What is broke.

I

September 2020

We trusted a new host without enough verification

In September 2020 we added a Southern riad that looked perfect in photographs. We visited only once. Three months later, two travellers arrived and discovered the owner couple was going through a difficult divorce — the atmosphere was tense, cold. We had to relocate them in the middle of the night. The rule changed that same month: no new host enters the programme without at least three visits in different windows of the year.

Lesson: photography lies. Human continuity doesn’t.

II

March 2022

We took on a trip beyond our true capacity.

A major Madrid client requested a 14-person group with a luxury itinerary at Easter. We accepted. It was one trip too many that year — we knew it didn't fit. Yasmina worked 70 hours the week before. The trip went apparently well — no one complained. But three months later Mohamed convened the team: "That trip wasn't ours. If we accept another like it, we are not what we claim to be." We refunded the client 30% in credit unprompted. Since then nothing is signed that doesn't fit a real diary.

Lesson: signing by hand isn't a slogan. It's the only policy we know how to keep.

III

November 2024

We didn’t anticipate a host’s burnout

Khadija (Marrakech hammam) had spent two years receiving more travellers than she could personally handle. We saw it in her shorter replies, in her denser schedule. We didn’t act until she called us in November 2024: she needed to stop for three months. It cost us to rearrange the calendar of four already-confirmed trips. We moved them at no cost and without a single unhappy client. But the problem wasn’t logistical — it was ours: we didn’t listen in time. Today we review host load in every monthly call.

Lesson: if we only look at clients, we lose hosts. And without hosts, there’s no trip.