
7. Pre-tour support and customer service
Your interactions with the company can tell you a lot about the kind of service you should expect.
Are they responsive? Are they helpful? Or they take days to respond?
When they respond, do they show they know the destination, the tour what they are doing? Are they experts on the destination?
Can you reach out to them within business hours, and speak to a member of the team?
Is there a working phone number you can see clearly online or can you only reach out to them via Instagram or email?
What is the after-hours support in case of emergency?
β
Have I missed anything important? Are there other things you look for when assessing the legitimacy of a travel agency? Hit reply and let me know!
2026 / 2027 Calendar of tours
β
Our 2026 calendar is almost fully live with very few exceptions π₯³
π Tuscany: 13 to 20 Jun || 5 to 12 Sep >> Book hereβ
π¬ Ecuador & The Galapagos: 5 to 17 May [I will host this trip] SOLD OUT >> Join the waitlistβ
π§ββοΈ Bali: 20 to 28 Jun || 29 Aug to 6 Sep || 3 to 11 Oct >> Book here
π Xmas markets: 21 to 29 Nov || 5 to 13 Dec >> Book here
βοΈ Swedish Arctic 28 Mar to 3 Apr >> Book hereβ
π¦ Australia: 11 to 22 Oct >> Book here [Meg will host this trip]
π₯ Barcelona & Beyond: 6 to 14 Jun || 20 to 28 Jun >> Book hereβ
ποΈ Kilimanjaro climb on Intl Women's Day: 1 to 10 Mar or 1 to 15 Mar with safari extension >> Book here.
β΅ Greek islands sailing trip: 29 May to 5 Jun >> Book here [I will host this trip]β
π Cuba: 14 to 22 Feb || 14 to 22 Mar || 12 to 20 Dec || New Year's Eve >> Book hereβ
πͺπ¬ Egypt: 3 to 12 Apr || 9 to 29 Oct || 6 to 15 Nov >> Book here
πͺ Morocco: 2 to 12 Oct || 6 to 16 Nov >> Book hereβ
π¦ Tanzania Value safari + Zanzibar: 28 Aug to 7 Sep (Great Migration) || 11 to 21 Sep (Great Migration) || 23 Dec to 2 Jan, 2027 (Xmas + NYE) >> Book hereβ
πΉπΏ Tanzania Luxe safari + Zanzibar: 25 Sep to 5 Oct, 2026 (Great Migration) || 1 to 10 Nov, 2026 >> Book hereβ
π¦πΆ Antarctica expedition: 13 to 27 Dec >> Book here [I will host this trip]β
π΄ Caribbean island hopping: 13 to 20 Feb, 2027 >> Book here[Both Meg and I will host this trip]
β