Thanda Travel Review: $34.95 a month travel recruitment

Thanda Travel claim to be a ‘privately owned company based in South Africa‘.

Identified as CEO of the company on the Thanda Travel website is Daniella Le Roux (full name: Daniella Beukes Le Roux).

Daniella has a passion for Sales and Marketing and has 16 years of experience in this.

She serves as Sales Director for Creative Hearts which is a development and marketing Company.

MLM opportunities Le Roux (right) has been an affiliate with include Pro Travel Plus and Volishon.

Both companies operated in the MLM travel niche, with affiliates primarily paid to recruit new affiliates.

A visit to the Pro Travel Plus and Volishon websites reveal both companies are in decline, which has likely prompted the launch of Thanda Travel.

Read on for a full review of the Thanda Travel MLM opportunity.

The Thanda Travel Product Line

The word Thanda means love/admire in Zulu, a native language from South Africa.

We love to travel, to earn, and create opportunities for our members to do the same.

Thanda Travel has no retailable products or services, with affiliates only able to market Thanda Travel affiliate membership itself.

Only once a person pays the first month’s $34.95, will they … have access to the travel portal.

As above, Thanda Travel affiliate membership provides access to a travel portal.

Through this travel portal Thanda Travel affiliates can access travel discounts provided by third-party merchants.

The Thanda Travel Compensation Plan

The Thanda Travel compensation plan primarily revolves around affiliates paying $34.95 a month and recruiting others who do the same.

Travel Booking Commissions

If a Thanda Travel affiliate or their recruited downline book travel through the Thanda Travel booking engine, a commission of up to 4% is paid.

These commissions are paid out via a unilevel compensation structure.

A unilevel compensation structure places an affiliate at the top of a unilevel team, with every personally recruited affiliate placed directly under them (level 1):

If any level 1 affiliates recruit new affiliates, they are placed on level 2 of the original affiliate’s unilevel team.

If any level 2 affiliates recruit new affiliates, they are placed on level 3 and so on and so forth down a theoretical infinite number of levels.

Thanda Travel cap travel booking commissions at four, with commissions paid out as follows:

• One Heart – 2% on level 1
• Two Hearts – 3% on level 1, 2% on level 2 and 1% on level 3
• Three Hearts – 4% on level 1, 2% on level 2 and 1% on levels 3 and 4

Note that these percentages don’t correspond to the amount spent on travel, but rather a percentage of the commission rate paid to Thanda Travel by third-party merchants.

Also note that Thanda Travel do not provide affiliate rank qualification criteria on their website.

Recruitment Commissions

Thanda Travel affiliates are paid to recruit new affiliates, with commissions paid out via a “2x matrix”.

We’re not really sure what that means, and nowhere else on their website do Thanda Travel clarify the size of the matrix they use.

In any event, affiliates are paid a commission for positions they fill in their matrix. Positions are filled via direct and indirect recruitment of new affiliates, with commissions paid out of the $34.95 a month fee charged.

A matching bonus is available on matrix commissions, paid out via a unilevel compensation structure.

This is the same as the compensation structure used to pay Travel Booking commissions, however this time they are capped at five levels.

The matching bonus is a percentage of the matrix commissions paid to affiliates in a unilevel team.

How many levels a Thanda Travel affiliate earns on is determined by their rank:

• One Heart – 10% match on level 1
• Two Hearts – 15% match on level 1, 7.5% on level 2 and 3% on level 3
• Three Hearts – 20% match on level 1, 12.5% on level 2, 3% on level 3, 2% on level 4 and 1% on level 5

Note again that Thanda Travel do not provide affiliate rank qualification criteria on their website.

Profit Sharing

Thanda Travel claim they set aside 30% of “company profits”, which is paid out as profit sharing.

This revenue is then shared with “every person” who signs up as a Thanda Travel affiliate.

Merchant Commissions

If a Thanda affiliate brings a new travel merchant into the opportunity, they receive an upfront commission of up to $25.

A residual 1% commission on commission rates paid to Thanda Travel by the merchant is also paid out.

How third-party merchants are integrated into Thanda Travel’s booking engine or any relevant merchant criteria is not specified.

Joining Thanda Travel

Affiliate membership with Thanda Travel is $34.95 a month.

Conclusion

From the Thanda Travel website;

The surest way for you to make sure that you will receive income is referring new people.

Thanda Travel appears to be a continuation of what Daniella Le Roux learnt in Pro Travel Plus and Volishon.

That being that travel has little to nothing to do with MLM travel companies.

Rather the bulk of commissions paid out are from the $34.95 a month affiliate fee, which when combined with recruitment commissions, defines Thanda Travel as a pyramid scheme.

Furthermore access to discounts is not a viable MLM product, you need to actually be selling something a product or service to retail customers.

The only thing Thanda Travel itself sells is affiliate membership, which is a problem.

As with all recruitment-driven schemes, once recruitment of new affiliates dries up so too will the bulk of commissions Thanda Travel pays out.

This process can be observed in both Pro Travel Plus and Volishon, which both have all but collapsed.

Thanda Travel is built on the same recruitment model, ensuring it delivers the same outcome.