MLM vs franchise: Why a travel agents’ franchise is the smarter choice

An MLM travel opportunity pays its members mainly for recruiting new people into a downline, while a genuine travel agents franchise pays its owners for real holiday bookings made for real customers.
The Travel Franchise, from the Not Just Travel brand, is built entirely around the second model, with no recruitment quotas or downlines.
For a career changer trying to separate the two before committing a single penny, that difference in where the money actually comes from is the one fact worth understanding first.
Anyone researching how to become a travel agent from home has probably had two very different pitches land in their inbox.
One talks about recruiting a team and building a downline. The other talks about training, support and selling actual holidays to actual people.
What follows is an honest walk through exactly what separates these two paths, without the hype, so the reasons a franchise is the safer route into this industry become clear.

Key Takeaways

• A genuine travel franchise earns its owner commission from real holiday bookings, while MLM-style travel opportunities typically pay out mainly for recruiting new members into a downline.
• The Travel Franchise’s 100% Money-Back Challenge refunds franchise fees once a franchisee reaches an agreed sales target within a specific time period.
• Not Just Travel, the customer-facing brand behind The Travel Franchise, now has more than 750 personal travel consultants trading across the UK.
• Franchisees begin with a five-day live training course before accessing hundreds of hours of ongoing training through The Hub, the franchise’s online learning platform.
• The Travel Franchise was named Best Lifestyle Franchise Worldwide in 2025 and Best Lifestyle Franchise in the World for the second year running at the 2026 Global Franchise Awards.

Want to see how a genuine travel business works in practice?
Explore how our franchise model helps you earn from real holiday bookings.

Network marketing vs franchise: The fundamental differences in travel business models

The difference between MLM and franchise models comes down to one question: where is the money actually coming from?
A franchise is a licensed business built on a proven system, with a real product at its centre which is holidays sold to genuine holidaymakers.
Network marketing, often labelled MLM or direct sales, layers earnings around recruitment instead, so a large share of income can depend on the size of a personal team rather than the number of trips actually booked.
That single distinction changes almost everything else.
It shapes how much control an owner has over their own business, how they’re trained, what protection sits behind a customer’s money, and how sustainable the income is likely to be five years in.
The Travel Franchise was built around selling real travel, not around signing people up, and that choice sits behind every other difference covered in this guide.

For the short version straight from the franchise team, the travel agency FAQ page sets out this distinction plainly.

How travel network marketing schemes operate behind the scenes

A typical travel multi level marketing operation signs members up as “representatives” or “brand partners” rather than travel agents, and pays them through two separate channels.
The first is a small commission on any holiday a member books directly for a customer.
The second, usually the larger one, comes from recruiting other people into the scheme and taking a cut of what those recruits go on to earn or spend.
This is where the downline language comes in.
Every person recruited sits underneath the person who signed them up, and commissions ripple upward through several tiers of that structure.
Many travel MLMs charge an ongoing membership fee just to stay active, and some push members towards buying their own holidays or add-on products, such as wellness supplements, to hit monthly targets.
Selling actual travel to actual customers can end up as a fairly small part of the day-to-day activity, even though it’s the headline pitch used to bring new members in.
Income disclosure statements, where a scheme publishes one at all, tend to show a steep drop-off between the handful of people near the top and everyone else underneath them.

How a travel agents franchise works with Not Just Travel

Day one for a Not Just Travel franchisee starts with training, not recruitment. The Travel Franchise runs its business as a genuine “business in a box,” meaning franchisees receive a personal website, specialist travel agent software, and a dedicated Franchise Business Consultant who supports them from the outset.
No previous travel experience is required to start, and many people begin part-time around an existing job before deciding whether to go full-time.
This is one of the more accessible travel franchise opportunities currently available in the UK.
New franchisees attend a five-day live training course covering the practical side of the job, from building a client’s itinerary to understanding how bookings and payments actually work behind the scenes.
Some franchisees make their first booking on the very day they qualify.
Beyond that initial course sits The Hub, an online learning platform offering hundreds of hours of bite-sized training covering destination knowledge, marketing and business skills.

For a fuller breakdown of the mechanics involved, this guide to how a travel franchise works goes into more depth.

“Every new franchisee is paired with a dedicated Franchise Business Consultant from day one, and that relationship doesn’t end after the first week. Whether it’s pricing up a complex multi-stop itinerary or working out how to grow a client base from scratch, there’s always someone on the end of the phone who’s done it before and genuinely wants to help.”
— Jenny Farenden, Head of The Travel Franchise division at Not Just Travel

Franchise vs network marketing: Comparing structure, support and independence

Structurally, a franchise and a network marketing scheme sit at opposite ends of the same industry.
A franchisee buys into one proven system and answers to one franchisor, with a support structure built around helping that one person succeed.
A network marketer usually sits inside a multi-tier structure, with obligations to the company above and to a team recruited below, and success is measured partly by how well that team performs.
The network marketing vs franchise structure distinction shapes everything that follows.
Independence looks different, too.
A franchisee runs their own client base and keeps the relationships they build, while much of a network marketer’s activity is geared towards growing and motivating a downline rather than deepening customer relationships.
The table below sets out the main structural differences.

None of this means every network marketer fails or every franchisee succeeds, but the underlying architecture points in very different directions.

For a deeper look at how these two paths compare against running things entirely alone, this comparison of independent travel agencies and franchises is worth reading.

Startup costs, franchise fees and royalties explained

Every legitimate franchise, travel or otherwise, involves an upfront franchise fee alongside some ongoing contribution back to the franchisor, such as a monthly service charge or a software fee.
With The Travel Franchise, the underlying principle mirrors any established franchise: an owner pays for a proven system, structured training and ongoing support, not simply the right to use a name.
Network marketing costs work differently again.
Many travel MLMs charge a smaller sign-up fee than a franchise, but layer on optional starter kits or minimum monthly purchase requirements that add up over a year.
Because so much of the model depends on recruitment, some schemes also expect members to buy inventory or credits they may struggle to sell on.
This is where The Travel Franchise’s 100% Money-Back Challenge (MBC) changes the calculation.
Reach an agreed commission target from genuine holiday sales within a specific time period, and your franchise fee is refunded in full.
That gives a career changer the chance to build a business without the initial cost ever becoming permanent.

How travel franchises make money compared with network marketing compensation plans

The answer to how travel franchises make money is straightforward: a franchise owner earns primarily through commission paid by tour operators, airlines and other suppliers whenever a customer’s holiday is booked and confirmed.
That commission flows to the franchise owner because they did the work of finding the right trip, advising the client and completing the booking, not because they recruited anyone else into the business.
No booking, no income. And every booking is tied to a real, paying customer.
Network marketing compensation plans are built around a different formula entirely.
A member typically earns a small percentage from their own direct sales, then additional overrides based on the sales activity of everyone they’ve personally recruited.
That second layer is usually where the larger sums are promised, which is exactly why recruitment, rather than booking holidays, tends to dominate day-to-day activity inside these schemes.

Spotting the risks: Pyramid scheme warning signs and legal regulations

Several signs of a pyramid scheme in travel mlm show up again and again in opportunities that lean closer to an illegal structure than a genuine business.
Recognising them early can save both money and a difficult conversation with a sceptical partner later on.

• Recruitment quotas: a requirement to sign up a set number of people to unlock a rank or higher earning tier.
• Heavy downline language: constant talk of uplines, downlines, and earnings that depend on team size rather than bookings.
• Upfront kit or inventory costs: pressure to buy a starter pack or stock before making a single sale.
• Vague income claims: earnings screenshots tied to team growth, with little detail about actual holiday bookings.
• No named support structure: no clear supplier relationships, no accreditation, and no one you can name who actually helps you.

In the UK, running, promoting or operating a genuine pyramid scheme is a criminal offence under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008.
A legitimate MLM business is not automatically illegal under this law, because it still involves selling a real product or service, and the two are treated quite differently under UK consumer protection rules.

“Before putting any money into a travel opportunity, ask three simple questions: are customer bookings financially protected, is there a named franchisor or company standing behind the business, and can you speak to real people already doing it? If the answer to any of those is vague or hard to pin down, that tells you everything you need to know.”
— Jenny Farenden, Head of The Travel Franchise division at Not Just Travel

Training, support and exit strategies for franchise owners

Genuine training and support in travel franchises does not stop after the initial course.
The Travel Franchise pairs its five-day live training with an assigned Franchise Business Consultant and ongoing access to The Hub, its library covering destinations, marketing and business skills across hundreds of hours of online and bite-sized content.
Franchising in the UK also sits within a broader framework of self-regulation through the British Franchise Association, established in 1977 to promote ethical practice across the industry through its Code of Ethical Conduct.
That kind of structure gives franchisees somewhere to turn if a dispute ever arises, something a recruitment-based scheme rarely offers in the same way.
Exit strategies matter, too.

And this is where the two models diverge sharply again.
A franchise is typically structured so an owner can eventually sell the goodwill and client relationships they’ve built, in line with the franchisor’s transfer process.
A network marketer’s position usually can’t be sold in the same way, because a downline belongs to the company’s structure rather than to the individual.

This piece on why franchising is a smart move covers this advantage in more detail.

Is it worth joining a travel franchise: Which model wins?

Weighed against each other honestly, the question of whether it is worth joining a travel franchise has a clear answer: a franchise offers a far safer route into the travel industry than a network marketing opportunity.
The income is tied to real customers and real holidays rather than recruitment. The training is structured rather than optional, and the support sits behind an established brand rather than a personal upline.
None of this means a franchise is effortless.
It still takes real work to build a client base, learn the products and grow a reputation, and anyone promising otherwise isn’t being straight with a prospective owner.
But for a career changer who wants a credible business, backed by the 100% Money-Back Challenge, the franchise route is the one worth taking seriously.

For anyone still weighing up the options, this guide to which travel business opportunity suits you is a good next stop.

“We regularly hear from people who looked at a network marketing opportunity first and came away feeling uneasy about the emphasis on recruitment. What drew them to us was knowing the income comes from selling holidays, not from signing people up. That’s a completely different foundation to build a career on, and it’s why so many of our consultants are still here years later.”
— Jenny Farenden, Head of The Travel Franchise division at Not Just Travel

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