Working With Jem Travel: The Full B2B Partnership Process Explained

If you are a travel agent looking to partner with a DMC in Vietnam, this is exactly how it works with Jem Travel: every step from your first email to the feedback report we send after your clients fly home.

Jem Travel is a licensed, boutique inbound DMC based in Hanoi, working only with travel agencies and tour operators. For an agency, the destination is rarely the hard part. The hard part is trust. You are handing a client relationship built over years to a team on the other side of the world. So this page shows the whole process before you commit to anything. You will see who you speak to, what you receive and when, and what happens if plans change on the ground.

Who Jem Travel works with

Jem Travel was founded in Hanoi in March 2024 by Nguyen Nhu Ngoc, known to our partners as Gemma, after ten years (2013–2023) designing Indochina tour packages for European travellers. We hold International Tour Operator Licence No. 01-2615/2024/CDLQGVN-GP LHQT and operate private, tailor-made programmes across Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.

Gemma still travels the routes we sell. In fact, every village, homestay or mountain road in a proposal has been visited by someone from our team. We have met the people who live there, and we know what your clients will actually find.

We deliberately work with a small circle of boutique agencies and tour operators, not high-volume packagers. Our partners tend to curate their own itineraries and sell private travel rather than fixed departures. They care more about how a client feels on day six than how many sights appear on day one. Most of our current partners are Italian agencies; GEMMA: confirm permission before naming partners, e.g. “including Ciao Trekking and Universi Paralleli”. We also welcome agencies from the Nordic countries and the wider European market.

How an agent can partner with our DMC in Vietnam, step by step

Whenever an agent decides to partner with our DMC in Vietnam, the same eight steps follow. The first three happen only once. After that, steps four to eight repeat for every client you send us.

Steps 1–3: becoming an agent partner of our DMC in Vietnam

1. First contact

   Your contact: Gemma directly, or Simone Vallone, our Italy-based market representative

   Write to gemma@jemtravel.asia or message us on WhatsApp at +84 936 135 413. Italian agencies can also go through Simone Vallone in Italy, who meets partners in person and in their own time zone. There is no application form and no minimum volume. Either way, we reply in English or Italian, whichever you prefer.

2. Introductory call

   Your contact: Gemma

   First, a 30–45 minute video call helps us understand your agency. We ask about the clients you serve, the pace they travel at, and where ground partners have let you down before. It is also your chance to test us. For example, ask how we would handle a typhoon on a Ha Long Bay cruise date, or a guest who falls ill in Sapa. By the end, you should know whether our way of working fits yours. If it doesn’t, we will say so.

3. Partnership set-up

   Your contacts: Gemma and Nguyen Thi Huong, Account Manager

   Next, we agree the working terms in writing: rate structure, payment schedule, cancellation policy and how we communicate day to day. Commercial terms are discussed privately with each partner and are never published. In addition, you receive our company documents, including our tour operator licence. Finally, Nguyen Thi Huong becomes your named account manager and everyday point of contact. GEMMA: add what the partner pack contains (e.g. product portfolio PDF, sample itineraries, rate sheet by season)

Steps 4–5: from client brief to proposal

4. Sending a client brief

   Your contact: your account manager

   Send whatever you have: travel dates, number of travellers, budget level, interests, pace, and anything you know about the client that will not fit into a form. Small notes such as “they hate early starts” or “she is a keen photographer” are exactly what shapes a good itinerary. If the brief is thin, we ask two or three targeted questions instead of sending a generic programme.

5. Tailor-made proposal

   What you get: a day-by-day programme with named hotels and a clear price

   Within GEMMA: confirm standard response time, e.g. 24–48 working hours, you receive a proposal in Italian or English. Instead of “4-star or similar”, it names every hotel, for example Hanoi Authentic in Hanoi, Emerald Riverside in Hoi An or Silk Path in Sapa. Inclusions and exclusions are listed line by line, so you can resell without guessing. Above all, we never fill days to look generous: two meaningful experiences done well beat five rushed ones.

   Revisions are normal. Change a hotel, swap Ha Long Bay for Lan Ha, or add Luang Prabang or Siem Reap, and we re-price and resend.

Steps 6–8: on the trip and after it

6. Confirmation and pre-departure

   Your contacts: your account manager, then Hoang Thi Vinh, Operations Manager

   Once your client confirms, we secure hotels, cruises, domestic flights and guides, and then send you a confirmation with all booking references. Before departure, you also receive the final programme, guide and driver details, and a 24/7 emergency number. GEMMA: confirm deposit and balance timing, and whether traveller-facing documents can carry the agency’s branding

7. On the ground

   Handled by: Hoang Thi Vinh and our guides, with 24/7 support

   This is where a DMC earns its place. Our guides are briefed as storytellers, not schedulers, and every itinerary can be adjusted during the trip. Say a client wants a second morning in Hoi An, or weather closes a route in Ha Giang. In that case, our operations team rebuilds the day and keeps you informed. As a result, you are never the last to know about a change affecting your own client.

8. Post-tour feedback report

   What you get: a written report on how the trip went

   After every trip, we send you a feedback report. It covers what worked, what the client told our guides, any issues and how we solved them, and ideas for their next trip. It is your data, useful for your own client relationship and also for tightening the next proposal we build together.

What stays constant across every booking

Whatever the itinerary, a few things do not change. First, you always have a named contact rather than a generic inbox. Second, hotels are chosen for character and service, from 3-star boutique to 5-star. Where they suit the trip, we also use family-run ecolodges such as Laxsik Ecolodge in Sapa or Hue Ecolodge. Similarly, local and regional menus are the default, and dietary requirements are collected before arrival rather than discovered at the table. Finally, we cover all three Indochina countries, so a Vietnam–Cambodia–Laos programme stays with one partner and one set of standards.

When an agent should not partner with our DMC in Vietnam

Being clear about fit saves everyone time. We are not the right DMC if you need fixed-departure group packages or the lowest price per head. The same goes for itineraries built to cover as many sights as possible in as few days as possible. In addition, nothing we sell is below 3-star standard, and we never sell directly to travellers in competition with our agents.

On the other hand, we are the right DMC in Vietnam to partner with if you are an agent whose clients travel privately. Typically, they want to feel they lived a place rather than passed through it.

Frequently asked questions