What happens when 2 guests show up for a tour that needs 8 to profit – and what it reveals about an industry that’s forgotten its purpose
I was scrolling through TripAdvisor reviews this morning (don’t ask me why I torture myself like this), when I stumbled across something that made me sick to my stomach.
Page after page of the same heartbreaking story from major luxury tour operators.
As you read some of the reviews quoted, I am not putting in the company name. I have no desire to call out a specific company. I am talking about the “norm” in this business, and why we break it. You may be able to figure out who these are since these are the major players in “luxury”, but please know that is not the point.
Some of the reviews of other companies I just read
“This company is a rip off and thieves… They CANCELLED our cruise more than 2 months ago.”
“For the third time [tour operator] has cancelled a trip on us (after it has been fully paid). Don’t advertise them if you don’t plan to honor them.”
“Two months before the trip our tour was cancelled ‘due to operational reasons and lack of participation’… They said, ‘read our fine print, we do not have to compensate you.'”
And this one really got me: One of the most expensive luxury tour operators in the market – the kind that charges $1,000+ per person, per day and markets heavily to affluent retirees – cancelled a customer’s Christmas Markets trip to Germany and Austria, then kept $1,400 of their money. The customer wrote:
“[Tour operator] cancelled… I did NOT cancel. [They’re] keeping $1,400 of my money. Again, they cancelled, not me… She was curt and refused us a refund… told us we were ‘nobody special.’ My daughter and I waited a lifetime to go. Her late father and I went to the markets when he was stationed in Europe during the Cold War. She grew up with my stories… They cancelled it in 2020 too.”
Reading these reviews – and there are dozens more just like them – I kept thinking: How do these companies sleep at night?
Someone trusted them with their dream vacation. Booked flights. Arranged time off work. Built excitement for months. Then got a phone call or email that crushed all of it.
(Ok, getting a little emotional about it all today…)
But seriously… these are real people with real dreams, not numbers on a spreadsheet.
And that’s exactly why tomorrow morning (August 30th, 2025), when just two guests begin our Wine and Cooking Under the Tuscan and Umbrian Sun tour, I feel perfectly fine about losing money.
The Math That Doesn’t Add Up (But Somehow Does)
Tomorrow: Two guests.
Eleven of our team members – hosts, drivers, coordinators – will spend the next week making sure these guests have an incredible experience exploring the hidden corners of Tuscany and Umbria. The math is brutal, right? This trip needs at least 8 people to break even. With 2 guests, we’re looking at a significant loss.
Not gonna lie, our accounting team probably feels differently (Of course Michael doesn’t care!). But here’s the thing… and I mean, seriously… those people didn’t do anything wrong. They trusted us. They made plans. They booked flights.
Why should they suffer because we couldn’t get enough people to sign up?
The Industry’s Dirty Secret (And Why Legal Protection Became Customer Abandonment)
Here’s what the travel industry doesn’t want you to know: According to current industry data, European tour operators typically require 10-20 participants to operate profitably.¹ I can absolutely confirm that. The European tour operator market generates €78.3 billion annually but operates on razor-thin profit margins of just 1-5%.² Again, I can confirm!
The EU Package Travel Directive actually requires cancellation language – operators can cancel with 20 days notice for packages over 6 days, 7 days for shorter trips.³ It’s designed for consumer protection, but it’s become a get-out-of-jail-free card for disappointing customers.
The numbers tell the real story: 11% of EU consumers experience problems with their travel providers serious enough to warrant formal complaints.⁴ The European Consumer Centres Network handled over 124,000 consumer complaints in 2023 alone.⁵
OK, if you have read much of my writing, you know how brutally transparent I am. So I won’t sugarcoat this… our terms of service include the same legal language as everyone else. We reserve the right to cancel tours due to insufficient enrollment. Like virtually every tour operator in existence, we include this protection.
The difference?
In almost 20 years, we’ve never once used it. NEVER... as in ZERO times.
The Lunch That Changed How I See Everything
We started this way because we are all about family and relationships, not line items. But several years ago, something happened that crystallized our entire philosophy.
We had this couple from New York who were literally the only people booked on one of our tours. Just them. Nobody else signed up – I seriously cannot explain why sometimes. Such a small group is so rare, I think sometimes everyone gets together just to mess with our heads.
At lunch one day, they brought up what was obvious to everyone: we were losing serious money operating this tour just for them.
You know what I told them? The same thing I tell anyone who asks about our philosophy:
“Look, I get it, and I know it’s common to cancel in these situations. But we look at it this way: You trusted us, you made plans, you booked flights. If we were not able to get enough people to come on this trip, why should you have to suffer? That is on us.”
That couple? We’ve seen them regularly since. Not just for me, but for all of us, it warms our hearts. It’s one more thing that reminds us that when we think about people first, we all benefit in the end. Being so transactional is not just cold, it’s short-sighted.
When $10,000+ Per Person Still Means “You Were Nobody Special”
I’m looking at those TripAdvisor reviews again, and it amazes me that these massive operators don’t see the bigger picture. They’re so focused on protecting those 1-5% profit margins that they’re destroying their reputation one cancelled tour at a time.
The pattern is devastating:
“DO NOT TRUST [tour operator]. Never again.”
“Never book with them again.”
“[Tour operator] CANCELS some itineraries last minute.”
“You were nobody special.”
Really? I mean REALLY?
Did someone forget that the umbrella term for what we do is “hospitality?”
These aren’t isolated complaints – this is the standard practice across virtually every major operator, including companies charging thousands per person, per day. A business model built on disappointing customers when it’s inconvenient to serve them.
Meanwhile, our guests are always surprised when they realize what we’re doing. They always comment about the integrity. Because in an industry where 124,000+ consumer complaints happen annually, keeping your word becomes revolutionary.
Who would have thought something so basic would be revolutionary?
Tomorrow’s Guests Don’t Know (And They Shouldn’t Have To)
Here’s what tomorrow looks like:
- 2 paying guests who trusted us with their dream vacation
- 11 team members delivering the same experience we’d provide for 8 guests
- The same team who cares deeply for all the right reasons
- The same carefully planned itinerary through Umbrian hill towns most travelers never see
- The same authentic restaurants where generations cook together in the kitchen
It’s extremely rare that we don’t get enough people to profit – we fill over 92% of our space across roughly 80 tours per year. But every year, this happens with one or two tours, and honestly? We cannot see a pattern.
Sometimes there are trips we just cannot explain. This week is one of them.
Tomorrow’s guests don’t know they’re costing us money. They don’t need to know. Nobody on our team had any reaction when we confirmed the trip was going forward with 2 guests. Why would they? We just don’t cancel tours. It’s not who we are.
The experience isn’t diminished by the group size – only our profit margin is.
Why We Built Something Different
(Getting philosophical here, so humor me…)
We didn’t start Culture Discovery Vacations to maximize quarterly profits in a €78.3 billion industry. We started it to create transformative experiences for people who trust us with their precious vacation time and hard-earned money. If you know me, you have probably heard it a thousand times – it is about the people. Everything else follows.
When someone books a tour with us, they’re not just buying a vacation – they’re trusting us with their dreams, their savings, their time off work. That trust is sacred.
You can choose to see customers as numbers on a spreadsheet, or guests as real people who trusted you with something important. You can hide behind EU Package Travel Directive fine print and “operational reasons,” or you can honor your commitments even when it costs you. Because the difference between “guest” and “customer” is much more than a marketing term, isn’t it?
Being transactional isn’t just cold – it’s short-sighted.
The Takeaway
Whatever you do in life, here’s the thing: You can optimize for short-term profits, or build long-term relationships. You can break promises when it’s convenient, or you can keep them when it costs you.
You can charge tens of thousands per person and still tell them “you were nobody special” when you cancel on them. Or you can actually mean it when you make a promise. You can, you know… have real integrity.
Tomorrow, while our two guests are enjoying their first day with us, they won’t be thinking about profit margins or industry statistics. They’ll be thinking about the trust they placed in us… trust we’re honored to keep.
We’ll lose money. But we’ll keep a promise.
And in a world where major tour operators generate over 120,000 complaints annually while telling customers they’re “nobody special,” that’s not just good business.
It’s revolutionary.
Culture Discovery Vacations has operated authentic European tours since 2006 with a perfect record of zero cancelled departures. All competitor reviews referenced are from actual TripAdvisor, TrustPilot and CruiseCritic reviews as of August 2025.
What do you think? Have you ever had a tour cancelled on you? Share your experiences below – I’d love to hear your story.
Has Culture Discovery Vacations really never cancelled a single tour?
In nearly 20 years of operation (since 2006), we have never cancelled a single departure due to insufficient bookings, despite having the legal right to do so in our terms of service.
What’s the smallest group you’ve ever operated a tour for?
We’ve operated tours for single travelers and couples when no one else booked.
Don’t you lose money operating tours with too few people?
Yes, we operate at significant losses when tours don’t meet minimum profitable group sizes. We prioritize keeping promises to guests over protecting profit margins.
How do you compare to other luxury tour operators?
Unlike operators that charge $1,000+ per person per day yet still cancel trips and tell customers “you were nobody special,” we’ve never cancelled a single departure in nearly 20 years. While industry data shows 124,000+ consumer complaints annually, our philosophy is simple: when you trust us with your vacation, that trust is sacred.
What if I book and you don’t get enough people?
A: Your tour will happen. Period. We’ve maintained this promise for nearly 20 years across roughly 1,600+ departures.
Sources:
European Consumer Centres Network Annual Report, 2023
CBI European Tourism Market Requirements, 2025
IBISWorld European Tour Operators Report, 2024; Umbrex Travel Industry Analysis, 2024
EU Package Travel Directive (2015/2302), Article 12
European Consumer Centres Network Consumer Complaint Statistics, 2023
Co-Founder of Culture Discovery Vacations. I am a native American from Los Angeles that has been living with one foot in Italy and the other in the US for more than 30 years. I usually write about oddities I see in Italian culture from an American perspective, and the humor I find in it. However, after decades of living in both countries, I often see the reverse as well. That is, where the Italians got it right, and we can certainy learn from them!
Thanks for the article, Michael. Your story about honoring guests despite financial loss highlights a human side often missing in the tourism industry. What you are doing feels less like business and more like building trust and keeping promises, which truly sets your work apart.