Have you been approached by someone telling you that you can join a private program that can pay you while you travel the world? Have they talked to you about how “you should be here” living the #dreamtripslife with them?
While it all sounds great in theory, it’s not all as easy as it may sound. Honestly, let me explain to you how exactly their program works – and then you can decide for yourself if you want to invest your time and money with them or if you prefer earning your money some other way.
Important DreamTrips updates:
Update: In May of 2017 a Pyramid Scheme lawsuit has been filed against WorldVentures (company that owns and operates DreamTrips) in U.S. The case is still ongoing in 2020.
2020: There are 170+ of complaints about WV, you can read them here.
Update June 2019: Taipei prosecutors charged the US owners of WorldVentures Taiwan (operators of Dreamtrips) on allegations of running a pyramid scheme.
I’ve Been Earning a Full Time Income Online Since 2007.
Here is my story.
What is Dreamtrips?
The person that approached you, probably talked to you about this exclusive “lifestyle” or “community” or travellers. They are probably very vague about it, but there is a promise of travels and vacations, for practically no money. Be careful – the person that approached you is probably a seller and only wants to make a commission off you. They are particularly active on Instagram, posting pictures of themselves #makingalivingliving as a #travelpreneur in exotic locations.
Dreamtrips works in a very simple way – first you have to become a member of their community to have access to amazing travel tours and discounts.
(the cheapest membership I found is an initial 250$, with a 50$/month fee. That doesn’t include any trips.).
Their products are the tours they offer. Here is an example:
It might look legitimate at a first glance – but as a person that has traveled a lot in the past, I urge you to consider the following things.
- The airplane or transportation ticket is not included in the price
- Will you be available exactly on these dates?
- The savings are negligible once you consider the fact you have to pay them a 250$ sign up fee and 50$/month even if you don’t go on any trips
- You can’t see what trips/prices are until AFTER you sign up with their program
The person that is trying to sell you this program will argue that you will never have to pay the actual price in dollars, because as a member or WorldVenture, you can earn “Dreamtrips Points” to exchange for these trips. (Guess why they want you to sign up so bad? They want those points themselves!)
And what they’re doing is what you’ll be doing – pitching a lifestyle and an amazing opportunity to people through social media.
What is WorldVenture?
Dreamtrips is only one of the products offered by the company called WorldVenture. Other products are called Dreamtrips life, VolunTours and Luxury Dreamtrips.
World Venture is a “direct sales” company – in other words an MLM (multi level marketing). There are basically two ways you can make money using their program.
- Sell people vacation products such as Dreamtrips, Dreamtrips life, VolunTours or Luxury Dreamtrips
- Recruit other people as WorldVenture sellers, and earn commissions off their sales.
Looking for a legit way to make money from home?
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Is WorldVenture a scam?
While I would not call WorldVenture and their products such as Dreamtrips a scam, I would not consider them a reliable way to make money online. Simply the high price of their membership you will have to pay every month are probably going to cost you more than you will ever earn. And their “exclusive” tours are simply not that great compared to non-exclusive travel tours, where you also have the complete freedom to shop around and compare prices with others.
While researching WorldVenture I stumbled upon a document from FTC (US Federal Trade Commission) where we clearly see that 99.97% of WorldVenture participants lost money in 2008. This means that out of 10,000 participants only 3 will actually make a profit. I honestly don’t understand why anyone would join an MLM with these odds.
Making Money Online
There are plenty of travel tours you can promote online that do not require any subscription fees to join. This concept is called Affiliate Marketing (something I have been doing for the past 10 years) and you can absolutely earn money in the travel industry by promoting all kinds of tours and tickets to people online. You simply have to promote a good tour, and you earn a commission if someone buys! All without the risk of being stuck paying some kind of monthly fee. If you want to try it out, and become a real digital nomad and internet entrepreneur – it will not cost you ANY money but only some knowledge and hard work. Most of “tour websites”, airlines and hotels have affiliate programs and they are free to join.
When I started learning about online business possibilities I stumbled upon a training platform in late 2007. I decided to try out their training and I loved it. I built my whole online business with them and I am still an active member to this day. Their community is simply awesome, their training is constantly updated and very easy to follow. The best part? It’s completely free. The Starter account doesn’t cost a dime and doesn’t even require you typing in your credit card number. So yes, there are legit and reputable platforms that will teach you how to actually build a real online business.
If you have any questions please do use the comment form below.
Alex
Dreamtrips is a nightmare travel agency. I was a member of dreamtrips since May 2019. After i signed in they said i can only avail the DT points(which i payed for that) after a year, unfortunately pandemic came. My dreamtrip points reached 2270! I was not able to use all those points because their scheme is horrible! Last year I canceled my santorini trip in Aug2021 with dreamtrips due to my health problem. They put my refund that cost 2203.98 us dollars of the entire trip under rovia bucks. Surprisingly, dreamtrips filed bankruptcy which is a strategic move to get away out of their debts and with that rovia bucks is not anymore available. Now that the new management that they are claiming, they put all my rovia bucks to dreamtrip points without any email notification if i can accept that. I ask them if i can use all my previous rovia bucks to one of their trips, they sed it is not possible and the worst part is that they put an expiration date even on those rovia bucks. This company is bankrupt!!!!! This is a very bad investment. I don’t even consider it a travel investment. Please do not fall into their tricks. They are technically robbers!!! My total lost was 5000 usd!!! I have cancelled my membership recently due to unreasonable travel cost that i will require to use all my points. I can only use maximum 200 DT points out of their trips!!!
I was approached while on vacation in Jamaica. It’s a big business there; which I think is unfortunate as these people are so hard working in a difficult economy. Most actually believe they are making extra money and are aggressively recruiting. I was placed in a FB messenger group and they meet regularly to encourage each other and promote selling the membership. What’s sad to me is that they have to work so hard to make the money to sign up and keep up with the monthly fees…. I signed up for the discounted rate of $99 US and a monthly fee. I cancelled after two months because I didn’t have time to devote to it and didn’t see the discount on travel. The prices basically were the same if not more than what I could find on my own online. It’s sad to see a company taking advantage of people who are struggling so hard just to make ends meet.
Helen, I am glad to hear you cancelled.
You didn’t see the discounts because there simply aren’t any. Their main goal, as you understood, is recruiting more paying members. The “promise of discount travel” seems to be just a front.
I manage to travel on the cheap by simply following a few deals websites (SecretFlying comes to mind). Before booking accomodation I alwaus check Airbnb, Booking, HostelBookers and a few others – you’d often find discounts there and some even have loyalty programs. All of that is free.
Alex
Hi Alex. I would like to ask your opinion about InCruises as it is a Travel Club which I joined a Year ago and Even if they do have a fee (one a Year) to become a partener I do really like the product and advantages.
Thanks Alex.
So basically dreamTrips was presented/introduced to me today, when they first mentioned the once of payment of R3100.00 I thought it was okay until they mentioned a monthly fee of R600.00 then I knew immediately that something wasn’t right.
So when I got how I decided to do more research, and I came a across your article. Thank you so much.
I won’t be joining Dreamtrips.
Hey, I am curious what did they promise to give you for 600 Rands per month?
Hi Alex,
Which is the trustworthy platform you talkies about of affiliate marketing and free to start with.
Please let us know, would be great help 🙂
Hi Vipul.
You can start here 😉
What? Like what? Lets suffice to say that you’ve just saved my *ss. I was gonna sign up for this thing this very day probably in the next hour. The fact that majority of the people here see it as a scam, then it is a scam.
Hey Mamou, I am happy you found this resource.
It isn’t just here tho, you can find loads of people all over the internet who complained about this company.
It’s not ascam I know alot of people in that company that are making alot of money
My friend just tried to get a whole bunch of people to sign up for dream trips but after looking at a power point where the bottom said flights not included and knowing that I could travel for cheap with hostels , he is so convinced on this idea but it just didn’t sit well with me , he’s already a rep and member and at this point he’s too deep in to drop out so I mean if he can get his referrals he’ll be fine but if any of them drop out he’ll be paying that membership price and that won’t be me honey , I tried to warn him tonight but everyone was too blind and drunk sadly to see it , I’ll let him learn when he loses out
It’s unfortunate that people fall for it. However, pyramid folks often have a good way of manipulating recruits and putting rose-colored glasses on them.
In any case, I do not thing it’s cool to recruit others in order to cover your losses.
But do they actually help for a visa? Is my main concern.
No, they do not.
Can you email me? Kristenbarone@icloud.com
I would like to talk privately. If you don’t mind.
Thanks
Hi Kristen. You can get in touch with me privately through my contact form.