Assembled once, so you are not chasing it in week three
If your organisation runs a formal supplier assessment, the same set of documents is requested every time. We assemble them in advance rather than responding to each request individually, because the alternative wastes a fortnight of your time and ours.
What the pack contains
- Company registration for the contracting entity, and for the operating DMC in your destination.
- Tax registration and VAT documentation appropriate to invoicing your organisation.
- Insurance certificates — public liability with limits, professional indemnity, and operator-level cover including passenger liability where a marine element applies.
- Operating licences for the ground operation, and vessel classification where relevant.
- Standards documentation — staffing ratios, contingency policy, safety positions, incident reporting commitments.
- Bank details on company letterhead, which your finance team will ask for and which we will never send in a plain email in response to an unverified request.
- References from comparable programmes, with client permission.
- Data handling position covering delegate personal data, retention and deletion.
The procurement pack does not sit behind the card authorisation. If your process requires supplier assessment before you can request pricing, ask and we will send it. Two working days.
Three-quote policies, handled honestly
Many organisations require three quotes. It is a sensible control and it produces a specific practical problem: two of the three suppliers are doing detailed work with no realistic prospect.
- Tell us if we are a comparison quote. We will still quote and we will not do it grudgingly. What we will do is scope the effort to the situation rather than running a full site verification.
- Ask for the indicative range rather than the detailed quote if the purpose is to satisfy the policy. It is free, it is honest, and it is usually sufficient for the comparison.
- Give all three suppliers the same brief. Quotes built on different assumptions cannot be compared, and the cheapest is usually the one that assumed least.
- Normalise the exclusions before comparing. This checklist works on any supplier's quote and takes about ten minutes.
Tender responses
For a formal RFP we respond in your format, to your deadline, and we will tell you if the deadline is not realistic rather than submitting something thin.
- What we need: the specification, the evaluation criteria and their weightings, and the deadline. Weightings matter — a tender scored 70% on price is a different exercise from one scored 40% on price and 30% on risk management.
- What we will not do: submit a price that requires removing the contingency, the coordinator or the staffing ratios in order to win on cost. We will instead state clearly what a lower price would remove, and let you decide.
- Site inspection: for tenders above 150 delegates we recommend including one in the process, at our cost if we are shortlisted.
- Presentation: we will present to your committee in person or remotely, and we prefer to be asked the difficult questions rather than the polite ones.
Questions clients ask most
Can we get the pack before requesting a quote?
Yes, at any stage, free, within two working days. Supplier assessment before pricing is a normal sequence in many organisations and we are not going to obstruct it.
Do you complete supplier questionnaires?
Yes, in your format. If a question does not apply to a Vietnamese ground operation we will say so rather than leaving it blank or inventing an answer.
Will you sign our standard supplier terms?
We will review them and respond with any points that conflict with the operational reality — force majeure and weather contingency are the usual two. Most are resolved in one exchange.
Can you invoice a different group entity from the one that books?
Yes, with written instruction from the booking entity. Tell us early because it affects the VAT documentation.
Where to go next
Four fields and you can send
Send the outline and you get a free feasibility reply within eight working hours — whether your dates hold at that headcount, what constrains them, and an indicative price range. No payment and no commitment at this stage.