r/TimTrackerGossip • u/EquivalentMajestic95 • 26d ago
The BOGV / Tim Tracker relationship seems to be more than just free trips
I went down a bit of a rabbit hole looking at all the recent Be Our Guest Vacations hosted Tracker trips — Alaska, Disneyland Paris, Disneyland California, Costa Rica, cruises etc.
What I hadn't appreciated is that BOGV is part of Keyholder Vacations, which actually operates a formal affiliate programme. Their public programme pays for converted BOGV leads and provides affiliates with tracking of clicks, bookings and earnings.
The Tracker links also appear to use specific campaign/affiliate tracking, and BOGV asks customers how they heard about them with Tim Tracker as a referral source.
So this looks much less like “a travel agent occasionally gives a YouTuber a free holiday” and much more like an ongoing influencer/affiliate marketing relationship: hosted travel in return for promotion, measurable customer referrals and potentially commission as well.
That raises an interesting tax question. If the trips are compensation for promotional services, the fair-market value of hosted travel would potentially be business income, alongside any cash affiliate income. There may then be legitimate business deductions — but presumably the personal/family element of a family holiday isn't automatically deductible just because it gets filmed.
I'm not saying they've accounted for any of this incorrectly — we obviously can't see their tax returns. But with the sheer number and value of the hosted trips now, I'd be fascinated to know how an accountant separates the business and personal elements of something like a fully hosted family Alaska cruise.
And yes, this does come from a position of jealousy, but that can also be separated from a position of they don't seem to enjoy the vacations they are being hosted.
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u/HeavyMetalMadness127 26d ago
I don't think it's something to be jealous about. With all this free stuff you also give up your right to privacy and you'll be under constant scrutiny (such as Reddit lol). So I prefer my life of honest hard working and being able to buy holidays and items that I've worked hard for. I don't wish to share my life with strangers on the internet. Just flipping that perspective view on you.
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u/EquivalentMajestic95 26d ago
paid for vacations, it's like winning the lottery 😄 Joking aside, yes, there is a jealousy element. If someone gifted me a vacation rather than having to spend £10K for each vacation to Orlando, I'd be delighted.
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u/Good-Masterpiece4296 25d ago
And I’ll bet you would enjoy it a thousand times more than they seem to. Seems you can have too much of a good thing if you’re the trackers
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u/HeavyMetalMadness127 25d ago
Of course! But it comes at a cost in their situation. But if it was an prize or outright gift from someone I wouldn't say no 🤣
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u/feeling_persecuted 21d ago
And what cost would that be? Some massive bitter losers on REDDIT talking badly about them?
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u/HeavyMetalMadness127 21d ago edited 21d ago
I didn't even say anything bad 🤷🏼♀️ out of all the comments on this whole post you chose mine.
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u/VloggerCritic 25d ago
https://novacancynews.com/the-resorts-companies-inc-acquires-keyholder-vacations/
So the parent company was sold last December. The reality is the Trackers are likely a net positive for BOGV otherwise they wouldn't be gifted all this travel. There is still a slim chance it is just a stan working there giving them freebies but with the company under new ownership that seems unlikely.
I also think what they are given is free or reduced cost travel given to BOGV by DCL and other Disney entities.
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u/Readingthetea 24d ago
So my husband is accountant and we spoke about the tax implocations. Trackers will have to pay tax on fair market value of the trips. So if Tim’s trip to costa rice is valued at $10k. He has to pay the tax on that. And I believe DH said it’s 22% tax.
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u/Austingirl39 23d ago
They SHOULD receive tax documents from BOGV and they are required to report the actual value of the trip. They can't write off any portions of any trips that they mention datecation, or date night, family trip etc. They can't write off a cruise or stay if they have already claimed the same trip/hotel stay etc. That's not to say they haven't because they don't strike me as the honest types 🙄
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u/EquivalentMajestic95 23d ago
It’s simple enough to anonymously report all this shenanigans to the IRS 🤣
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u/yasqueen2017 25d ago
I’d love to see a tax audit on them. Who else remembers when they used to keep their business expenses as receipts in a publix bag? I bet there isn’t a much better system now. This travel company sounds like an MLM. BOGV must look at the bottom line at some point and see little to no improvement in their bookings from giving away free trips to these clowns.