There’s huge value to be had with booking luxury travel through Virtuoso, which typically requires booking through a qualifying travel advisor. What many people don’t realize is that you can actually make Virtuoso bookings online as well. In this post, I’d like to outline how that works, and talk about the pros and cons, especially in light of a recent post I wrote about TravelWits.
The concept is simple — hotels use all kinds of techniques to sell rooms, and one thing they do is offer Virtuoso travel advisors perks for their guests. This is intended to be a win-win — guests can get more value, while travel advisors can add perks for their clients, without their clients having to pay more.
Typically for booking a hotel stay through a Virtuoso travel advisor, you receive the following additional benefits:
- Daily breakfast for two people per bedroom
- Room upgrade, subject to availability
- Early check-in and late check-out, subject to availability
- A special Virtuoso amenity once per stay (usually a $100 property credit, or a complimentary massage, car transfer, meal, etc.)
Now, it’s worth noting that many hotel groups have their own proprietary programs, offering similar perks to Virtuoso. These include programs like Accor Preferred, Belmond Bellini Club, Four Seasons Preferred Partner, Hilton for Luxury, Hyatt Privé, Mandarin Oriental Fan Club, Marriott STARS, Oetker Pearl, Rosewood Elite, Shangri-La Luxury Circle, and more.
If you want to book Virtuoso stays through Virtuoso’s website, you can only book the Virtuoso rate. If you want to compare all the available rate options, you’ll want to work directly with a travel advisor, or book through TravelWits (more on that below).
How much more does a Virtuoso rate cost?
As a general rule of thumb, the Virtuoso rate is the same as the best flexible rate offered directly by the hotel (this typically excludes pre-paid rates, promotional rates, and member only rates). In most cases you’re not paying anything extra for booking through a Virtuoso agent, and in some cases, there may even be Virtuoso exclusive promotions available.
A great solo travel tip spotted this week on One Mile at a Time.
