How many times have we heard it before, "if it sounds to good to be true, it probably is" or "Buyer Beware." Yet, people are pulled into travel scams all the time. There are more travel scams out there at any given time than you can imagine. Think it can't happen to you? It happens to the best. A recent story in the Rocky Mountain News, Denver's daily paper reported that scores of Denver police, firefighters and their family members who thought they would be in Hawaii for the NFL Pro Bowl game were left high and dry by a shady Las Vegas operator that left them without the trip they bought. According the the News, about 70 people in the Denver area paid a Las Vegas travel company for a package deal to pro football's all-star game, only to have their plans disrupted. "We're cops," Denver police officer Dan McNulty told KCNC-TV. "We're investigators, and we got duped." McNulty's wife said the family paid $619 per person for a week in Hawaii and even verified that the travel company, CEI Sports Tours, had reserved the rooms. The family even traveled to Las Vegas to meet company owner Mitch Chirchick and arranged for him to come to Colorado last month to assure everyone involved the trip was on track. Others say they paid up to $1,000 each for a package that included game tickets. Then, hours before departure, McNulty said it all fell apart. McNulty said Chirchick told him the money was gone and there would be no trip. Authorities in Las Vegas are investigating. What can you do to avoid these situations? Here are a few suggestions to follow;
If you are doing business with a company out of your local area, check with your State Consumer Protection Agency for any complaints that may have been filed. Also check the Better Business Bureau for complaints.- Go on the internet to the State Consumer Protection Agency that the agency is based in to see if there are complaints on file there.
- Ask the company to provide proof that they are Licensed Sellers of Travel in the State they are based in and the states they are doing business in.
- Ask the company to provide proof of Professional Liability Insurance.
Verify professional membership affiliations of the company you are dealing with. Are they members of ASTA, ARTA, CLIA, IATAN, ICTA. Most agencies won't belong to all, but will belong to the ones most appropriate for the type of travel they sell. They will have member numbers that can be verified. - Ask yourself why you want to do business with a company outside your area. Is a similar package available locally. If you have a problem it is much easier to deal with it locally than several hundred or thousand miles away. If it is not available then don't be afraid to purchase from a vendor out of your area, just be sure to do the appropriate checking first to make sure you don't get burned.
- Do the math. If you see claims like "stay in a world class deluxe resort for as little as $298 a week", ask yourself why a world class deluxe resort would do that. You can barely (and maybe not at all) stay in a Motel 6 for $30 a night. What's the hook? The only exception to this might be with ownership exchange companies like Interval International or RCI that offer member owners periodic specials that are not available to the public. Not just anyone can be a member of Interval or RCI.
- Nothing is free. You may not pay for one thing, but I guarantee you are going to pay for something somewhere. Legitimate businesses don't stay in business giving things away or not producing a reasonable profit over time.
Claims that you are going to get the same kind of travel for 50, 60 or 70% less than travel giants like Orbitz, Travelocity or Expedia are ludicrous on their face. With all the buying power those travel giants have, how can some little company you've never heard of get prices that low. Anyone who believes the profit margin or markup in travel packages is that big simply knows nothing about travel. - Countless travel clubs have been created by scammers as a means of getting your money. You pay them a membership fee and they promise you extraordinary benefits. If I had a nickel for every tale of woe I've heard from people who joined and found those claims not to be true, I would be a rich man.