What does a travel advisor actually do?
A travel advisor designs, books, and manages your trip: researching destinations, securing accommodations with added perks, coordinating transfers and experiences, and advocating for you before and during travel. Here's how it works with me, including what it costs.
Do I pay you, or the hotel?
Both, for different things. My planning fee covers the design work: research, itinerary building, coordination, and support. Your travel costs (hotels, transfers, experiences) are paid to the providers, usually at the property's standard rates. Booking a stay you've already chosen is complimentary through my partner network; designed trips start at $300 for a curated selection and $500 for complete travel design.
So why book through an advisor at all?
Because the same room, booked through my host agency Fora, a Virtuoso agency, usually comes with more attached: daily breakfast for two, resort or hotel credits, room upgrades when available, and early check-in or late check-out. One client's cruise booking came back with onboard credit, a suite upgrade, and a butler included. In his words, it truly felt like a VIP experience.
What's the actual work you do?
- Research you'd never finish: narrowing hundreds of options to 2 or 3 that genuinely fit how you travel.
- Design: itinerary pacing, so the trip breathes instead of sprints.
- Coordination: reservations, private transfers, documentation, confirmations.
- Advocacy: VIP requests before you arrive, and a person to call if anything wobbles mid-trip.
Who is this for?
If you've ever landed home from a vacation more tired than you left, this page is for you. My clients are mostly busy professionals: executives, physicians, attorneys, business owners. People whose time is worth more than the hours a trip takes to plan. One client, a business owner and mom, put it best in her review: she'd been trying to plan a vacation for months, handed me her budget, dates, and requirements, and now won't plan any trip without an advisor.
What about groups and companies?
Group travel is its own discipline: room blocks, guest communication, logistics timelines, and a central information hub so your guests always know what's next. I plan private group trips, executive and leadership retreats, and incentive trips for top performers, quoted individually from $1,500.
You've now read more about advisor fees than most clients ever ask. The call is easier, I promise.