Questions

What is Pin There's travel planning service?

Put simply it's a travel research service. Our passion for travel and unique experiences helps us in considering the small touches & details that are not typically part of a standard itinerary.

We save you the time & effort involved in filtering through online information to get the best value for your money and provide you with the most suitable options that meet your preferences.

How is it different than a travel agency?

Agencies typically rely on their provider networks for what they offer, this sometimes means that a lot of possible options are not looked at and missed.

We create the trip for an experience that's unique to you (with an eye on value for money) with less limitations for what's considerred in your plan.

Who is the service for?

If you'd like to get better value for your money, get experienced people to sift through the ton of information, or would like to enjoy a different kind of travel experience then Pin There is right for you.

We generally take care of the nitty gritty details (Creating suitable plans, comparing logistical options, rummaging through reviews & comments, and any other research required) to make your trip one-of-a-kind and allow you to save time for what matters most to you.

A cultural discovery trip? instead of the time spent on logistics, hotel searches, and reading reviews, you can spend that time reading about the history of the place, watch a documentary, learn a bit of the language or just carry on doing what you do, maybe even just sit back and relax until it's time to enjoy your tailor made travel experience. An adventure trip climbing that mountain? We'll save you the time so you can focus on training, developing skills, or do some reading (we'll share specialized resources as we find them while planning too!).

What's involved in the process?

From number of places you'll be exploring explore from ("bases") to friends’ recommendations, and things that just caught your eye online, we take your ideas and fit them all together to make the trip happen.

We go through online resources, share summaries, as well as some resources to go through by yourself.

Our Process

How long does planning a trip take?

It depends on a variety of factors (i.e. how far in advance you contact us, complexity of the itinerary, changes you may decide to make along the way, etc). We’ve planned trips in as little as a week, while other trips have been finalized over a couple of months. The earlier the process starts, the easier it is to plan a great travel experience!

If you wait until the last minute, it’s much more difficult to secure suitable places to stay and flights at good value (some options might not even be available). Some experiences, such as African safaris, northern lights hunts, and other expeditions, should be planned way in advance (at least 7-9 months sometimes over a year in advance) to get the best value out of them. Limited availability for such experiences or the complexity of logistics makes them a little longer, an early heads up helps a lot.

I'm already late in planning a trip, can you help?

If you have the flexibility needed and know that some of what you have in mind might not be possible, we'd be glad to help.

We'll work hard to finalize the details as quickly as possible by compressing parts of the process. Lets start by filling a Pin Profiler.

What do I share to help plan for a better trip?

The more information you can take the time to share with us the better the trip. We’ll ask for some general trip details and preferences first, we'll then reach out to get to know more specifics.

Why shouldn't I plan my own trip & experience?

Experiencing a trip that you've planned is very rewarding, we get it (we enjoy doing it too!). A great trip takes know-how, experience, contacts, and a lot of time. That's where we come in. Planning all the small details (like what to do & see, how long to spend there, how long it'll take to get from one place to another, what’s open when, and whether you’ll need anything in advance) and piecing them all together is what we do.

If you have the patience to tackle your own trip planning then we encourage you to do so. If you end up enjoying the planning aspect and get very good at it why not join our team? (Contact us and be a contributor)

We'd like a trip that's similar to one we saw or had before, what do you think?

We encourage recycling but not when it comes to experiences. As part of the planning process we ask you for any inspiration to help get an idea on what you'd like but not to replicate it.

We use first-hand experience to reliably filter data we come across to get up-to-date & reliable information for a unique trip each & every time.

Do you plan destinations you haven't been to?

We plan trips all around the world. One of the things we enjoy spending time on is researching destinations (wether we've already been to them or not..yet).

Going through travel forums, keeping track of travel news, testing out travel related tools & tech, and constantly planning succesful trips gives us the experience needed to plan for places we haven't been to. Part of our work involves reaching out to online contributers, agencies, or other travel planners specialized in all sorts of places & experiences. We constantly work to develop our expertise and make sure any information we use is reliable.

I think the experience I have in mind is very specilized / unique / technical / difficult to plan for, will Pin There be suitable?

After getting more details about what's on your mind (we'll have a call after checking your Pin Profile), we can confirm if we're capable to make it happen. We may be able to find suitable alternatives (more specialized services) that match what you're looking for and help you make your travel idea a reality!

I'll need to make some changes to the plan for something that might come up, will it be problem?

By all means, let us know of any existing plans, possible detours, friends' get-togethers, meet-ups, or anything else you have in mind. we'll make sure to build them into your itenerary. You’re welcome to make any changes before an itenerary is confirmed.

What about changes after confirming an itinerary or during the trip?

We'll gladly help out whenever possible, given an appropriate amount of time. Once you confirm your itinerary, we can make some tweaks here & there when possible but any major change that might involve additional research & planning will incur a small extra fee. If it might take us a couple of hours then it's on the house! Otherwise, we'll agree on something.

Please keep in mind that we offer a planning service, not booking agency services. We guide you to the most suitable options in making arrangements for you to have full control at any given time.

How does booking itenerary items work?

We guide you to the best option to finalize booking an itenerary item (including how-to's). All bookings will be reviewed with you to confirm all's in order.

Unlike an agency, We do not book anything directly*. The only payment made to us is the planning service fee.

If you have any specific website, service, or agent that you'd like to use (or would like us to compare to) please mention them in our call.

*We're planning to add booking services when it makes sense to do so (as long as it doesn't limit the options we provide to Pinners).

How much does the planning service cost?

A big part of the fee depends on how much time in advance we have to plan (among other factors). Fees typically average between 200$ and 450$.

The usual trip costs about 350$ to plan (a premium 2-week/2 person trip with an all-inclusive budget of 8,000 US$ for example).

The Pin Profiler will automatically generate & send an estimated planning fee to your email (based on your answers). If the fee is suitable, lets talk travel!

What's the refund policy?

After having our first call (free), we require 25% of the planning fee to start drafting a couple of trip options (including an estimated budget). Once we discuss & decide on a trip, we require 50% of the fee to proceed with the logistical details & accommodation. Day-to-day activities & arrangements are done once the remaining 25% is paid.

Any payment is nonrefundable after 24 hours of the corrisponding planning stage. Any advance payment is fully refundable otherwise.

I have some questions not answered here, how do I reach out?

It'll be our pleasure to answer your questions, please submit them in our "Contact" page.