Skip to main content

Safety Guidelines

Travelling with people you met online can be excellent. It can also go wrong. These are the things that matter most — please read them properly.

Before you commit

Take the time to establish who you are dealing with.

  • Check whether the profile carries a verification badge. Verification is optional, so an unverified profile is not automatically suspicious — but it is less evidence.
  • Read the organiser’s track record: completed trips and ratings from people who actually travelled with them.
  • Use the group chat. Ask specific questions about the plan, the costs and who else is going. Vague answers are a signal.
  • Video-call before you book anything expensive or travel to meet someone for the first time.

Money

TripMatch does not collect money for trips and will never ask you to. Every trip cost is arranged directly between participants.

  • Never send money to another member outside a channel you can dispute — no bank transfers to strangers, no gift cards, no crypto.
  • Book flights and accommodation in your own name, through the provider, wherever you can.
  • Be sceptical of urgency. Pressure to pay quickly to "hold a place" is the most common pattern in travel scams.

Meeting and travelling

A few habits make a large difference.

  • Meet first in a public place, in daylight, before travelling anywhere together.
  • Tell someone you trust where you are going, who with, and when you expect to be back. Share your itinerary.
  • Keep your own copies of your passport, tickets and insurance, and keep control of your own documents at all times.
  • Arrange your own travel insurance. TripMatch does not provide any cover.
  • Keep enough money and a working phone to get yourself home independently, whatever happens to the group.

Your judgement comes first

If a situation feels wrong, leave. You do not owe anybody an explanation, a refund, or another chance. No trip is worth staying somewhere you feel unsafe.

In an emergency, contact local emergency services first. Report to us afterwards.

Reporting a problem

Every profile and trip can be reported, and reports are reviewed individually. Report anyone who pressures you for money, misrepresents who they are, behaves aggressively, or tries to move the conversation off-platform early.

Reporting is confidential. We would far rather look into something that turns out to be nothing.