Frequently Asked Questions - Privacy policy, ratings & feedback, a fair marketplace for travelers and travel companies

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 These are rates which hotels require to be unpublished so that they can continue to sell at the higher published rates.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.

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.

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:

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.

Otherwise Zicasso loses track of the transaction and we do not get paid commission by the travel company.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.