Is this an MLM?

[Pepsimaz]

Someone I have followed on social media for about 10 years has got into this travel agent type business. They say they can get massive discounts and commission on bookings. We don’t live local to each other so I can unfollow with no hard feelings I am just curious.

Noticeably I can’t actually find the name or the link to the travel organisation they are working for anywhere they never mention it? They post a lot about how it’s making them money and they get to travel, they appear to be recruiting new members. You have to inbox them and go on a webinar to find out. This is how I understand an MLM works as this person goes up the chain by recruiting more newbies, not by the travel bookings.

I am curious as to whether the travel bookings for the mysterious company are legit as much as the recruitment side. Has anyone heard of this?

Yep, inteletravel of similar, it’s an MLM

Yup, I've come across this definitely MLM.

It’s an MLM.

The second hand embarrassment I get for people stupid enough to fall for an MLM
Is huge! It's I'm really not that bright myself, but I hustled cannot see how anyone can fall for it. And shame on those who know exactly what's what but still do it. Grrrrrrrr

Yep. There is no easy, legal way to make lots of money. Any scheme like this will only cost you.

100% MLM. These make me so angry!!!!!

So many instragrammers on this scam. Do they actually believe it?! Just apply common sense: how could everyone make money by booking discount holidays? Where does the profit come from? To borrow a phrase, make it make sense!

Are they a trained travel agent with lots of experience? As the answer is almost certainly not, it’s a scamtastic MLM.

A relative fell for one of these and spent almost two years as a ‘travel agent’ her (very reliable) grandmother confided that she made less than £100 in total over that time.

She now does some bath product/home fragrance mlm, but does seem to make a little bit from that.

Could you be arsed? My worse nightmare this type of stuff.

Yes. 'Travel consultant'.

I can really see how people do fall for it though as you can’t to any research on what she is doing as she hides the identity of the company she is working under! It really does look like she’s just a self employed travel agent and showing other people what to do to get into it. I am not falling for it, I did wonder if anyone has booked a holiday this way - is it cheaper? I would never become a consultant but if it’s a good way to travel I could see the appeal from that side. I am not clear on whether the customer is also getting ripped off?

I would be incredibly suprised if one of these scammers could find a cheaper deal than what can already be found on price comparison sites 🤔

The way they actually make money is by getting other women to sign up as 'travel agents' and those women have to pay a one off fee and then a certain amount per month to be part of the club/programme/scam.

Definitely MLM.

I knew someone involved in a travel one - they were always trying to sell me stuff.

The idea was that you would have to buy monthly credits towards trips - so a monthly direct debit.

I never got the impression the trips were that good value - and also… you seemed to have to go with loads of other people from it at specific times?

This is what has drawn my attention as she has started making a big thing of this. Previously she just showed off about her travel savings for herself, she seemed to book a small number of trips and would tag people in the post but now she has suddenly appeared tagged in some generic marketing material as someone who has been growing a massive down line. Despite this not one single reference to Inteletravel on her whole page! She must be doing it all through DM’s on social media

I will give it a swerve with booking travel I don’t want to be a part of any MLM i am curious I googled it and a lot of agents who signed up saying it’s not a scam but I can’t see how you can make money without taking money off you friends to join?

I have a friend who is now doing this. She loves to travel and says she is just doing it for that. But then she is constantly posting trying to get people to join. She does seem to go on lots of trips but then she did anyway!

I use to follow someone on instagram who got involved with this.

She boasted about all the cheap holidays she was taking and really pushed for people to 'join her team' yet she never used her page to actually advertise these cheaps deals so thst followers book holidays.

She's not maong money from booking holidays, shes making her money signing up her followers to pay to join the scheme and then creaming off the commission her 'team' make in the initial flurry of friends/family feeling compelled to book with them.

Here is how you book a holiday:

1. book it yourself online or
2. go to a travel agent. Anyone on Instagram saying they book holidays and earn from them… They just earn when they recruit others and move up the MLM tree. I hate it as a ‘business model’ it’s awful. I know of someone who has gone on to be quite wealthy and I honestly don’t know how she sleeps at night. She DM’d me when my dad was dying and asked me if I’d like to go for a coffee. I said no thanks I’m in a hospice with my dad he’s dying. She actually offered to come and have a coffee with me there. Some if these MLM companies train people to home in on potential marks who are vulnerable in some way, socially isolated and with financial difficulties desperate to make a few quid. No idea why she messaged me but there you go.

Of course it's an MLM.

Of course she gets to travel. And pay for it. And the person who signed her up as an agent gets commission on her booking.

It's 100% an MLM, inteletravel is the agent arm and PlanNet is the recruitment side. There are about 20k of them in the UK and on average they're making a couple of hundred a year at most, although the 'uplines' are raking it in making money from their 'teams'.
I work in travel (not an agent so this isn't me worrying about competition) and it's a low margin industry with lots of competition so a lot of what they say is smoke and mirrors. They might show £300 commission earnings on a trip but they don't mention that their split of that is about 60%, then they have their monthly fees to Inteletravel and card charges.
The discounts you get as an agent can be great, but not all operators offer discounted travel. I get daily emails from intele agents asking for discount and the vast majority I refuse as they clearly are just looking to get a cheap deal - not to promote the tour operator work for!
That aside, why anyone would book with someone with no experience who also sells Utility Warehouse and FM fragrances rather than their local high street independent agent, trail finders, travel counsellor etc I really don't know.

The customer isn't getting ripped off as such, but other agents have far better commercial terms and more suppliers. Inteletravel work with around 100 suppliers, your local Hays shop will have over 400 and massive buying power to get exclusive deals, commercial terms and offers.

Is this Instagrammer from Liverpool by any chance? Because I follow someone who was a home account and then joined this travel MLM and now does not stop talking about how much financial freedom she has. It’s all she posts about these days

If you want to become a travel agent, there are companies you can sign up with and do it on a self-employed basis, without needing to be a part of a pyramid scheme/MLM.

I wouldn't recommend it to someone inexperienced unless you have a lot of friends/family/contacts who you know will book with you and recommend you. It can be really hard to find customers initially. I think the fees can also be quite high for people without travel experience.

When I worked in travel, the Inteletravel and other MLM agents were not well-respected. I don't know if this has changed in recent years.

A travel agent should really be looking for more customers to book holidays, not trying to recruit more travel agents, who then become their competitor.