Many families in Morocco now receive Umrah offers on WhatsApp: a flyer forwarded by a cousin, a photo with a price in large letters, a voice message from a group organiser. That is how offers travel today, and there is nothing wrong with it. The problem comes later, when someone has to prove what was promised and the only evidence is an image with no name on it.
This page is for whoever holds the phone, often a son or daughter organising the trip for their parents. It tells you what to ask for, how to ask, and what to keep.
Why is an image not a package?
Because it cannot answer the questions that matter once you have paid. An image usually shows a price, a period and a phone number. It rarely says which company organises the trip, how many nights you will spend in each city, which hotel you will sleep in, or what happens if the flight changes.
An image is also easy to lose and impossible to pin down. The same flyer can be forwarded by several people, edited along the way, or replaced by a new version with a different price. If the seller later says “that was an old offer”, you have nothing to show.
A package, by contrast, is a document you can read line by line. Our guide to reading an Umrah package walks through each line a clear package states.
What should you ask for in writing?
Ask for one document, not a string of messages. It should carry the company's legal name, its address and its licence type, and the date it was issued. Then check that it covers the lines below.
Line by line
- The departure and return dates, and the number of nights in Makkah and in Madinah.
- The hotel in each city, by name, or a clear statement of what “or similar” covers.
- The room: shared by two, three or four people, and the price for that room.
- The flight: airline, dates, and whether there is a stop.
- What is included and what is not: transfers, meals, insurance, any fees.
- The payment terms: deposit, balance, due dates, who receives the money, and how.
Send your questions as text, even if the seller answers with voice notes. When a voice note answers a question, reply with one line that sums up what you heard, and ask the seller to confirm it in writing. That one line turns a spoken promise into something you can quote later.
To check whether the inclusions are complete, compare them with our list of what an Umrah package should include. And if you have two or three offers, put them side by side in the package comparison tool, which runs in your browser and stores nothing.
Distance selling and Law 11-16
According to EcoActu, Law 11-16 repealed Law 31-96, gave existing agencies 24 months to comply, and created graduated licences with rules for online and distance selling1. According to EcoActu, the exact licence categories are not known1. Beyond that, there is little we can quote in detail.
We have not found the text of those distance-selling rules in a source we can cite, so we cannot tell you what a seller on WhatsApp owes you under them. What we can say is practical: a sale made by phone or chat leaves fewer traces than a sale made at a counter, so the written package matters even more.
The licence itself is worth checking before any payment. The Ministry of Tourism publishes its travel-agency directory on mtaess.gov.ma2. Look for the legal name printed on the package, not the name of the WhatsApp account or social media page that sent it. Other warning signs that a package can show are listed in our page on Umrah package red flags.
Why keep the package and receipts until you are home?
Because if something goes wrong, they are what you will rely on. Disagreements between pilgrims and agencies are settled amicably first, through the Ministry of Tourism's delegations4. If that does not work, the ministry points people to the national complaints portal, where a complaint can be filed with the Tourism department, followed with its number and an e-mail address, and reopened if the answer falls short5.
Both routes go better when you can show what was promised. Keep these together, on paper and on your phone, until the pilgrim is back home:
- the dated package in the company's name;
- every receipt, each in the company's name;
- the WhatsApp chat, exported or saved, with the voice notes;
- any change sent later in writing (new hotel, new flight time).
If you are paying from abroad for parents in Morocco, keep a copy on your phone as well as theirs. The person who paid is not always the person who travels, and either of you may need the documents.
Received an offer as an image or a voice note? Send it as it is, and we will tell you which lines to ask for in writing.
What remains unclear
- We have not found the text of the law's rules on online and distance selling in a source we can cite, so we cannot say what they oblige a seller to give you.
- No source we have read says how often Umrah offers in Morocco are sold through WhatsApp or social media.
- We do not know whether a WhatsApp chat on its own carries weight in an amicable settlement or a complaint; ask the delegation or a lawyer if it comes to that.