My first travel therapy contract was a disaster. Not clinically — the work was fine. But everything around it was a mess. The pay package wasn’t what I thought it was. The housing the agency “lined up” fell through four days before my start date. The cancellation clause I hadn’t read meant I had almost no leverage when the facility changed my schedule in week three.
I spent six years figuring out what I should have asked before signing that first contract. By year three I had a running list. By year five it was something I went through on every single first call with any agency. Here it is — the full list, with the context for why each question matters.
Before signing with a travel therapy staffing company, ask questions in four categories: pay, the facility, the contract, and the agency itself. On pay, get an itemized weekly breakdown and confirm the guaranteed hours (usually 36–40). On the contract, pin down the mutual cancellation notice (commonly two to four weeks). Vague or hedged answers are the real signal.
Questions About Pay
“Can you show me a full weekly breakdown — taxable rate, hours, and every stipend itemized?”
Not a blended rate. Not a gross weekly number. The actual line-by-line breakdown: taxable hourly rate, guaranteed hours per week, housing stipend, meals and incidentals stipend, and any other stipends (travel, license, etc.). This is the only way to compare offers accurately. Any agency that resists this or gives you only a single “package rate” number is hiding part of the picture.
“What is the guaranteed hours number, and what happens to my stipend if the facility can’t use my full hours?”
Most contracts guarantee 36–40 hours per week. If the facility has a slow census week and can’t fill your schedule, you should still be paid for guaranteed hours. But some contracts prorate stipends when hours fall short. Know before you sign — this can change your effective weekly income by hundreds of dollars in a bad census week.
“Is there a completion bonus, and what exactly triggers it?”
Completion bonuses are sometimes thousands of dollars and almost always absent from the headline pitch. Ask specifically: Is there a bonus for completing the full contract? What is the amount? Does it require a minimum hours worked? Does it disappear if the facility cancels early even if you were willing to stay? Get this in writing before you sign.
“Does the pay package change between the verbal offer and the written contract?”
Ask this directly. A trustworthy agency will say “no — what we quote you verbally is what’s in the contract.” An agency that pauses or hedges is telling you something. I’ve had the number shift between verbal offer and written contract twice in my career. Both times I should have seen the warning signs in this question.
Use the ProTherapy pay calculator to input any offer and see your estimated take-home before you call anyone back. Takes two minutes and gives you a real number instead of a guess.
Questions About the Facility
“Why did this position open up?”
The answer tells you the context you’re walking into. “Census is up and they need additional coverage” is one thing. “Their staff PT just left” invites the follow-up: why? A recruiter who has actually talked to the facility can tell you. One forwarding a job listing cannot. This one question tells you more about the quality of the recruiter-facility relationship than almost anything else. The way a recruiter fields these questions is telling in itself — here’s how to read a good recruiter versus a bad one.
“What do you know about the therapy department structure and the therapy director?”
You’re going to be working under or alongside a therapy director for 13 weeks. Whether that person supports travelers or resents needing them makes a significant difference in your daily experience. A good recruiter has this color. Ask specifically: do travelers typically extend at this facility, or do they tend to leave as soon as the contract ends? The extension rate is a clean signal of facility culture.
“What does the documentation system look like, and what are the productivity expectations for travelers?”
These two questions saved me from at least two bad assignments in my later years. EMR systems that are clunky or poorly implemented will eat your evenings. Productivity expectations that are set to permanent-staff levels without accounting for traveler onboarding time will make your first four weeks miserable. A recruiter who has placed travelers at this facility before knows the answers. One who doesn’t has only the job posting.
“Have you placed travelers at this facility before? What was their experience?”
Straightforward but revealing. An agency with a repeat relationship at a facility knows its patterns. An agency sending you in blind doesn’t. Ask for specifics: did previous travelers extend? Did any leave early? If they left early, why?
Questions About the Contract
“What is the mutual cancellation notice period?”
Most contracts allow either party to cancel with two to four weeks’ notice. Know what yours is before you sign. A short mutual cancel window gives you more flexibility if the assignment turns out to be a bad fit. A long window protects you if the facility cancels, because you’re entitled to that notice period’s income.
“What happens to my housing stipend and travel reimbursement if the facility cancels early?”
Facility-side cancellations happen. They’re less common than recruiter horror stories make them sound, but they do happen. Know in advance: are you owed a prorated housing stipend for the remainder of the contract? Is there a kill fee? Will the agency work to find you a bridge assignment immediately? A good agency has a clear answer to all three.
“Does this contract have a non-compete or exclusivity clause?”
Some agency contracts restrict you from working at the same facility through another agency or directly for a set period after your contract ends. Read these carefully. Overly broad non-competes in travel healthcare are common and worth pushing back on. If you love a facility and want to return through a different agency, or take a permanent position there, a restrictive clause could block you. These clauses are worth scrutinizing line by line — see our full list of travel therapy contract red flags.
Questions About the Agency
“How does your pay model work — what’s your typical margin?”
A transparent agency will explain their model clearly: how they structure the split between taxable wage and stipends, how they think about margin, why their model produces the pay package they’re offering. An opaque agency will deflect. The willingness to answer this question honestly is itself a strong signal about how the whole relationship will go. For the broader evaluation, our guide to choosing a travel therapy agency lays out the full checklist.
“Can I speak with a current traveler before I decide?”
Any agency that’s proud of how they treat their travelers says yes immediately. An agency that hesitates or redirects you to written testimonials on their own website is a yellow flag. Ask for a real conversation, not a curated quote.
“What does your team’s clinical background look like?”
This one matters more than it sounds. An agency founded and staffed by people who have actually worked travel therapy assignments understands the clinical context of your questions — what it means when you say a facility’s productivity model is unrealistic, what it actually feels like to navigate a new EMR in week one, what “good staffing support” looks like on a Tuesday at 7 p.m. ProTherapy was built by travel therapists. That context is the difference between a recruiter who can actually help you make a good decision and one who is reading from a script.
One More Question: The One That Reveals Everything
After you’ve asked all of these, ask this: “What’s the worst assignment you’ve placed someone in, and what happened?”
Nobody who answers this question honestly is going to tell you about a catastrophe. But a good recruiter will acknowledge that not every placement is perfect, describe what went wrong without deflecting blame entirely onto the facility, and tell you what they did about it. A bad recruiter will say some version of “we’ve never had a problem like that.” That answer is neither credible nor useful.
The agencies that have been doing this long enough have stories. The ones worth working with have learned from them.