Is World Ventures The Real Deal or Just Another Scam?

A common question that many people who are new to the network marketing 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 network marketing travel industry that has a lot of people curious if it's a good opportunity or not. 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 scam or a good business to join?” .

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're thinking about joining:

1. Whether or not a real product and/or service exists.
2. Does the service or product provide real value to its customers regardless if they’re involved with the company as a distributor? Simply, would people still buy it even if they didn't earn a bonus (We’ll go over the World Ventures LTC and Dream Trips programs in-depth soon)?

This is definitely the most important aspect of any serious evaluation, and World Ventures is no exception because if the service or product doesn’t hold up to scrutiny, than every other aspect of a network marketing like World Ventures is essentially moot.

Would you agree?

World Ventures travel products: Do they provide real value?

The Dream Trips product currently sells for a $199.95 fee up-front and $24.99 per month after that. The basic concept behind this product is the same as Costco or Sam's Club. They purchase in bulk and through their customer’s monthly membership fee, they get access to discounted travel packages. 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 very time-consuming to compare all of the vacation packages currently being offered by World Ventures to properly determine the value, but the few prices I audited were actually good deals when I put them head-to-head with some of the top travel booking sites.

One vacation I compared was to Cabo San Lucas at the Riu Palace (yes, please!). For two adults, this vacation was priced at about $760 with World Ventures via the Dream Trips product and Travelocity was almost $200 more expensive at about $950.

Another comparison I did was for the Grand Lido Braco resort in Jamaica. This trip for two adults was priced at about $890 via 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 customer.

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 taking their first trip. You’ll have to keep in mind that this isn’t an exhaustive Dateline NBC-type investigation since I only reviewed 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 take at least one good vacation per year would get some value out of their World Ventures membership.

The “World Ventures Scam” is looking busted…

World Ventures Leisure Travel Consultant Package (LTC)

The World Ventures LTC program also sells for a start up fee of $199.95 and $24.99 per after that. The best way to think about it would be as a turnkey online travel business. The start-up fee includes your own online retail travel website, web-based travel learning modules along with an exam, and opportunities for higher-level travel industry training. Cutting edge marketing training excluded, from what I can tell they give their distributors many of the tools they'll need to build a thriving online business in the travel industry.

I was also extremely impressed with the Rovia search engine because, after messing around with it for a while and seeing how it searches all the other major travel sites, I could start to see how World Ventures’ claims of not needing to search multiple sites to get the best deal could be very true.

Speaking of getting the best price, 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 network marketing with World Ventures.

Common claim of why World Ventures is a “scam”: World Ventures LTC program is essentially a “travel agent card mill”?

Over the past 10 years or so, there have been more than a couple network marketing companies that have tried to take advantage of the undeniable fact that a rapidly increasing amount of travel is booked online. 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. Very nice!

I'm happy to say that I didn’t see anything on their website or in their marketing materials which would show that World Ventures has gone this route with their LTC 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 completing 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 previously done.

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 non-biased information along with my opinion based on 10 years in the MLM industry.)