We are in the process of booking with Compass Tours for a custom tour of Rajsthan for 20 days in November. They are requesting 20% now, which is fine, but then they want full payment 30 days before the tour begins. I've never gone on a "tour" before (have always travelled independently) and am wondering if this is standard. I thought I read somewhere where one only paid half up front and half upon the completion of the trip. Maybe this was just for hiring a driver and car only? I appreciate any advice anyone can give us. Thanks.

About a year ago I had an e-mail conversation with Durjay at Compass. He said they paid 100% of the hotel cost to hold reservations for their clients at the better properties because all the hotels were booking up. So asking for full payment 30 days prior sounds reasonable. Cars and drivers are plentiful so you shouldn't have to pay much in advance for that.

Paying in advance is a common practice for packaged and customised tours all over the world.

The tour operator, whether going with a group or an independent custom tour, have to pay you hotels usually 30/days prior your arrival. So it makes sense that you pay them in order for them to pay for the services they are providing. It's quite usual.

Actually thirty days sounds pretty good - the tours that we've done have usually required full payment sixty or even ninety days in advance.