POSING in a lime-green bikini beside the rooftop pool of her upmarket Nice hotel, Vicky Pattison looks like any other off-duty celeb in the glamorous French Riviera for the Monaco Grand Prix.
But her envy-inducing Instagram post isn’t just a holiday update for her 5.5million followers – it’s also a plug for the reality star’s side hustle as a “travel agent”, directing fans to her Vicky’s Vacays page.
InstagramOne of the posts with which Vicky directs fans to her travel page Vicky’s Vacays[/caption]
InstagramReal Housewives of Cheshire’s Tanya Bardsley also promotes the holiday company[/caption]
InstagramJess Wright is another celeb who has become the face of InteleTravel[/caption]
There – amid pictures of the former reality star sipping cocktails in the Caribbean, and enjoying a spa break in Mauritius – she promises tempting holiday discounts and encourages fans to “turn your passion for travel into an income”, adding: “You too can join our Jet set team of girls & start earning extra.”
With endless posts of luxe hotels and sundowners by the pool, Vicky and fellow stars, including Towie’s Jess Wright and Real Housewives of Cheshire’s Tanya Bardsley, are perfect poster girls for InteleTravel, a £155million network of independent travel agents (ITAs) who recruit a staggering 19,000 women a year, largely via social media.
Encouraged to sign up by friends and followers, these women are told if they pay £142 (plus a monthly fee of £32) to become an ITA, they can book holidays for themselves and others – and earn commission in the process, nabbing half-price discounts and building a business that fits around their busy lives.
Jess Wright justifies the fees – which also cover access to online courses, events and training programmes – by telling potential recruits that if they are too skint to “invest into your future, then this is exactly why you need this travel business”.
But while the celebrity endorsers are lining their pockets by recruiting agents and earning commission – from both your sign-up and those you go on to recruit – those at the bottom are rarely breaking even, an investigation by The Sun can reveal.
According to documents released by PlanNet, who handle recruitments for the scheme, recruiting nine people moves you up to ‘Gold Builder’ status – unlocking bonuses and a cut of the commissions from your recruits’ recruits.
Thanks to her huge social media following, Vicky has reportedly reached ‘Two Star Director’ status – meaning potential earning of £317,000 a year.
Mum-of-two Gemma Hamilton, from Cardiff, is one of the women lured in by an Instagram message.
“Someone approached me and said I could make big money,” she says. “I wasn’t sure if it was for me but I thought, even if I saved money on my own family holidays, it might be worth looking into.
“I never made any money – I think in many cases, they pressure women like me so much, they just give in and sign up, and then it’s hard to leave.
“Messages are sent saying: ‘If you quit, it doesn’t just impact on you, it impacts on your family’. In my opinion, they are playing on women’s emotions. It’s wrong.”
Mum-of-two Gemma Hamilton, from Cardiff, is one of the women lured in by an Instagram messageSupplied
Gemma never made any money and says, in her opinion, they are ‘playing on women’s emotions’Supplied
When we enquired about joining, we were told, like Gemma, that there is big money to be made. One ‘recruiter’ claimed that it’s “insane” how much you can make, saying she booked £27,000 of travel last year, alongside her full-time job.
But accounts from PlanNet Marketing Inc, the company InteleTravel uses to recruit, show that, in 2024, 92.5 per cent of agents made just $40 (£32) per year – meaning that with an initial outlay of £142 and a £32 monthly fee, they LOST an average of £494.
InteleTravel declined to comment on the amount their agents earn.
Official data from the Direct Selling Association reveals that 63 per cent of agents in the sector go on to build a ‘team’, often recruiting family and friends – although InteleTravel’s own figures may differ from the UK wide average.
Pushed to recruit
InstagramJess Wright showed off her team on an Instagram post aimed at encouraging more women to sign up[/caption]
InstagramShe also posts about the commision women can earn by working for the company[/caption]
But Gemma, 39, claims she was pressured to do just that.
“The lady who recruited me repeatedly pushed me to promote the business on my social media to sign up more people,” she alleges.
“The tone was very much that I was ‘stupid’ for not doing that already.
“It’s obvious that those earning the money are getting it primarily from the women below them, who are signing up and bringing in more people.
“The commissions from travel would never be big enough to generate the income they promote.”
InteleTravel has frequently denied it is a pyramid scheme, which is illegal, or even a ‘multi-level marketing’ (MLM) business model, which has a similar structure but falls within the legal threshold because it has a genuine product to sell.
InteleTravel operates as a legitimate, ABTA-regulated travel agent business and there is no suggestion that they have done anything illegal.
Anyone who wants to sign up with them must go through PlanNet Marketing and The Sun found no way to join without doing this.
Whilst InteleTravel agents can make legitimate commissions from selling travel, statistically it appears that many do not make a profit once the required and compulsory outgoings via PlanNet are deducted.
A 2025 survey suggests that across the whole UK sector 93 per cent of direct selling agents – who sell products to others online for an income – are women.
But, far from being a platform for female empowerment, the onslaught of social media messaging from InteleTravel agents appears to target a specific group – mums of school-age kids, typically between 33-44.
Easy targets
InstagramVicky shows off her lavish holidays on the travel account encouraging women to sign up[/caption]
InstagramJess posts in her captions about the income and flexability the travel company gives her[/caption]
According to Naomi Magnus, psychotherapist at North London Therapy, young mums are often targeted by online businesses precisely because they are so vulnerable.
“Recruiters often exploit feelings of isolation, inadequate income and unfulfilled aspirations, promising social interaction and validation in a community of ‘like-minded people’,” she claims.
“When children start school it often leaves mums seeking purpose, creating a vulnerability that makes them more open to new opportunities.
“Participants often promote the belief they are business owners, when they are in fact customers relying on recruitment and sales to generate income.”
Another source, who is still a registered agent and asked to remain anonymous, claims that selling the scheme as a part-time solution for busy mums could be seen as a cynical ploy.
“You are set up to fail. The people who say they are making big money would have to be working full time,” she says.
Rights of Reply
When presented with figures that showed that most agents ended up making a loss, an InteleTravel UK spokesman said: “We believe this information originates from PlanNet Marketing where this information is in the public domain, so we suggest redirecting your questions directly to PlanNet.
“PlanNet handles the recruitment for InteleTravel, so to join InteleTravel, you go through PlanNet.
“InteleTravel isn’t going to comment on the commissions earned by agents.
“InteleTravel is a host travel agency and should you wish to talk to us about selling travel through our travel advisors, we would be happy to showcase some of our successful agents to you.”
When asked for average earning figures for their agents, however, they refused to comment further.
We contacted PlanNet but received no response.
Agents for Vicky Pattison, Jess Wright and Tanya Bardsley declined to comment.
“There is no way you could do that while being a mum or around another job.
“If you break even with the financial investment and don’t lose money, you’ll still end up spending a lot of hours either in the meetings, doing training or trying to organise bookings.
“For most people, it’s not sustainable, and then you feel like a failure.
“Especially with the messages telling you to ‘get out of your own head’ and ‘change your story’. It’s done specifically to make it feel like you’re the problem.
“People are scared to leave because they don’t want to come across as failures or they are embarrassed to admit they were sucked in.”
And it’s not just would-be travel agents who have found themselves out of pocket.
Holiday hell
Marisa NoyceMarisa booked through an agent of the company after a recommendation from her hairdresser[/caption]
GettyMarisa had booked a dream birthday holiday to Morroco with the company[/caption]
Marisa Noyce, from Hampshire, alleges a dream holiday for her recent 40th birthday turned into a nightmare after she booked through an InteleTravel agent.
“My hairdresser told me about this lady who gets good deals on holidays, so I got in contact and she said she could get me the same deal I’d found online for almost £700 less,” she says.
“I felt confident because she lived near me and I trusted my hairdresser, who’d booked through her before.
“But something was off from the beginning. The confirmation PDF was something the agent had made herself and we had no official documentation.
“My husband and I were both chasing the agent for our travel details for weeks, but she kept fobbing us off.
“Eventually, a few days before, I was starting to panic so I rang the hotel in Morocco and my worst fear was confirmed – there was no record of our booking.”
Further digging revealed the agent had not booked the flights for Marisa and her family either.
False promises
Marisa NoyceMarisa gave the women the benefit of the doubt and booked an alternative holiday[/caption]
InstagramJess advertises the ‘team’ on her social media[/caption]
vickysvacays.comThe reality star invites fans to sign up to Vicky’s Vacays[/caption]
“We repeatedly chased her for answers and our money back and at the very last minute she got back to me, claiming it was an admin error.
“At this point, the hotel we planned was sold out but she said she could get into an even nicer place in Greece for the same price.
“She seemed very genuine, so I gave her the benefit of the doubt.”
All seemed to be going as planned until the family arrived in Greece and the hotel asked them to pay £6,000 for their room.
“Even though the booking had been made in our name, it hadn’t been paid for.
“We were in a different country with our teenage daughter and suddenly had no place to stay.
“Luckily, the hotel was very kind. They checked us in anyway and said we could arrange for the agent to send payment in the morning.”
Marisa spent the remainder of her holiday – and her 40th birthday – trying to call and message the agent to get the problem solved.
“It totally spoiled my birthday. Everyone was so stressed and my daughter didn’t want to leave the room in case the hotel threw us out.
“Our dream trip turned into a holiday from hell.”
While still in Greece, Marisa elevated the situation to InteleTravel’s head office in the USA, who did spring into action and by the time the family were due to check out, the hotel bill had been paid.
More claims
Once she returned home, Marisa discovered other people who had been let down tooMarisa Noyce
InstagramOn one post Tanya claims fans can ‘earn 7 figures of residual income from your phone’[/caption]
Instagram/holibobswithtanyaThe Real Housewives of Cheshire star plus her ‘Holibobswithtanya’ page[/caption]
Back in the UK, she relayed her experience on Facebook and warned other locals not to hand over money to the agent.
She was contacted by people who claimed to have had similar experiences, with one family having their Christmas trip to Lapland cancelled.
“I now warn people about booking with these agents. I’m sure most are not dishonest, but I feel more confident booking with an established agency,” says Marisa.
“This agent wasn’t even privy to great deals. Our hotel in Greece was actually just booked through booking.com.
“You are just literally handing over your hard-earned cash to a complete stranger for a deal you can get online for yourself. Why risk it?”
As for Gemma, who left InteleTravel at the beginning of the year, she is still getting approached every day by agents hoping to re-recruit her.
“It’s always by other women. They reply to your Instagram stories about something else, befriend you and then cleverly lure you in with their messaging, which they appear to be trained for, because everyone says the same. It’s shady,” she says.
“The lady who recruited me was very persistent. She messaged me for months before eventually giving up.
“I just wanted to sell travel, not a promise of making all this money to my friends and followers on social media.
“And, of course, I never did make anything close to that.”
SuppliedDespite leaving InteleTravel at the beginning of the year, Gemma says she is still getting approached every day by agents hoping to re-recruit her[/caption]
SuppliedGemma says she just wanted to ‘sell travel, not a promise of making all this money to my friends and followers on social media’[/caption] Published: [#item_custom_pubDate]
