subject: Is World Ventures Legit or Just Another Online Scam? [print this page] Seeing as that a common question that many people who are brand new to the MLM industry have when trying to evaluate a potential company is "Is this a scam?", so I wanted to take some time to research a relative newcomer in the notorious MLM travel industry that has a lot of people curious whether or not it's a good opportunity. The company I checked out is World Ventures, so here's what I found which I hope will help you to decide for yourself, "Is World Ventures a legitimate buiness opportunity or a scam?" .
You may have bought your entire seat, but you're only going to need the edge on this one, folks
Here's the thing that's most important to consider with any MLM company you look at:
1. Does the company offer a real service and/or product?
2. Does the product or service provide tangible value to its customers even if they're not involved with the company as a distributor? Basically, would people still buy it even if they didn't earn a bonus (We'll go over the World Ventures Dream Trips and LTC programs in-depth soon)?
This is easily the most important aspect of any serious of a business, and World Ventures is no exception because if the service or product doesn't hold up to scrutiny, than any other aspect of a network marketing like World Ventures is essentially moot.
Would you agree?
World Ventures travel products: Are they the real deal?
The Dream Trips product currently sells for $24.99 per month with an initial $199.95 fee up-front. The concept behind the product is the same as Sam's Club or Costco. They buy in bulk and their customer's get access to discounted vacation packages in exchange for their monthly membership fee. I took a look at the World Ventures website and there are currently about 70 vacations to choose from.
Are the vacation packages a scam or are they actually good deals?
It would be almost impossible to compare all of the travel packages that are typically being offered by World Ventures to adequately determine the value, but the few prices I audited were actually pretty impressive when I compared them to some of the top travel booking sites.
One trip I compared was to Cabo San Lucas at the Riu Palace (yes, please!). For two adults, this vacation was priced at about $760 through World Ventures via their Dream Trips product with Travelocity being almost $200 more expensive at about $950.
Another comparison I found was for the Grand Lido Braco resort in Jamaica. This trip for two adults was priced at about $890 through the Dream Trips product with World Ventures and Travelocity came in around $1050. At least in these two examples the savings were pretty substantial.
Since we're comparing "oranges-to-oranges", there were some more extravagant trips listed that couldn't be easily compared because they included extras that someone couldn't buy through some of the major travel sites, or they didn't show the price unless you were a World Ventures member.
Based on what I've seen so far, it looks like most World Ventures consumers would recoup their Dream Trips membership cost with the money they'd save by booking their first vacation. You'll have to keep in mind that this article isn't an exhaustive Dateline NBC-type investigation since I only compared 2 of the almost 70 Dream Trips to a major travel booking site, but based on what we've seen so far, I think it's reasonable to say that people who do a lot of traveling would get some value out of their World Ventures membership.
The "World Ventures Scam" is looking unfounded so far
World Ventures Leisure Travel Consultant Package (LTC)
The World Ventures Leisure Travel Consultant program also sells for an up-front start up cost of $199.95 and $24.99 per month. The best way to think about it would be as a turnkey online travel business. The start-up fee includes an online retail travel website, web-based travel learning courses along with an exam, and opportunities for higher-level travel industry training. Cutting edge marketing training excluded, as far as I can tell they give their LTC's many of the tools necessary to build a thriving online business in the travel industry.
I was also very impressed with the Rovia search engine because, after using it for a while and seeing how it searches all the other major sites, I could start to see how World Ventures' claims of not needing to search many different sites to get the best possible price could be very true.
Speaking of getting the best deal, they also have a "Match or Beat" price guarantee for online travel bookings against Priceline, Travelocity, Orbitz, and Expedia which could be a very positive marketing tool for someone who is working to build a travel business with World Ventures.
Common claim of why World Ventures is a "scam": World Ventures LTC product is essentially a "travel agent card mill"?
Over the past 10 years or so, there have been a few network marketing companies that have tried to take advantage of the undeniable fact that a huge amount of travel is booked through the internet. Unfortunately for the end consumers, these companies didn't really provide much real value and left them with "a bone to pick" with the entire network marketing travel industry.
What these companies were doing was they were selling a cheap plastic card disguised as a good product that allowed people to get discounts as if they were licensed travel agents when they technically weren't. This is where the term "card mills" came from.
It's kind of like those B.S. scam "classes" that are conducted in international waters where a school will issue you a college degree in an afternoon for a fee. Super, you got a piece of paper that says you're a qualified lawyer in Kazakhstan. Great success!
I'm happy to say that I didn't see anything in their marketing materials or on their website which would show that World Ventures has gone this route with their Leisure Travel Consultant program. Actually, World Ventures went a step further and made it so that LTC's can't get this card until they've booked a standard number of travel sales along with going through additional training similar to what offline agents must do.
It's important to keep in mind that World Ventures product is a discount based on their buying in bulk and not by giving everyone travel agent discount cards like some less-than-reputable network marketing travel companies have done in the past.
I hope this has helped provide some insight into World Ventures as a company and will help you figure out for yourself if it's a scam or not.
(Disclaimer: I am NOT affiliated with World Ventures in an way and am providing unbiased information along with my opinion based on 10 years in the MLM industry.)
Is World Ventures Legit or Just Another Online Scam?
