Land-only DMC · Vietnam · Cambodia · Laos
How it works · Operations
How a land programme is operated
What happens between confirmation and the clients' last transfer: how we use the rooming list, what a guide is told before meeting your clients, who the tour leader contacts during the trip, and how changes and incidents are handled and reported back to you.
From booking file to operation
A confirmed booking becomes an operation file: one document that holds every service, every supplier confirmation, the rooming list, the flight details and the guide assignments for the trip. Everyone who touches the trip on our side works from that file, so the hotel, the driver and the guide in each city see the same names and the same times.
The file is built in a fixed order. Services are booked and confirmed first. The rooming list arrives and names are pushed to hotels, boats and airlines. Guides and drivers are assigned and briefed. Final documents go to you. The last change before the clients land is re-checking flight times, because domestic and regional schedules move more than anything else in the region.
What we do with the rooming list
- Check every name against the format the airlines need, and flag names that look truncated or reversed.
- Send names and room types to each hotel and boat, and ask for re-confirmation with the names attached.
- Pass flight numbers and times to the drivers and guides for each arrival and departure.
- Note dietary needs, allergies the agent has told us about, mobility needs and room requests in the guide brief.
- Flag anything the list makes impossible — for example more single rooms than the allotment holds — and tell you before going further.
Changes after the rooming list deadline are possible, but each one goes back through the same steps. The cost of a late change, if any, follows the agency contract and the supplier's own rules.
The guide briefing
Every guide receives a written brief before the first day with your clients. It is the part of our work that agents see least and that shapes the trip most.
- The programme day by day, with the times that cannot move (flights, boat boarding, ticketed visits)
- The client list, with names, nationalities, ages where relevant, and any needs the agent has shared
- Whose clients they are: the agency name the clients booked with, and how the agent wants it mentioned
- What has been sold as optional and what is included, so the guide never sells something already paid for
- Shopping rules: by default, no shopping stops that are not in the programme
- The operations contact for the trip, and what to report the same day
For series groups, guides who will run the programme across the season are briefed on the programme once, then on each group before its departure.
Support during the trip
The tour leader, or for FIT clients the guide, has an operations contact for the whole trip. The number is printed in the final documents, not on this website. It is staffed by people who have the operation file in front of them, so the question “where is the driver?” gets an answer about that driver.
Most on-trip calls are small: a flight moved by an hour, a client who wants to skip an afternoon, a room that faces the wrong way. They are handled on the spot. Anything that changes the programme, costs money, or involves a client's health is reported to you.
Changes and incidents
| What happens | What we do on the ground | What you hear from us |
|---|---|---|
| Domestic or regional flight retimed or cancelled | Rebook with the airline, move transfers, re-order the day | The new timing and any cost the airline charges |
| Ha Long Bay sailings suspended for weather | Replace the boat night with a hotel night and a land programme | The change and the difference in cost, if any |
| Hotel cannot honour the booking | Move the clients to a named hotel of the same level in the same area | The new hotel name, and how any cost difference is handled under the contract |
| Client falls ill | Guide takes the client to a clinic or hospital; the group programme continues with a second guide if needed | A written report, and insurer details we need from you |
| Road or border closed | Re-route, or hold the group at the last hotel | The options and their costs, before we commit to one |
We do not decide for you when a change costs money that your client will be asked to pay. We tell you the options and act on the one you choose; when there is no time to ask, we take the option that keeps the clients safe and the programme closest to what was sold, and explain afterwards.
Crossing borders with a group
Programmes that cross between Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos by road or river change guide and usually vehicle at the border. Each side has its own immigration process and visa rules. The border crossings page lists the crossings we use for groups and the visa constraints at each, and the Mekong Delta to Angkor programme shows one river crossing worked through day by day.
Common questions
Questions agents ask
Do you provide a 24-hour contact during the trip?
Each trip has an operations contact for the whole duration, printed in the final documents. How it is staffed is described in the agency contract.
Will the guide mention our agency name to the clients?
Yes, if you want it. The guide brief says whose clients they are and how you want your agency mentioned.
Do your guides take clients to shops?
Not unless a shop is named in the programme you sold. Unplanned shopping stops are a common complaint, and our briefs rule them out.
How are incidents reported to us?
By email, in writing, with what happened, what we did and any cost involved. Serious incidents are reported as soon as the clients are safe.
Related
Read next
Land programmes · Booking
How to book
The booking steps for agents, from first request to final documents.
View this journey
How it works · Borders
Border crossings for groups
Road and river crossings between the three countries, with visa constraints for groups.
View this journey
Land programmes · Pricing
Land quote pricing
The components of a land quote, the variables that move it, and peak-date rules.
View this journey
Example journey
Indochina series group 15 days
Series group, 15 days: a repeatable Hanoi to Siem Reap departure for catalogue operators.
View this journey
Example journey
Mekong Delta to Angkor 8 days
FIT or tailor-made group, 8 days: Saigon to Siem Reap via the delta and the Mekong crossing.
View this journey
About
About
What Indochina Land Tour does, who it works for and what it does not do.
View this journey
Start planning
Send a land quote request
Request type, group size and travel month are enough to start. Add your agency name so we can match the request to your contract. We reply by email with an itemised land quote or the questions needed to write one.