How to Vet a DMC in Thailand or Vietnam: A Buyer's Checklist

Ask for the licence number in the first email. A company that is licensed where it says it is will send it back in a line, and one that is not will spend three paragraphs not sending it.

The buyers I respect ask early and ask plainly, and no serious company takes offence. Below are the checks I would run if I were sourcing Thailand and Vietnam for my own clients, in the order I would run them. Most take a few minutes. Together they tell you who you are actually buying from.

Start with the licence, and check it yourself

There is a number. That is the useful thing about this check: the answer is not a description, it is a registration you can look up.

In Thailand a company that sells or runs tours needs a tourism business licence under the Tourism Business and Guide Act, issued by the Department of Tourism. The company itself is registered separately with the Department of Business Development. Ask for both numbers. The Department of Tourism's website has a public licence check: enter the number and the registered company name should come back.

In Vietnam a company serving foreign visitors needs an international travel service business licence, issued through the national tourism authority. It requires a bank deposit held as a guarantee, so it is not a formality. The authority's travel business portal lists licensed international operators.

If the number does not come, that is your answer. Deflection over the licence is the clearest warning sign in the whole process, and it usually arrives dressed as friendliness.

Then compare names. The company on the licence should be the company on your contract and your invoice. A brand name, a parent company and a licence holder are not always the same entity, and the licence holder is the one with legal obligations in that country.

If you want the wider picture first, we have set out what a DMC is and how it differs from a tour operator.

Ask who delivers each service

Picture the arrivals hall at two in the morning, a cancelled connection and fourteen tired guests. Nobody in that hall cares whose logo is on the itinerary. What matters is who the tour leader rings, and whether that person can move a driver and hold a room.

So ask, service by service: who contracts the hotels, who supplies the vehicles, who employs or engages the guides, and in which country each company sits. A DMC may deliver some services through its own staff and others through local partners. That is normal, and a local partner is not a sign of poor delivery. What should worry you is a company that cannot say who the partner is, or that answers every question with "our network".

The good answer is written down. For a two-country trip, the quotation should name the company you contract with and the delivery arrangements in each country. You will then know where responsibility changes hands before you sell the trip, not after.

Verify the guides are licensed

Using an unlicensed guide is illegal in both countries. Say that before the quality argument, because a fine or a disrupted afternoon lands on your client, not on the company that cut the corner.

Thai guides carry a guide licence issued by the Department of Tourism, the familiar guide card. Vietnamese guides hold a guide card too, issued either for domestic or for international guiding, and foreign groups need the international card.

Ask outright: are the guides on this trip licensed, and in which languages do they guide? The second half catches people out. A guide in a less common language over a holiday week is not something to assume, and a DMC that promises one without checking is promising something it has not got.

Ask what insurance they hold, and what kind

This is the check most buyers skip, and the one that matters most if something goes badly wrong.

Insurance comes in different shapes. A travel accident policy pays benefits to injured travellers. Public liability covers claims that the company caused harm. Professional indemnity covers claims that its advice or arrangements were negligent. A company can truthfully say it is insured and hold only one of them: accident cover and no public liability, for instance.

So ask three things: which entity holds the policy, what type of cover it is, and whether your programme falls within it. Then ask for the certificate. If your compliance file needs liability cover as a condition of trading, say so before you confirm the booking, and get the answer in writing.

Look at credentials, but weigh them lightly

These are signals, not guarantees. I would rather you weighted them low than skipped the licence check because a badge looked reassuring.

In Thailand, the TAT STAR rating is a national standard for tourism businesses, and each certificate has a number and an expiry date. Travelife matters more than it used to, because European operators now carry their own sustainability reporting duties and pass them down the chain. Trade memberships such as PATA, ETOA for European inbound or SITE for incentives place a company inside the professional world, not at its edge.

For any credential, ask for the certificate or the registration number, and check the expiry date and which entity it covers. A badge on a homepage is a picture.

Agree the emergency route before you sell the trip

Every programme should come with a named emergency contact and an escalation route, in writing, in the hands of the tour leader before departure. Ask who can authorise a change on the spot, who can approve an extra cost, and who to call if the first person does not answer.

Then ask how a recent problem was handled. A lost passport, a cancelled flight, a weather day that forced a re-route. You are not looking for a company that never has problems. You are looking for one that answers this question calmly and specifically, because that is the temperament you are buying once the trip is moving.

The pricing side has its own traps, covered in how to read a DMC quote.

The vetting checklist

Each row is a question, a good answer and a warning sign.

Run the same checks on us

I mean that, and I would rather you did it now than found a gap in month four. Here are our answers, so you can check them before we ever talk.

Pai Dai trades through two companies, one in each country, and your quotation names the one you contract with for each leg, with the delivery arrangements.

• Thailand: PAIDAI ONLINE CO., LTD., Bangkok. Tourism Business Licence No. 11/13335 from the Department of Tourism, and company registration No. 0415566000335 with the Department of Business Development. TAT STAR 3-star certificate STAR-E00529, valid until 27 June 2028, covering the Thai company only.
• Vietnam: PAIDAI VIETNAM COMPANY LIMITED, Ho Chi Minh City. International travel licence No. 79-2057/2025/CDLQGVN-GP LHQT.
• Insurance: the Thai company holds a Chubb tour operator travel accident policy. It is accident cover, not public liability or professional indemnity, and travellers must be registered before departure.
• During the trip: every active programme has a 24/7 emergency contact, listed in the booking documents with the operating contacts and the escalation route.
• Sustainability: Travelife Engaged, working toward Partner recognition.

Ask for any certificate your compliance file needs.

A DMC that resists these checks is telling you something. If our answers suit you, start through our agency enquiry form, or see how a route is laid out in our northern Thailand planning example.