How operators get listed here
A listing is not for sale, so what gets a company onto a list is evidence. Here is exactly what we need, what we do with it, and what we will refuse.
The six things we need
Send these six and the application can actually be assessed. Send a brochure and a request to be featured, and it cannot.
- Legal entity and trading name. Both, and the relationship between them if they differ. This is the single most common cause of confusion in the Vietnamese market.
- International tour operator licence number, where the company holds one, plus the business registration number. If the company is not licensed for inbound tours, say so and explain the model instead. Free walking tour clubs and student volunteer organisations are not expected to hold one.
- What you operate yourself versus what you buy in, category by category. An honest answer here helps rather than hurts. Reselling is legitimate and half the market does it. Claiming to operate something you broker is what damages a listing when it comes out.
- Cities and provinces you actually cover, meaning places where you have your own staff, guides or contracted suppliers, not places you can arrange.
- Group size caps and guide arrangements. The maximum, not the average, and whether guides are salaried, contracted per day, or paid commission.
- Public cancellation and inclusion terms. A link to where they are published is enough. Companies that publish these rank better, because a published term can be relied on by a traveller.
Press releases, awards from bodies we cannot identify, review screenshots, and traffic statistics. None of them affect a ranking, and sending them slows the assessment down.
How the assessment works
An application is assessed against the same four criteria as everything else on the site: whether you operate or resell, how deep you go in the category concerned, how much of the operational detail you publish, and whether you have a stated answer for the failure case. The full method is on how we rank.
- We check the licence and registration details against what the company publishes.
- We read the product range and decide which category, if any, the company genuinely belongs in. Most applications fit fewer categories than the applicant expects.
- We write the entry, including a stated limitation, because every entry on the site has one.
- If the company displaces an existing listing, the displaced entry is removed rather than the list being extended past ten.
- The entry is published with the review date, and the company can send a correction at any time.
Most applications are not rejected so much as narrowed. A company applying for six categories is typically listed in one, which is usually the one it is genuinely best at.
What we will never do
- Sell a position, a heading, a badge or a removal of a competitor.
- Publish a founding year, licence number, staff figure, fleet or award we cannot see published by the company itself.
- Write or reproduce a customer testimonial. There are none on this site.
- Remove a stated limitation because an operator finds it unflattering. If it is wrong we correct it, if it is right we publish your response beside it.
- Describe any operator as safe, verified or guaranteed by us. We inspect nothing.
For the ten operators who are partner companies of the publisher, exactly the same rules apply. Their entries carry the word Partner, they each have a stated limitation, and none of them bought a position. That is what makes the rest of the site usable.
Corrections to an existing entry
If you are already listed and something is wrong, that is treated as urgent rather than as an application. Send the page, the line, the correct version, and the published source behind it. Corrections supported that way are usually made within a few working days.
If your company has ceased trading, changed name, sold its fleet or stopped operating in a category, tell us that too. An out of date entry is worse for you than no entry, because it sends travellers to a product you no longer run and generates complaints you cannot fix.
Everything goes through the same channel as the rest of the site, on the contact page.
Applying, or correcting something?
Use the form and put your trading name and licence number in the notes field.
Questions travellers ask most
How much does a listing cost?
Nothing, and it cannot be bought at any price. The publisher's revenue comes from separate work with ten operators, and that relationship is disclosed on every page those companies appear on rather than being reflected in the price of a listing.
We are a small operator with one product. Is it worth applying?
Yes, and specialists often do better here than large general agencies, because depth in one category is one of the four things we rank on.
A company with three products in one city and published group caps is easier to list well than a company with two hundred products and no operational detail anywhere.
Can we be listed in every category we sell?
Almost certainly not. We list companies where they operate rather than where they sell, so a general agency selling everything is usually listed in one category or none.
Do you accept free walking tour clubs?
Yes. Student volunteer clubs are listed in their own category and are not expected to hold a tour operator licence. What we need instead is how the club is organised, how guides are matched to guests, and exactly what a guest is expected to pay for.
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Tell us what you want to do in Vietnam
Dates, party size and the places you care about are enough to start. You get a draft route and an indicative price, not a brochure.