Smartours travel company shut down and gone!

We had a safari booked with them this summer for our 40th wedding anniversary and had just booked the flights today when I literally accidentally clicked on a tab on their website and saw that they were no longer in business.

Sure would have been nice to have had a heads-up about this! Fortunately we found out within the 24-hours we have to cancel our [rather pricey] flights. Update: Turns out they had sent a notification email from "[email protected]" on the day they shut down (1/31/2024) but only "[email protected]" was being allowed through our spam filter.

Very sad. They had a pretty decent reputation and we really liked the Kenya+Tanzania safari we had signed up for. Not sure if we'll ever get the deposit back. Uggh.

https://smartours.com/

Important Information for Travelers with Outstanding Credits

If you have an outstanding credit with smarTours, you may be eligible to submit a claim through the USTOA $1 Million Travelers Assistance Program, which provides financial protection for travelers affected by the closure of a USTOA Active Member.

To file a claim, please follow these steps:

Visit the USTOA website: www.ustoa.com
Download the Claim Form from the USTOA claims section.
Submit the completed form via:
Email: [email protected]
Mail: USTOA Executive Office, 345 Seventh Ave., Suite 1801, New York, NY 10001
Phone Support: 212-599-6599

Claims must be filed within 90 days of this notice. Coverage applies to deposits and payments made prior to or within seven days following this official notification.

Not sure if we'll ever get the deposit back.

Perhaps you paid your deposit with a credit card that has travel insurance? If so, the travel supplier going out of business is likely to be a covered reason for making a claim.

Thanks, CWsocial! We've never had a tour cancelled before and we do hope you are correct that the credit card should cover it.

Looks like we will have to try the credit card route first anyway.

From the new smarTours page on USTOA site (https://ustoa.com/travelers-assistance/smartours):

"Please note that passengers who are eligible and entitled to reimbursement from other sources, such as credit card consumer protection insurance, credit card chargebacks or other travel insurance benefits, are not eligible for reimbursement from the USTOA $1 Million Travelers Assistance Program."

Sounds like one less spam email in my inbox every week. I guess I was smart to delete them.

I've been on 7 Smartours trips since 2014, Thailand, South Africa, Japan, Croatia, Spain, Portugal and Egypt/Jordan. I am so sad they are going out of business. More often than not, we had great tour guides. Hotels in Egypt/Jordan were beautiful and in convenient locations. The reason we like tour groups is we love traveling with a group of people. I was in the midst of choosing a trip for this fall and now I don't know where to start. I'm sorry for being insensitive to those who have trips already planned and/or paid for that will struggle to get your money back. I hope you are made whole by the insurance. I'd love to hear what tour company you would suggest that is on a par, pricewise, and hopefully quality with SmarTours.

For JLDM3 & Valerie

I myself loved SmarTours-good gracious what happened? I'm shocked-what
a wonderful company & what good value;their prices were excellent. Please let
me know if you find another company like this. Thanks

just wondering - I don't know the company - but noticing folks saying how good the prices were, is it possible that their prices were just too good?

I don’t know what happened. The company was sold in 2017 or 2018 but don’t know if that played a part.

They provided a solid product - the 2 tours I did were just fine. 48 on the Turkey tour and 18 on the China. They were no different than any on the other companies I’ve used - good guides, fine hotels.

They had fewer offerings than Gate 1, but I considered them to be pretty much interchangeable.

They went on to offer smaller groups over the years, but I haven’t traveled with them since about 2019.

I learned through a friend a week before final Peru trip payment was due, yet still today I'm getting emails (2nd in last 5 days) that they want my final payment. Anyway, we called our CC companies and they have protection for deposits we paid for Peru & Japan, $600, since we paid for "product" but never received "product." Too bad that the company went under; just plain wrong that company is still sending out requests for payment on trip that won't happen.

I booked my second trip with SmarTours for this April. I paid the balance in early January on the phone with its CS department and no one sounded like they were about to shut down. I had no idea of its closure until I saw a note on Facebook from a fellow passenger on a SmarTours trip from last year. If you call, there is a generic voicemail; I have not received any sort of email from anyone. They did send me a note this week to remind me of my trip in two months; I replied "you're out of business!" I purchased my trip and airfare through my credit card/bank; I spoke with the bank and opened up claims and submitted the paperwork. I am hoping to get a refund but it might take longer if they cannot reach a human being on the phone at SmarTours. The bottom line is IMO a bank should honor a full refund since this is a purchase that cannot happen through no fault of your own. Good luck to others in a similar situation!

If you bought the airfare separately, I expect the bank is not going to consider this related to the tour company going out of business. The airline is still in business, even though you don’t want to go there because what you’re going for is gone. However, for chargebacks, etc. the fact you no longer want to go is not relevant. Chargebacks do not occur just because you decided you didn’t want to go someplace. So if you’ve already purchased your airfare, contact your airline and see what your options are. Hopefully you can convert it to a credit to use for some other trip.

It makes you wonder about any of these companies doesn't it-how viable they are. I was just speaking to someone in January about Thailand. I used them last yr to the UAE & the trip was an excellent one.

For anyone dealing with a current/upcoming SmarTours trip, this may be helpful.
I insured an 3/2/25 SmarTours trip with Faye, a well-regarded insurer. I submitted all the required information to them, but because there's no evidence that SmarTours filed for bankruptcy or is insolvent, Faye won't cover my loss. I even reached out to Summit, the private equity firm that had purchased SmarTours several years ago, but they say they have no information.
I used a Chase Visa card for the tour payment and have disputed the charge with them. They've issued a temporary credit while they investigate. I used Amex to pay the deposit, but they told me I need to wait for a couple of days after the scheduled trip start date to file a claim showing "services paid for but not delivered".
My airfare was refunded minus a $200 cancellation fee because of the class of ticket we had purchased.
The industry group USTOA is the last resort, in that they want to see proof that insurance and/or the credit card company has refused to reimburse.

I worked for them and the closure came as a complete surprise for us as employees as well. It really sucked.