A client once confirmed a two-week route in a region where the main border crossing had closed twice that season, because nobody in the chain had turned the news into a decision. That trip cost us a rebooking fee and a good reference. This is the checklist that replaced the assumption, and we run it in full before any itinerary is confirmed.
Regulatory and paperwork checks
- Entry, transit and visa rules for every passport in the group, checked against the date of travel rather than the date of booking.
- Insurance terms: what is excluded, what triggers a claim, and whether the operator carries its own liability cover.
- Disclosure obligations on the client side. Corporate travellers increasingly arrive with reporting duties of their own, so we confirm early what data they will need from us.
Physical and seasonal checks
- Twelve months of disruption on the route: storms, strikes, closures and the dates they usually repeat.
- Resource pressure at the destination, including water restrictions and any limits placed on visitor numbers that season.
- Supplier depth. If one hotel, one driver or one ferry serves the whole plan, we hold a named alternative before departure.
Market and reputation checks
Expectations move faster than contracts do, and a claim we cannot evidence becomes the story of the trip rather than the trip itself.
- What the client has already promised their own audience, and whether this itinerary supports it.
- Which claims we can show a source for, and which ones we agree in advance to leave out.
- What the operator publishes publicly, since that text is effectively ours once it appears in a client's itinerary.
What we put in writing
Four questions, and a client should be able to get answers to all four without a follow-up meeting.
- Which risks on this route have a cost attached, and who carries that cost if we cancel late.
- How the trip is measured and reported back, if the client needs figures rather than assurances.
- What is controlled directly by us, what sits with the operator, and what depends on conditions outside both.
- Who decides to change the plan, by what date, and how a change is communicated to travellers.
When this checklist runs
Regulatory and paperwork items start the week an enquiry comes in, because they are the ones that can quietly disqualify a destination. Physical and seasonal items run once a route is shortlisted and again thirty days out, since that is where a strike notice or a closure usually lands. The written questions go to the operator alongside the first deposit request, while we still have the option to walk away.
Who signs off
The check is not finished when it is written down. One named person on our side confirms each line, and a second reads the file cold before it goes out, because the person who built the itinerary has stopped seeing the gaps in it. Clients receive the completed checklist with the proposal rather than on request, which usually ends the meeting faster than another call would.
We repeat the same four questions a week before departure. Borders close, ferries strike, and a hotel that was certain in March is often something else by the time the group lands, so the file stays a live document until the last transfer is done.
What we do when a check fails
A failed check is not automatically a cancelled trip. We price the alternative, put both options in front of the client with the difference in money and time, and let them choose with the risk visible. Half the time the answer is a different month or a different crossing rather than a different country, and the trip goes ahead on a route we can defend.