A Close Encounter With YTB

Last week, we received a call from one of our readers, a Santa Barbara, Calif.-based independent contractor working for a local agency with more than 15 years in the business. This agent called us to inform us of a recent run-in with a YTB agent at a Home Depot parking lot in Goleta, Calif.:

“I went to a store the other day [Aug. 3] and right in front of me was this license plate that said ‘YTBNOW.’ A man came out and I decided to play dumb and I started to talk to him and ask him what it’s all about.

“He told me, ‘You can become a travel agent vacation specialist and you’re free to book on my Web site.’

“I told him, I know an agent now who’s independent and I asked if I needed a license to work as a YTB agent and he said I didn’t need one. In California, you have to have a seller of travel license to sell travel. He gave me his card and told me he travels all over the country and writes it all off. I took his card and I thought ‘I should share this information right now.’”

Given the recent events surrounding the State of California’s — and, possibly, the State of Illinois’ — case against YTB, the run-in was especially timely.

This agent, who wishes to remain unnamed, received the YTB member’s business card with his contact information and the YTB Travel Network’s Web site: http://www.freedomtravelnow.com/. (YTB Travel Network is a subsidiary of YTB International Inc.)

The agent went on to say that the man she confronted in the parking lot told her that vendors are clamoring to join with him, and that he makes money off about 60 percent of all travel bookings he makes.

Tellingly, he also informed the agent that he/she would not need a license to sell travel and that YTB was similar to Amway, a multilevel marketing company.

He also said, “I would get a cut of anything you sold.”

More than anything, though, the agent who called TravelAge West was alarmed by how this man “made [YTB] sound so inviting. If I didn’t know what I knew I would have been tempted. That’s his job. He’s a salesman.”

--Deanna Ting

Read more about YTB in our June 23 cover story, "Card Mill Confidential."