travaux.com
What Travaux.com is trying to do (and who it’s for)
Travaux.com is a French marketplace that matches homeowners with building and home-improvement professionals (plumbers, electricians, roofers, painters, renovation companies, and a long list of other trades). The homeowner side is positioned as “publish a project, get responses, compare, choose” — essentially a structured way to collect quotes and talk to nearby pros without hunting through directories yourself.
On the company side, Travaux.com says it was founded in 2006 in Aix-en-Provence and operates as part of the Instapro Group, in the wider “Angi/HomeAdvisor” family of marketplaces across multiple countries. That matters because the playbook is pretty consistent across those brands: lead-generation, messaging gates, reviews, and a support layer that tries to reduce obvious fraud and improve conversion for good pros.
How the flow works for homeowners
The homeowner experience is intentionally simple:
- You publish a project (type of work, location, timing, details).
- Interested professionals respond.
- You check profiles, compare, and decide who to talk to and hire.
Two things are easy to miss until you use a platform like this.
First, the quality of responses you get is directly tied to how “quotable” your request is. If you write “bathroom renovation” with no dimensions, constraints, photos, or whether you’re changing plumbing, you’re going to attract a mix of generic replies and pros asking lots of follow-up questions. If you add photos, approximate measurements, what you already bought (tiles, vanity, etc.), and a realistic date window, you tend to get fewer, more serious responses.
Second, your choice architecture is part of the product. Travaux.com nudges you to compare multiple professionals, and it’s worth actually doing. Not because “more quotes” automatically means “cheaper,” but because the spread tells you what’s normal for your scope, and which pros are reacting thoughtfully vs. pushing a one-size-fits-all price.
How the flow works for professionals (and where the money comes from)
Travaux.com repeatedly emphasizes “no subscription, no commitment, no commission.” In other words, they’re not taking a percentage of the job value, and they’re not charging you a monthly fee just to exist on the platform.
The key monetization point is lead access. According to their own support documentation, professionals pay after they send a message to the homeowner and only if the homeowner accepts sharing their contact details. That’s a very specific gate: it’s not purely “pay per click,” it’s closer to “pay when the homeowner agrees to be contacted outside the platform.”
If you’re a homeowner, this business model has one practical implication: professionals are incentivized to respond quickly and convincingly, because there’s a cost associated with pursuing leads. That can improve responsiveness, but it can also produce templated outreach if your project looks like a broad category that many pros chase.
Reviews: what’s allowed, what gets removed, and what that means for trust
Travaux.com has a fairly explicit review policy. The headline rule is: users can leave a review only when the professional has been engaged and work has started and/or money has been paid (like a deposit). Reviews are capped at 1000 characters, must be factual, and incentives-for-reviews are prohibited.
They also spell out removal conditions: for example, if the review isn’t tied to a real request on the platform, doesn’t reflect a real job, contains personal information, or appears incentivized. They mention automated checks to detect fake/inaccurate reviews and potential account closure for abuse.
Two grounded takeaways here:
- This is not a “review anyone you want” system. It’s designed to attach reviews to actual platform-mediated projects, which is good for reducing random vendettas and spam, but it also means you won’t see feedback from people who almost hired someone and backed out early.
- The 1000-character limit pushes reviews toward short summaries. That’s fine, but it means you should read patterns across multiple reviews instead of expecting one detailed story to tell you everything.
For extra outside signal, Travaux.com has a large volume of third-party reviews on Trustpilot (tens of thousands of reviewers shown on their profile page), which can help you sanity-check themes you’re seeing on-platform.
Verification, contact handling, and the “why am I getting calls?” reality
In the Terms/Conditions, Travaux.com notes that phone verification may be performed by them or providers, including automated calling systems, to verify a number’s existence and validity. They also describe how user data can be transmitted to professionals for quote purposes, and even, in some cases, to professionals outside their network to ensure service continuity (with stated limits on use).
Practically: if you post a project, you should assume you’ll be contacted. If you want to keep everything inside the platform at first, be deliberate about what you share in messages and when you accept contact sharing. And if you’re sensitive to phone outreach, use a clear note in your request like “first contact by message, please” — it won’t stop everything, but it filters out some of the more aggressive approaches.
Also worth noting: they point users to a consumer mediation entity (CM2C) for disputes related to their services, and they reference the French opt-out registry (Bloctel) regarding telemarketing opposition. That doesn’t solve workmanship disputes with a contractor, but it does show the platform is framing itself within standard French consumer-process norms.
Data privacy: what they claim and what you should do anyway
Travaux.com states its processing aligns with GDPR and that it places importance on protecting personal data, with details in their privacy policy.
Even with GDPR language in place, your best protection is still behavioral:
- Don’t post unnecessary personal details in the public project text (exact schedule patterns, alarm system info, etc.).
- Share address-level details only when you’ve decided a pro is serious and you’re ready for a site visit.
- Keep records: screenshots of the original scope, messages, and any quote documents.
What Travaux.com is strong at, and where it can feel messy
Where it tends to work well:
- Getting momentum quickly. Posting a project and getting multiple interested responses is the platform’s core strength.
- Comparable options. If you’re not sure what a fair price range looks like, multiple responses give you market signal fast.
- Reputation loops. The review structure is clearly intended to reward pros who actually complete work and keep customers satisfied.
Where friction usually shows up:
- Lead quality mismatch. Homeowners sometimes post vague requests; pros sometimes respond too quickly without reading. That creates a lot of clarifying back-and-forth.
- Contact expectations. Some users expect “three perfect quotes” without any calls or visits; many trades require a site visit to price accurately.
- Mixed external sentiment. You’ll find highly positive and highly negative commentary across the web, including “scam report” style posts. Those aren’t proof either way, but they’re a reminder to treat any marketplace as a tool, not a guarantee.
How to use Travaux.com without wasting time
- Write your request like you’re helping someone estimate: photos, measurements, access constraints, parking, whether the building is occupied, and your timing window.
- Ask two screening questions early (by message): insurance coverage for the trade + when they can do a site visit.
- Treat the first conversation as qualification, not negotiation. Save price pressure for when scope is agreed.
- If a quote arrives without a visit for a complex job, ask what assumptions they made. If they can’t explain, move on.
Key takeaways
- Travaux.com is a lead-and-matching marketplace: homeowners post projects, professionals respond, and you choose who to hire.
- Professionals don’t pay a subscription or commission per job; they pay around the moment contact details are shared (per Travaux.com support docs).
- Reviews are tied to actual engaged work (started and/or paid), capped at 1000 characters, and governed by explicit removal rules plus automated checks.
- Expect verification and outreach dynamics (including possible automated phone verification); control this by managing what you share and when.
- The platform can accelerate finding options fast, but you still need basic procurement discipline: clear scope, screening, and documentation.
FAQ
Is Travaux.com free for homeowners?
Publishing a project and receiving responses is presented as free on the homeowner side. The platform’s monetization is primarily on the professional side through paid lead/contact access.
Do professionals pay a commission on the job value?
Travaux.com states it does not take a commission on the amount of the works, and its support materials emphasize no commission and no subscription.
Can anyone leave a review about a professional?
Not anyone. Their policy says reviews can be left when the professional has been engaged and the job has started and/or money has been paid (deposit), and reviews must reflect an authentic experience tied to a real request.
What if I think a review is fake or I was incentivized to write one?
Their policy explicitly prohibits incentivized reviews and asks users to report suspected fake reviews or incentives via their support contact path.
Who operates Travaux.com as a company?
Travaux.com says it was founded in 2006 in Aix-en-Provence and is part of the Instapro Group / Angi family of marketplaces. Legal details (entity type, address, identifiers) are listed in their legal notices and also appear in French business registries.
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