What are Zicasso’s criteria for selecting travel company members?
1. You have leverage for quality service because you can give rating and feedback to the travel company after the trip
2. It’s the right thing to do.
3. Offers to buy or sell Trip Plans outside of Zicasso site are not permitted and violate Zicasso policy
Zicasso’s pre-screened travel companies, with their local expertise, can advice you on the best Trip Plan for you: where to stay, what to do given your interests and budget, and then take care of booking everything you need. You get the entire Trip Planned and booked for you.
Additionally, travel companies can often get up to 20% better prices compared to hotel published or Internet published rates due to exclusive volume discounts. These are rates which hotels require to be unpublished so that they can continue to sell at the higher published rates. Or they can get you a room at a hotel that is supposedly “full” because rooms are often blocked out for travel company reservations only.
And finally, in many cases, having a great tour guide can really make a big difference in how you experience your trip. The best tour guides can explain everything you want to know about your destination—history, culture, architecture, nature, etc.—and act as an interpreter when you wish to converse with locals. But good tour guides are not easy to find. The best way to find and hire them is to use a travel company who specializes in that destination.
What are the types of travel arrangements available to me?Travel companies on Zicasso can essentially arrange any type of travel needs that you may have—just let us know on the Trip Request form. Here are typical types of arrangements: (Keep in mind though that you and the travel companies can choose any combination of travel arrangements to meet your needs.)
- Independent Travel (sometimes known in the industry as “FIT”)
- Non-guided, custom trip arrangement of pre-booked lodging + transportation. This can sometimes be “self-drive” packages which provides custom driving directions and guide books.
- Benefit: Have complete independence, on your own schedule.
- Private Guided Tour or Custom Guided Tour
- Custom Trip Plan designed for you or your private group. This usually includes lodging plus guide plus one or more other travel components (air, airport transfer, car, rail, etc)
- Benefit: Set independent itineraries yet get volume discounts which travel companies offer
- Escorted Group Tour (fixed departure dates, escorted by tour guide or tour leader, structured itinerary)
- Structured journey on which a group of travelers, grouped by a travel company, are accompanied by a travel professional who sees to their needs
- Benefit: Don’t have to worry about anything (leave it all to the pros) & low price … but give up some independence
- Vacation Package (not escorted, not customized)
- Similar to Independent Tour package but fixed travel components (i.e. not customized)
- Benefit: You can get good deals that only travel companies have access to
- Others: Includes Adventure Tours, Nature Tours, Eco Tours, Study Tours, and Cruises
Zicasso’s pre-screened travel companies, with their local expertise, can advice you on the best Trip Plan for you: where to stay, what to do given your interests and budget, and then take care of booking everything you need. You get the entire Trip Planned and booked for you.
Additionally, travel companies can often get up to 20% better prices compared to hotel published or Internet published rates due to exclusive volume discounts. These are rates which hotels require to be unpublished so that they can continue to sell at the higher published rates. Or they can get you a room at a hotel that is supposedly “full” because rooms are often blocked out for travel company reservations only.
And finally, in many cases, having a great tour guide can really make a big difference in how you experience your trip. The best tour guides can explain everything you want to know about your destination—history, culture, architecture, nature, etc.—and act as an interpreter when you wish to converse with locals. But good tour guides are not easy to find. The best way to find and hire them is to use a travel company who specializes in that destination.
Why should I complete the trip booking on Zicasso’s website?When you are ready to purchase a trip initiated by your Trip Request on Zicasso, we’d like you and the travel company to complete the transaction via Zicasso because:
1. You have leverage for quality service because you can give rating and feedback to the travel company after the trip
All our travel companies have built their reputation through years of hard work. They care about their online reputation. In this competitive business, it is important for travel companies to get the best possible rating and feedback from you in order to win future clients. This is your greatest leverage for getting good service. Only travelers completing the transaction (minimum $100USD) on our website are eligible to give travel companies rating and feedback.
2. It’s the right thing to do.
Otherwise Zicasso loses track of the transaction and we do not get paid commission by the travel company.
3. Offers to buy or sell Trip Plans outside of Zicasso site are not permitted and violate Zicasso policy
Such offers are a potential fraud risk for travelers and travel companies. They also undermine the trust and legitimacy of the Zicasso marketplace. Additionally, these offers circumvent Zicasso’s fees to travel companies, creating an unfair playing field for travel companies who do not circumvent Zicasso’s fees. Travel companies or travelers who buy or sell Trip Plans outside of Zicasso site in order to circumvent Zicasso’s commission from travel companies are subject to losing their memberships.
Can I talk to the travelers about their Trip Requests?Absolutely! Zicasso wants you to help our traveler members plan their trip in the most efficient way. However, in order to protect our traveler members’ privacy, their contact information is not available on their Trip Request or on their profile. Your initial response to a traveler for his or her Trip Request is via Zicasso’s website—either in the form of a Trip Plan response, or as a message (using our message inbox system). For subsequent communications, when a traveler feels comfortable providing his or her contact information, then you and the traveler can talk on the phone, email each other, etc.
We also encourage you to use our message system to record all communication between you and the traveler since it tracks all communications easily. In the case of confusion or dispute, it will help you retrieve your communications easily.
How do we get paid by travelers?You get paid by Zicasso travelers exactly the way you get paid now. Zicasso understands that every travel company has different requirements for how they want to be paid by travelers. Zicasso’s website helps travelers and travel companies track the payment status easily, but travelers will pay you directly in the payment methods you specify, for example, wire transfer, credit card, Paypal, check, money order, etc.
As soon as you receive the payment, you can simply send a receipt to the traveler via Zicasso message system.
How does Zicasso make money? What commission do you charge?We make money by charging travel companies 4% commission when there is a successful sale (e.g., a purchased Trip Plan or a purchased Sample Trip). Note that if part of the booking includes airline tickets for which you do not receive commission, we will not charge commission for that portion.
We don’t charge for anything else—no charge for leads or for membership.
How do I pay commission to Zicasso?Since the Trip Requests and your Trip Plan responses all take place inside Zicasso, we track your sales activities automatically. We will send you an electronic bill on the last business day of the month showing you the amount of commission due each month. We collect commission when the trip begins (this way, we know for sure that traveler has paid you in full). If our record differs from yours due to the changes you or travelers have made after the purchase date, you can inform us about the difference in the amount due. For sales of Sample Trips, Zicasso will send you the list of travelers who have sent inquiries to you about your Sample Trips via Zicasso during that month. You will let Zicasso know which of those inquiries have turned into sales by the end of each month. (In the future, Zicasso will offer a complete transaction module for Sample Trip sales, making it easier for you and Zicasso to track inquiries vs. actual sales.)
The amount is due on 30th day from the time we send you the bill. You can pay us via wire transfer, Paypal, money orders, or checks (US only). Failure to pay the commission will result in suspension of your membership. If you have questions or feedback on commission, please send us an email at info@zicasso.com.
Zicasso sets high standards in selecting Zicasso Select Travel Company partners. Our business depends on it. Membership to Zicasso is invitation-only. We make sure that all our travel companies are committed to the following:
- High integrity
- Quality
- Best value
- Authentic travel experience
Here are some of the ways we use to select reputable travel companies:
- Travel companies Zicasso staff have met and interviewed at major travel conferences worldwide
- Travel companies recommended by major travel publications and verified by our staff
- Travel companies recommended by our traveler and travel company members and verified by our staff
- Travel companies committed to improvements in community and environment through responsible / sustainable tourism
- Travel companies that hold memberships with reputable travel organizations worldwide and whose reputation is verified by our staff
Bottom line: as highly-experienced, quality-conscious, and value-driven travelers ourselves, would we consider using that company if we were taking a trip ourselves? To answer this, we’ve spent thousands of hours since 2006 to research and select our travel companies.
Additionally, Zicasso Select Travel Companies have to maintain their high standards as evidenced by ratings from travelers who purchased from them through Zicasso. If a travel company's average rating falls below 3.5 stars (out of 5), it will be disqualified from membership.
Zicasso’s pre-screened travel companies, with their local expertise, can advice you on the best Trip Plan for you: where to stay, what to do given your interests and budget, and then take care of booking everything you need. You get the entire Trip Planned and booked for you.
Additionally, travel companies can often get up to 20% better prices compared to hotel published or Internet published rates due to exclusive volume discounts. These are rates which hotels require to be unpublished so that they can continue to sell at the higher published rates. Or they can get you a room at a hotel that is supposedly “full” because rooms are often blocked out for travel company reservations only.
And finally, in many cases, having a great tour guide can really make a big difference in how you experience your trip. The best tour guides can explain everything you want to know about your destination—history, culture, architecture, nature, etc.—and act as an interpreter when you wish to converse with locals. But good tour guides are not easy to find. The best way to find and hire them is to use a travel company who specializes in that destination.
Zicasso encourages you to use your preferred communication methods to discuss and refine Trip Plans with travel companies. In order to protect your privacy, travel companies will not be able to view your contact information. Unless you provide them with your contact info, they can only communicate with you via Zicasso’s message system—a convenient tool that tracks and organizes all your communications with travel companies. Of course, using the message system, you can always give a travel company your phone number or email address if you prefer to communicate in those ways.
Note: If you decide to purchase a Trip Plan, we do request that you complete the booking on Zicasso. See Why should I complete the trip booking via Zicasso? for more details.
When you are ready to purchase a trip initiated by your Trip Request on Zicasso, we’d like you and the travel company to complete the transaction via Zicasso because:
1. You have leverage for quality service because you can give rating and feedback to the travel company after the trip
All our travel companies have built their reputation through years of hard work. They care about their online reputation. In this competitive business, it is important for travel companies to get the best possible rating and feedback from you in order to win future clients. This is your greatest leverage for getting good service. Only travelers completing the transaction (minimum $100USD) on our website are eligible to give travel companies rating and feedback.
2. It’s the right thing to do.
Otherwise Zicasso loses track of the transaction and we do not get paid commission by the travel company.
3. Offers to buy or sell Trip Plans outside of Zicasso site are not permitted and violate Zicasso policy
Such offers are a potential fraud risk for travelers and travel companies. They also undermine the trust and legitimacy of the Zicasso marketplace. Additionally, these offers circumvent Zicasso’s fees to travel companies, creating an unfair playing field for travel companies who do not circumvent Zicasso’s fees. Travel companies or travelers who buy or sell Trip Plans outside of Zicasso site in order to circumvent Zicasso’s commission from travel companies are subject to losing their memberships.
Zicasso has a comprehensive system to handle your Trip Planning, from the planning stage to the completion of the purchase. We track every step for you. However, we do not handle the actual money payment, because all travelers and travel companies have their preferred way of paying and receiving money. Very often, especially for travel companies outside the United States, travel companies only receive payments through wire transfer. Therefore, travelers pay travel companies directly, instead of sending the money to Zicasso.
Of course! Zicasso system gives you total flexibility to plan your trip. If you find that you like more than one Trip Plan responding to your Trip Request, just book all the ones that you like. This is a common scenario. For example, if you find that one of the Trip Plans offers very good travel arrangements for northern Spain, and another Trip Plan offer very good arrangements for southern Spain, you should totally take advantage of the expertise of each of the travel companies and book both Trip Plans. Or, one travel company might offer a great Trip Plan for an escorted tour in Vietnam but does not book flights while another has a great airline deal, so you can choose and book what you want with both travel companies.
No, there is no obligation to buy any of the Trip Plans submitted to you. Zicasso’s goal is to help you plan & book your trip and have a good trip. We certainly would like to see you book a trip via our system, but we understand that you may decide not to take the trip now or are not completely satisfied with the Trip Plans submitted to you. Hence, we have this “No obligation to buy” policy.
However, we do request that when you submit a Trip Request, you genuinely would like to consider taking this trip. It does take time for our travel companies to prepare Trip Plans for you, so we appreciate that you respect their time and effort to serve you and only submit a Trip Request if you are genuinely interested in taking this trip.
It is very easy. Zicasso allows you to customize your trip to exactly the way you want it. Just use Zicasso’s message system to ask travel companies to modify your Trip Plan for you, or you can simply communicate with them over the phone. A comprehensive Trip Plan often takes some discussion and modifications between travelers and travel companies.
Absolutely! If you find a Sample Trip fits very well with what you want to do for your trip, just click on “Send inquiry for this trip” button on the Sample Trip page, then send the message you have for the travel company. Once the travel company receives your message, they will get back to you soon. You can easily use a sample trip as the base of your trip, and ask the travel company to customize it to exactly what you want.
Remember, try to keep all your communication with the travel company in our message system. That way, you have a reference for anything you have agreed upon. If you decide to purchase a Sample Trip or a trip that a travel company has customized for you, just send a message to the travel company to let them know that you are ready to purchase the trip, and you can make a payment to the travel company directly.
After you submit your Trip Request, you will receive up to three Trip Plans from different travel companies, typically within 2 - 3 business days. However, for very complex trips involving many countries, you may receive more than three Trip Plans in order to fulfill your request. At any point, if you feel that you have received enough Trip Plans, you can contact Zicasso to let us know and we will inform the relevant travel companies with pending Trip Plans for you.
If you would like to receive more Trip Plans after you received 3 Trip Plans, you can contact Zicasso to let us know that you are interested in receiving more Trip Plans. We will work with you to understand your needs and either assist you to work with the existing travel companies who have already submitted Trip Plans to you, or get you new Trip Plan from a new travel company.
In general, the more complete your Trip Request is, the easier it is for travel companies to plan your trip for you. Therefore, you will receive Trip Plans that are more comprehensive and closer to what you want.
For your privacy, only you can see Trip Plans submitted to you. No one else can view them. Travel companies cannot see Trip Plans submitted to you by other companies, either. However, travel companies can see how many Trip Plans have already been submitted to you, so they can decide whether to submit a Trip Plan to you.
Absolutely! After you submit your Trip Request, at any point, you can edit your Trip Request. Once you edit your Trip Request, all travel companies that are working on Trip Plans for you will receive a notification from us to let them know that you have modified your Trip Request. So they can come back to view the changes you made on your Trip Request and modify their proposed Trip Plans accordingly.
