Is InteleTravel A Scam? What You Need To Know

Are you here to travel and make lots of money at the same time? InteleTravel will say you can and even do this at home. The question is, are they a scam? 

There are some important things you need to know about them.

Like you, I enjoy travelling. Some of us enjoy it so much it’s all we want to do. It’s like living the dream. Right?

Sadly, we need to have some kind of income coming to sustain us. Most of us need it. I do.

I’m happy you’re here and I commend you for taking the time to do your research here. This is truly the way to keep yourself from being scammed and find legitimate ways to make money online.

Let’s get started on my findings…

InteleTravel Short Review Summary

Booking accommodations thru IntelTravelProduct Name: InteleTravel

Founder: Founded in 1992, James R. Ferrara (President and Founder)

Product Type: MLM (Multi-Level Marketing) and Travel Booking company

Price: $179.99 one-time and $39.95 a month

Best For: Experienced Travel Agents

Summary: Inteletravel is a legitimate travel agency company. They have an excellent BBB rating and have received notable accreditations in their industry. They have also been in business for a very long time. Unfortunately, the business model they practise is Multi-Level Marketing. In my opinion, this is a tough home-business to get into. There is a lot of competition, just so you know.

My Rating: 40 out of 100

Is InteleTravel Recommended? Not Really

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What Is InteleTravel?

InteleTravel is another MLM (Multi-Level Marketing) company. It was established in 1992 by James R. Ferrara.

I did some further research on James and it turns out InteleTravel is a business partner of PlanNet Marketing. 

Here is a video by James Ferrara where he talks about InteleTravel…

InteleTravel has 2 main goals:

  1. To offer their discounted travel packages and related services in booking hotels, insurance, and cruises to anyone who likes travelling.
  2. To provide an opportunity for people like you and me who enjoy travelling to use his InteleTravel as a home-based business full-time, part-time or as a hobby.

The system makes it favourable for customers because they don’t have to pay agent fees.

I don’t know if you’re familiar with Evolution Travel but InteleTravel works similar to other travel search sites.

In other words, when you become a travel agent for InteleTravel, you can earn commissions on their discounted travel packages.

Because you work independently, you’re like their free-lance travel marketer which you can choose to do this full-time or do it as a hobby.

They have great training, travel booking tools and lots of travel resources to get you started and make sales.

Inside InteleTravel

InteleTravel doesn’t have products to sell. Instead, they partner with different travel suppliers. InteleTravel acts as the middle-man to give discounts on their suppliers’ travel products to their own customers.

Here is a list of their travel partners/suppliers:

InteleTravel Partners

The types of travel products you can sell are:

  • Airline Tickets
  • Train Tickets
  • Holiday Packages
  • Resorts
  • Hotel Rooms
  • Travel Insurance
  • Cruises
  • Vehicle rentals
  • Tours
  • Entertainment

Once you join and become InteleTravel’s travel agent you have access to their travel tools and support like:

  • Your free personalized website where your customers can go to and book their travel products which allows you to earn commissions.
  • The ability to create your own customized newsletters
  • Get access to the email marketing program and autoresponder
  • Promotional tools
  • Tools to do your booking with
  • Educational training tools

How To Make Money With InteleTravel

The way you’ll be making money with InteleTravel is the same MLM concept done 2 ways:

  1. You’ll earn commissions by referring other people into the InteleTravel business as your downline. This is the MLM side of the company. 
  2. You’ll earn a certain percentage of commissions from your own travel packages, tickets, insurance, and other travel products you sell. This makes you just a travel agent without the MLM. 

Before I talk about the commission structure, let me tell you how to start with InteleTravel which is next.

How To Start With InteleTravel

Earlier I had mentioned InteleTravel being a business partner with PlanNet Marketing. This means you actually join with PlanNet Marketing. A bit of a surprise?

Wondering what the catch is? Here we go!

Here are your costs:

  • InteleTravel – Pay $179.99 one-time enrolment to become a travel agent
  • InteleTravel – Pay $39.95 a month administrative fee
  • PlanNet Marketing – $19.95 monthly administration fee

Yes, it’s true! You have to enrol with PlanNet Marketing first to own your InteleTravel business. Take a look at the screenshot just below…

Enrol first with PlanNet Marketing to become InteleTravel travel agent

To be an InteleTravel “travel agent” you must first enrol with PlanNet Marketing pay them their fees and then pay InteleTravel their fees.  

Your total cost is $179.99 and $59.90 a month.

How Much Can You Make With InteleTravel?

InteleTravel’s commission structure is not overly complicated, unlike so many other MLM (Multi-Level Marketing) companies.

Here is another interesting video by James with an explanation of how their compensation plan works…

Here’s a quick summary of it.

For any travel products you sell, Inteletravel will pay you 70% to 80% of their base commissions.

The commissions that InteleTravel receives are 8% to 16% depending on what type of travel the customer paid for.

Here’s an example:

Let’s say your friend books a family vacation for 3 people and the total cost is $1800 excluding taxes and other non-commissionable fees.

InteleTravel’s base commission from their supplier is 14%.

InteleTravel’s base commission is $1800 x 14% = $252.

Your commission is $252 x 70% = $176

In addition, InteleTravel gives you a 10% override travel commission bonus on all the commissions that are paid to your travel agents in your downline.

Like the typical MLM structure, the more people you refer to become travel agents the more you can earn.

However, there is yet another catch…you must qualify to earn that 10% override commission bonus by having at least 3 referrals under your belt.

An example of this is:

Let’s say you have your 3rd referral, your friend Kyle joined to become an InteleTravel travel agent and his son purchased a cruise for a total of $2500 not including taxes and non-commissionable fees.

InteleTravel’s commission for this particular cruise is 16%.

InteleTravel’s commission is $2500 x 16% = $400.

Kyle’s commission is 70% of the $400 which is $280.

Your 10% override on Kyle’s commission is $28 ($280 x 10%). You receive $28 as a bonus from Kyle’s work which actually comes out of InteleTravel’s pocket.

You keep earning commissions on your future sales and on Kyle’s future sales.

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How Do You Earn Your Commissions With InteleTravel?

Your commissions are earned when InteleTravel gets paid by their supplier. Apparently, this can take anywhere from 30 to 60 days from when the customer has completed the travel.

A long wait? YES!

What I Like About InteleTravel

#1. 100% Money Back Guarantee. No Questions Asked

If you are unhappy with InteleTravel’s Home-Based Travel Agent Program, just write to them for a refund on your enrolment fees paid to them.

#2. Profit Guarantee

After your first year, if you haven’t earned more than what you paid in fees, InteleTravel will refund the difference to you. This must be in writing and within 30 days after your first year.

You must achieve a certain amount of requirements to get this.

#3. Best Travel Price Guarantee

When you book and confirm any travel product with InteleTravel, if you find a lower comparable price somewhere else, they will either match it or beat it. This must be within their specified notice conditions.

If they can’t meet it, they will give you a credit of 110% of the difference to be applied toward future travel purchases.

#4. Professional, Legitimate, and In Business Since 1992

If InteleTravel was a scam they would not still be in business. The fact that they are still in operation means customers are booking with travel agents who are home-based.

They are also highly accredited by BBB with a rating of A.

BBB Rating on InteleTravel

InteleTravel is recognized by 3 major related associations:

  • The Airline Reporting Corporation (ARC) recognizes them as credible.
  • The Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA
  • Vacation.com, the world’s largest travel agency marketing organization

Additional reasons why InteleTravel is legitimate:

  • Norton Secured
  • They have good quality training for their travel agents.

#5. No Commitment

InteleTravel says you can stay as long as you like with no commitment. They say their average stay with travel agents is 7 years.

#6. Write-Off Some of Your Travel Expenditures

As a travel agent, you’ll need to do some business travelling to check out some vacation destinations and so you can write some of it off.

The other benefit is you can still earn commissions on your discounted travel plan.

#7. No Monthly Minimum Order

Although InteleTravel is a Multi-Level Marketing company, they’re not like the other MLM companies.

With InteleTravel, you don’t have to meet quotas.

I was a member with a couple of MLM companies and each one had a minimum order requirement every month in order to get commissions. That was costly and ridiculous!

What I Don’t Like About InteleTravel

#1. Takes a While To Receive Your Commissions

It can take up to 60 days before you receive your commissions. This is because some of InteleTravel’s suppliers will not pay them until the customer’s travel is completed.

Payment is on the 15th of the month following the 60 day period. This means if InteleTravel receives payment from their supplier in May, your cheque is mailed to you on the 15th of June.

The other thing I don’t like, they don’t use PayPal so you can get paid faster instead of waiting for a cheque to come in the mail. 

#2 Need to Have Travel Agent Experience

I really feel this home-based business opportunity is not for everyone. Booking travel plans for people is a huge responsibility.

I can personally vouch for this. I did hotel bookings for a scuba dive shop in the Caribbean. Thankfully, the only bookings with airlines were local flights. I didn’t mess up and the dive customers were happy.

Imagine overbooking a dive boat when divers take the time to take a cab to come to the dive shop only to find there is no room.

The same applies to book vacation products…

To do this requires a lot of paying attention to customer requirements and needs, proper booking organization, follow-ups, and payments.

If you’re here for just making money, this probably is not going to work for you. Being a “travel agent” requires the passion to ensure customers are going to have a good vacation experience.

#3. Not All Refunds According to The Refund Policy Are Honoured

When I checked the BBB report on InteleTravel and even though they are rated A, there are numerous complaints about refunds not honoured.

It appears a couple of home-based travel agency businesses of InteleTravel are no longer in existence so customers are not able to collect their refund.

BBB complaint but travel agent no in business anymore

InteleTravel has come up with good responses and appears valid so this is where they still get rated A with BBB.

I suggest you read the reports. In many cases, the problem seems to be with InteleTravel’s travel agents not providing proper service. Unfortunately, the blame then falls on InteleTravel themselves. 

In BBB, there is a customer who booked excursions outside the all-inclusive vacation and not realizing it’s standard practice for the customer to pay that.  They complain and want a refund saying InteleTravel is not following their refund policy.

#4. Customer Complaints Fall On You

Because this is a service business, not all customers are going to be happy with you no matter how hard you try. Believe me, I’ve been there.

This requires delicate customer handling and if you can’t handle customer complaints and are only doing this for the money, it’s a stressful situation to be in.

BUT don’t worry, I have the perfect solution for you. One that requires no customer complaints… please keep reading! 

#5. Hard to Make Money

I went into PlanNet Marketing’s site and found their Income Disclosure Statement for 2018 which includes InteleTravel.

PlanNet Marketing and InteleTravel Income Disclosure Statement 2018

97.52% of active independent representatives (travel agents) earn an average annual income of $165.92.

If you’re here for just the money, InteleTravel is not for you.

Multi-level marketing is a tough business to be in because it requires a lot of chasing after people. 

I can show you a better way if all you want to do is make money, and you can learn how to get people coming to you. Does this sound good?

#6. Lots and Lots of Competitors

There are “LOTS” of MLM travel companies. For instance:

  • Coastal Travel Package
  • GoodLife USA
  • Pro Travel Plus
  • Paycation (oops, they’re gone now)
  • TVI Express
  • Global Travel International
  • Evolution Travel
  • World Ventures
  • + more

CLICK HERE - Want To Have an Online Business?Is InteleTravel A Scam Or Is It Legit?

InteleTravel is definitely NOT a scam. It’s very legitimate.

However, you probably already guessed I’m not a fan of multi-level marketing anymore. I got tired of “chasing people”.

The fact that InteleTravel has been around since 1992 says a lot about how they conduct their business. Seriously, they are an authority in the travel industry.

They have received numerous accreditations. If they had a different type of business model like affiliate marketing, I would be all over this. BUT they’re not.

If you’re only here to make money with InteleTravel and have no travel agency experience, my opinion is, this is not the place.

If you’re an experienced travel agency or agent and enjoy providing customer service, you could do very well with InteleTravel.

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The only requirement necessary is you must be willing to work hard.

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Hey Folks,

Thanks for reading my review of InTeleTravel. I hope I gave you helpful information.

Do you have any questions or comments? Are you a travel agent of InteleTravel? It would be awesome to hear from you and please put them in the Comment Box below.

Monica

6 thoughts on “Is InteleTravel A Scam? What You Need To Know”

  1. Great post! I always find a good review helpful and you have really delivered with your InteleTravel review here. Honestly, I haven’t heard a whole lot about this company and I enjoy travelling and so a review such as this is much appreciated. I’m not the biggest MLM fan either so I’m glad you pointed this out right away. This is a very well-written, thorough review. There appear to be too many catches with this service. Your alternative Wealthy Affiliate is on the money as it’s one of the best platforms and communities out there. All of your readers should follow your links to see what Wealthy Affiliate is all about!

    Reply
    • Hi,

      Thank you for reading my review of InteleTravel. I really appreciate your comment.

      I’m glad to hear you’re not a fan of MLM. Thanks for your recommendation of Wealthy Affiliate.

      Monica

      Reply
  2. Hello, I have read your entire article very excited because now I know more about InteleTravel. 

    I’m looking for a good travel experience such as InteleTravel. Honestly, I have not heard a lot about this company and I enjoy travelling and so this review is helpful. 

    This is a very well-written, and thorough review. I see there are too many catches with this service. 

    Your alternative, Wealthy Affiliate seems to be one of the best affiliate marketing training platforms and communities out there. Thank you very much for sharing such a travel-related article.

    Reply
    • Hello,

      You’re welcome and thanks very much for reading my review and I’m pleased to hear you learned more about InteleTravel.

      Monica

      Reply
  3. There are several errors on your Inteletravel report. One significant one is the MLM company is separate from them. You can become just a travel agent without being involved in the MLM. Rest is minor errors but any host agency giving you independent agent status will not pay you until after clients take the trip due to clients may cancel, at least that’s what I have experienced. Thanks for your hard work on the review.

    Reply
    • Hi Donald,

      Thank you for your great comment.

      I reworded this MLM reference under my section “How to Make Money with InteleTravel” to clarify this further.

      You are quite right in saying independent agents will not get paid until after the clients have completed their trip but sending the payment by mail can take a very long time. PayPal is much quicker and could even save a week of waiting.

      I hope you and your family had a very Merry Christmas and I wish you all the very best for 2021. Please take care and stay well.

      Kind Regards,
      Monica

      Reply

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