Your client wants two weeks across France, Switzerland and Italy, with a private driver, a cookery class in Tuscany and a hotel in Venice with a view of the water. You know your client. You may not know which Venice hotels can take a wheelchair, or how long the drive over the Alps really takes in October. That gap is where a destination management company comes in.
What a DMC does
A destination management company, or DMC, is a ground partner in the destination. It does the local work that is hard to do well from a distance: knowing the hotels, guides, drivers and venues, contracting them, putting the pieces together and making sure they happen as planned.
For a travel agent or tour operator, a DMC is effectively a local operations team. You keep the relationship with the client. We handle the arrangements on the ground.
Ground handling and contracting
Ground handling covers everything that happens once your client lands: airport meet and greet, transfers, hotels, guides, entrance tickets, restaurants, activities and the transport between them. A DMC contracts these suppliers directly and works with them regularly, which helps with availability, consistency and problem solving.
It also means one point of contact. Instead of managing a dozen suppliers across four countries, you deal with one team that knows the whole itinerary.
Building an itinerary to a brief
Good itineraries start with a good brief. The more we know, the closer the first proposal will be to what your client actually wants. A useful brief includes:
- Dates, or a date range, and how flexible they are.
- Number of travellers and ages of any children.
- Rooming: twins, doubles, singles, connecting rooms.
- Budget level: the standard of hotel and service you have in mind, even roughly.
- Interests: food, art, history, walking, shopping, or simply time to relax.
- Mobility and dietary needs, so we can choose hotels, vehicles and restaurants accordingly.
- Arrival and departure points, and whether flights are already booked.
- Must-haves and must-avoids. One client’s highlight is another’s tourist trap.
How quotes and net rates work
For trade partners we quote net rates: the cost of the arrangements to you, before your own margin. You then set the selling price to your client. Quotes are itemised so you can see what is included, and they state how long the rates and availability are held, since hotel prices move with demand.
It usually takes a round or two to get an itinerary right. A first proposal sets out the shape of the trip; changes after that are normal and expected.
White-label documents
Many agents prefer that their client never sees our name. We can prepare itineraries, vouchers and travel documents under your branding, or unbranded, so the trip feels like yours from start to finish. Drivers and guides can be briefed to introduce themselves on your behalf.
On-trip support
Things change during a trip. A flight is delayed, a museum closes for a strike, someone falls ill or simply wants a day off. Because a DMC is on the ground and holds the supplier relationships, we can rebook a transfer, move a guide or find an alternative quickly, and keep you informed so you can reassure your client.
FIT, groups and MICE
FIT
Independent travellers, couples and families, travelling on their own itinerary. The work is in the detail: the right hotel, the right guide, the right pace.
Groups
Group tours bring their own logistics: coach sizes, rooming lists, group dining, guides who can manage forty people at a busy site. See our group tours page for how we approach them.
MICE
Meetings, incentives, conferences and events add venues, AV, delegate transfers and programmes for partners and free time. Lead times are longer, and contracts are more detailed. Our MICE page covers the services involved.
Timelines
For individual trips in shoulder season, a few weeks can be enough. For peak dates, popular hotels or anything involving a group, the earlier the better: months rather than weeks. Incentives and conferences are often planned a year or more ahead. If dates are tight, tell us early and we will say honestly what is possible.
Working with us
If you are an agent or operator with a trip in mind, send us your brief through the contact page, even if it is still rough. We will come back with questions, a first proposal and a clear quote.
