8 Ways to Travel for Free by Organizing Group Trips  

As travelers, we are always searching for ways to make travel less expensive, make our trips more exciting and see as much of the world as possible. How can you do all three in one brush-stroke? You become an excellent group leader. Some of our best clients travel for free because they organize groups with JetSetPilot Travel. Follow these 8 easy steps to learn how to find, create and manage groups so that you can add value, make everyone happy and keep them coming back year after year, and best of all, travel the world for free!

1. How to Find a Potential Group.

Groups of like-minded people who want to travel are everywhere. Whether you want to travel with a group of close friends or if you belong to a Church, Synagogue, or other religious organization, these are great places to start. If you are part of any social clubs, such as a reading club or foodie group, workout club/center, wine clubs, fraternity & sorority alumni or college alumni association, you have a group of people who you could help have the time of their life. There are almost infinite opportunities out there! We always start with our close circles of friends because who doesn’t want to have fun on vacation together!

2. Building your Trip for Maximum Perks and Ultimately Travel for Free.

With the help of a travel professional (JetSetPilot Travel),  you can work together to create itineraries all over the world. These itineraries would match the mindset of the potential group, such as an all-inclusive for a group of friends looking to party or a week in Tuscany for the local wine club at a winery. Free rooms are offered to groups by economies of scale and each resort policy varies. Some resorts require 10 rooms or more before they offer one free room, but some require as few as 6 rooms to start earning cash back or free rooms. JetSetPilot Travel agents are well versed in destinations world-wide and know the best options for group travel and group related perks.

3. The Earlier The Better.

Some clients plan their group trips 2 years out and they are better served for it! Don’t worry if you’re just 6 months, you can do it!

4. Make a Set of Dates & an Itinerary & Stick to Them!

One of the worst pitfalls in group planning is trying to 100% appeal to everyone. When you do this, everyone slips through your hands. Set a date and itinerary and convince those folks that would “rather have it one day later” why they need to just come with the rest of the group.

5. We Have a Group and a Trip Packaged Together, Now What?

With the help of your travel partner, JetSetPilot Travel you will now start marketing to your group. This can be as simple as emailing your group of friends or getting the email list from the club you are trying to travel with. Either way, have a good PDF and website landing page prepared with the help of your travel professional so people have no reason to say no! Repeat this relatively frequently until you have the desired number of guests. It is so important to communicate early and often!

6. Stay Organized!

Your travel professional should be doing much of this for you, but do make sure you understand where people are coming from, when they will arrive, and more. Always give explicit instructions on where and when to meet for group activities in their documents ahead of time.

7. Let Your Travel Partner Be Your Bad Guy.

There will be many deadlines for payments and reasons one person won’t like one thing or another. Let your travel partner be your bad guy and communicate to the group when these messages need to be sent out. You are the ambassador of fun for this group trip, be sure to stay that way!

8. How do I Keep Everyone Happy and Keep Them Coming Back?

Do more than what is required. Package in surprises and extras. Everyone loves to be greeted in their room with some chocolate covered strawberries or a bottle of wine. Make sure there are planned group activities, such as dinners, happy hours, excursions, activities or more. Once you have a core group of travelers, if you make them happy, they will come back with their friends and so on until you have a huge annual event!

Now Get out there and get started!

The only way to see if you can successfully manage this type of trip is to simply try. The hardest part is getting a group of people to commit. Your travel partner will be able to help you with that and all the other factors listed above. Contact us  to start planning your next group adventure!