InteleTravel vs Travel Counsellors

These two are often named in the same breath and are not the same kind of thing at all. InteleTravel is a commission-split host you can join for £142 setup and leave again cheaply. Travel Counsellors is a franchise: from £295+VAT (varies by experience), a monthly platform fee, and a brand you trade under.

In short: InteleTravel suits someone testing whether selling travel is for them, at the lowest possible cost of entry and exit. Travel Counsellors suits someone treating this as their main business and wanting an established franchise behind it, who is content to keep 60% of commission in exchange.

Two different arrangements

InteleTravel is recorded as a commission-split host, described in our notes as MLM-adjacent in the way it recruits. You trade under its licences and keep an agreed share. Travel Counsellors is a franchise: you buy the right to use the brand and the system. The guide to the three models sets out why that distinction changes what you own at the end.

The headcounts are not comparable either. InteleTravel records 44,000 UK; 180,000 worldwide; Travel Counsellors records 2,000–2,200. A number in the tens of thousands counts everyone signed up to the network, and our record does not say how many of them trade actively or full time. Ask both companies for their own definition before you read anything into the size.

What each one costs

InteleTravel: £142 setup, then £32/mo. Those figures come from Informi’s guide rather than the company’s own site, whose enrolment flow asks for your details before it shows a price — the sources are dated on the InteleTravel profile.

Travel Counsellors: from £295+VAT (varies by experience), then £33–£72.50+VAT/mo. Travel Counsellors publishes no pricing of its own either, so these come from the Travel Gossip homeworking chart. Two of the best-known names in the market, and neither will tell you the price in public.

What you keep

InteleTravel pays 70%, 80% above threshold. Travel Counsellors pays 60%. On a £3,000 package holiday earning 10% supplier commission, that is £210 against £180 before your own costs.

A word of caution about reading too much into it: the share is only one input. Supplier rates, the kind of holidays you sell and how much support you need all move the real number more than the percentage does. The earnings guide works this through with the rest of the arithmetic.

Protection: the nuance that matters here

InteleTravel is recorded with ABTA membership P7384, and this note against its ATOL position: ABTA membership confirmed on the official ABTA member search: InteleTravel UK Ltd, head office Canary Wharf, ABTA numbers P7384 and Y6792. ATOL via suppliers only: bookings are ATOL-protected by the supplier or operator, not under an ATOL licence held in InteleTravel’s own name.

Travel Counsellors’s record reads: Holds ATOL 6751 in its own name (CAA register). No ABTA member record was found for Travel Counsellors on the official ABTA member search — consistent with the Travel Gossip chart listing the protection as “ATOL only”. Operates its own trust arrangement.

That difference is the single most substantive one on this page. Protection held at supplier level and protection held in the company’s own name behave differently when something goes wrong, and the distinction is explained plainly in ABTA, ATOL and trust accounts explained. Both companies’ ABTA and ATOL details have been checked against the official ABTA member search and the CAA’s ATOL register.

How each one recruits

InteleTravel recruits through PlanNet Marketing, a separate sales organisation, and that is where the multi-level description comes from: people can earn from recruiting other agents as well as from selling holidays. Our guide to multi-level recruitment sets out what that structure is, and what it is not. Travel Counsellors recruits franchisees directly and records no comparable referral structure.

Public opinion splits along the same line. Our September 2026 search-landscape notes record that InteleTravel’s Trustpilot reviews are numerous and sharply polarised, while the questions people ask about Travel Counsellors are mostly about franchise cost. Read the reviews on both sides for yourself; they measure satisfaction, not the terms of the contract.

The honest differences

The entry cost is not the whole cost. InteleTravel is cheaper to start and cheaper to stop. Travel Counsellors costs more at the door but has a lower monthly fee in our record, so the gap narrows the longer you stay.

The protection arrangements genuinely differ. One holds ABTA membership with ATOL cover sitting at supplier level; the other holds ATOL and a trust arrangement but no ABTA membership in our record. Neither of those is a failing — they are different structures, and you should understand which one you would be selling under.

Recruitment structure is a fact, not a verdict. That InteleTravel pays for recruiting is documented; whether that suits you is your call. Its ABTA membership was granted in 2019 after a two-year process, as reported at the time by Travel Weekly and TTG Media.

Our figures for both are second-hand. Because neither company publishes pricing, both sets of numbers come from third-party charts and guides. Get a written quote.

Who each one suits

InteleTravel if you want to start for a small sum, sell to friends and family first, and find out whether you enjoy it before committing.

Travel Counsellors if you are building a full-time business, want a single established brand behind you, and value the trust arrangement and in-house ATOL.

Also worth reading: Travel Counsellors against Not Just Travel, and the master table if you want to see where each sits against every other company in the directory.