Generally speaking, the best way to book luxury hotels is through a travel advisor who has access to programs offering extra perks at properties. These perks can include things like upgrades, breakfast, a property credit, and more, all with competitive pricing.
Continue reading: TravelWits: Self-Book Luxury Hotels With Special Travel Agency Perks
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Proliferation of tools like this is going to cause all the benefits of these luxury hotel special rates to start going away.
@ JustinB -- I can't speak as to how things will evolve over time, though a couple of points.
First of all, keep in mind that TravelWits is operating with the permission of all partners offering special perks, so this isn't some rogue program.
Second of all, the reason hotel groups offer these kinds of programs is because they want you to book either direct or through a travel advisor, and not through online travel agencies. Online travel agencies typically get much higher commissions, and the hotels also have less control over their clients. Hotels aren't concerned about offering free breakfast or a property credit through a travel advisor, as it's preferable to the alternative.
I have used it once and found it to be very good. No hesitation on my end using it again!
TravelWits and ClassicTravel.com are completely separate entities. Different ownership, different teams, different technology, different business models. There is ZERO (I said, ZERO) overlap.
TravelWits is an AI-native travel platform that builds and optimizes itineraries in real time. ClassicTravel.com is a longstanding traditional luxury agency operating within the Virtuoso network, relying primarily on human advisors and supplier relationships.
Equating the two isn’t just inaccurate; it’s a massive error that only an inconsequential fool with undescended little grapes for brains would make. The distinction is obvious to anyone who has spent even ten seconds looking at either site.
No irreverent fanfare needed - the facts alone are more than enough to make the confusion look ridiculous.
How does it show up on credit card if booking through the portal? For example will booking Park Hyatt still code as a Hyatt charge (to get the 4x points) or will it be "travelwits" charge
I used a few online travel agencies to book STARS rates. They operate online, but you can’t access them through a regular browser or any non-login software. They use a loophole by running through mini-apps on WeChat, where you then log in. I guess that’s their method of maintaining compliance.
Interestingly there is a large and popular subreddit dedicated to high end travel that has been taken over by travel agents that also use this tool.
@ John -- Thanks for the heads up. Which one isn't working for you? Because Ford hasn't noticed any issues, but I could be missing something.
@ Lisfranc -- Across the board you're going to be billed directly by the hotel. TravelWits is simply a technology platform, so if you're booking something like Hyatt Prive through the tool, it's the same as if you booked directly on Hyatt's website in terms of points and elite nights, credit card rewards, etc.
@ yoloswag420 -- Reddit has quite some "interesting" luxury travel and travel advisor communities nowadays.
Or just become a travel advisor yourself at Fora Travel. It's not brain surgery if you have been in the game for some years.
Go through the testing process, pay the annual fee, and become your own "Ford." Of course, you will need a network of some people you book for as well. Which I have developed. With that I book all the same that Ford does, via Virtuoso, FS, Prive others and get the benefits AS WELL AS commission. Further, I get a much clearer picture of different rates and the best of all...notifcations when the rates go down. Which is an area, given commission drive for planners, that I am sure many advisors turn their head to.
Yes, it's a game changer....
@ mk -- Yeah, Classic Travel has done quite the job innovating in that space, getting these travel advisor rates online before others (and the back-end tech isn't easy).
In some ways TravelWits is a different version of that with the ability to easily (kind of) "white label," making it easier for other travel agencies to allow online bookings. But beyond that, I think the depth of rates is greater with TravelWits, because you get virtually all available rates there.
That makes sense, but I still think individual hotels are going to start playing more and more games about honoring these benefits as more and more people book these rates, just as they do with more and more elites. Hilton already isn’t consistent with which properties are available with varying lengths of stay required depending on who knows what. Stars vs Luminous and even then it’s inconsistent whether you get the $100 credit. Hyatt is pretty consistent but even there I’ve had a few stays in the last year where the prive rate wasn’t available (Andaz and PH so shouldn’t be any min length of stay)
Like all things in this world, the more people that use it, the more games are played to counter the increased use, and the more the benefits are reduced.
Has anyone actually contacted Ford Beckett and booked travel through him? Encourage everyone to post their experiences. As a long-time reader of this blog, I e-mailed him (after a similar post that advertised his services) to request assistance booking a premium hotel stay, and received an extraordinarily rude response several days later essentially telling me that it wasn't worth his while to help me. This was on a >> $5k stay. Anyway, this booking engine seems like a good deal for him -- the traveler does all the work, and the "adviser" gets a commission for essentially doing nothing.
Awhile ago, I contacted Ford to get a quote for a Four Seasons property. I didn’t end up booking that particular hotel, but Ford was quick and professional in my communication with him.
I emailed Ford and he declined my request saying he only deals with $1000+ reservations.
I tend to agree. I am happy right now being with Fora Travel and acting as my own travel advisor along with a small corp of family and friends I book for. With that I get not only all the benefits of Virtusoso, Prive, FS etc but I get commissions, which over a year becomes a substantial rebate. Will this last? I wonder. Probably not. As you said, the hotels are likely going to start moving towards a central booking channel on their own platform and forgo all these workarounds, including OTA's as Ben mentions. I personally think that the easy world of the luxury travel advisor is going to go away very soon. Luxury hotels are one shot away from ending the entire system as we know it. And it's an easy shot.
I booked a recent stay at the FS Mexico City with Sean from Ford’s company. It was pretty easy and I got all the perks advertised.
I do wish they had been aware that the FS was undergoing renovations in the rooms when I stayed. It was pretty much inescapable throughout the hotel (and I was on a low floor as far from the most active construction as possible) during the daytime hours. The hotel did give me a free massage and facial as an apology though.
@Antwerp, the vast majority of hotels are already bookable via GDS channels (i.e. Sabre), so that would not be a new update. I have no idea if you have access to that as a Fora advisor, but it's a massive centralized system and all of the partner benefits are available per your IATA. I do agree with you that as the number of "advisors" hugely increases thanks to Fora and other similar start ups, the hotels will start to cut back on their partner access. The demand is there that they do not need all of these "advisors."
I booked the Park Hyatt Kuala Lumpur through FBT in September, a few emails with Toby (one of the advisers), and it was booked. All done within a few hours.
@X XY
Could you please find and copy/paste the response (with any personal details redacted, of course)
Booked Upper House with Ford and got upgraded to a suite. Gentleman who showed us around (forgot his title) kept saying how important and valued our TA was to them.
Had Ford’s team book several hotel stays over the years and they’ve been fast and easy to work with. Often times for special occasion I feel the recognition by the hotel is much better than if I had booked it via FHR
Simon - what purpose would that serve beyond causing inflammation? It was truly a c*nty reply, I've genuinely never felt so belittled before by a random stranger. I'm glad to see others have had better experiences, which is the genuine reason I asked to hear from others.
Booked 6-7 stays through them. Works perfectly fine.
I dont' know how other people use TAs but I don't expect them to give me recommendations. I know that I want, 2 or max 3 hotels and see if there's some specials.
@ JustinB -- That's a totally fair point, and indeed, every industry evolves. That being said, I'm surprised you found situations where Hyatt Prive rates weren't available at Andaz or Park Hyatt properties (even if for a one-night stay), as that shouldn't be the case.
@ Icarus -- It's Ford's (my husband) travel agency, which he has had for around 10 years. More details can be found on the website, fordbtravel.com.
@ John -- Hmm, thanks for the heads up. I'll forward this to him, though he has gotten hundreds of emails, so I'm not sure what could be causing that.
@ Sam -- This new tool is intended to be a good alternative in those situations. It's pretty common for advisors to have minimums, and while I realize that can be frustrating, there's a logic to it.
There's little correlation between how much a stay costs and how much effort it requires to book. If things were just as straightforward as booking a stay and that was it, I don't think anyone would turn down any bookings. However, as most advisors can attest to:
-- There are costs working with the host agency, for accounting, and even for commission follow-up, since many hotels don't automatically pay commissions
-- A certain percentage of people cancel bookings, and then of course there's no commission at all
-- Following up with hotels about each stay takes time, to ensure the guest has a good experience
-- People often have questions, and you want to be sure you can answer those (some people have no questions, other people have a dozen questions)
@ X XY -- I really appreciate you reading, and I'm sorry to hear your impression. Any chance you could let me know what email you sent your request from, so Ford can look into this (you can shoot me an email at ben@onemileatatime.com)? In particular, if you interpreted a response as "extraordinarily rude," then of course that's a problem.
There are absolutely some situations where FBT has had to turn away clients, and I'm really sorry about that. Ford doesn't want to grow his team endlessly, and the goal is quality over quantity in terms of the people he works with.
There are just some situations where the team can't handle more people, either because one or two people are on vacation, some life situations come up, or there's just extraordinarily high demand. Ford also worked a bit less in late summer and fall due to the birth of our second son, so he could focus more on him.
Ultimately it's about finding the right balance, and that's not always easy, and I know Ford is never happy with having to turn people away (even though it happens). The goal is that TravelWits at least gives people another pathway to booking in these situations.
But either way, an extraordinarily rude response to a $5K+ booking request sounds very unusual (and bad for business), so I'd appreciate any more details you can share...
I agree. The point of these programs is to provide benefits to luxury VIP clients, not just anyone random who books through a MLM Amway travel website.
Sorry but getting paid a commission for literally dont move a finger, doesn’t seem very ethical to me
I know several hard working travel agents, some of them were just in Costa Rica with Ford at the FS Event , who would never suggest something like this!
Such a comment is indicative of a person with a poor self-image . . . whether the person acknowledges it or not.
Similar experience for myself in April 2024. I had booked several high dollar bookings through Toby. One day I received a message (after multiple follow ups via email and WhatsApp) saying that “We’re currently receiving an unprecedented number of inquiries and regret that we are unable to take on this request.”. $6k booking at the Fairmont Pacific Rim that I have since awarded another travel advisor in one of my Facebook groups. Have done ~$60k worth of bookings with the new individual.
Wanted to support Ben and the blog, but this kind of behavior was off putting and I unfortunately cannot put my trust his FBT.
You mean you sell something, answer some questions if required, deliver a service and then get paid for it? Sounds like nearly every other travel industry job out there.....why the moaning that its so much more effort in this instance?
BTW this is common across many industries: design a new tool (call it AI to make everyone impressed when it's not), give the client access, let him to all the work (your own fixed costs go down because you can bin all the staff who used to that work previously) and then collect your commission.
Hah had a similar experience as Matt, I did several bookings over the years and then one day I got the "we're too busy" answer which was clearly a "you're not profitable enough for us". I would have been totally fine if I had been told "sorry we are only booking stays above $1000", which that specific stay wasn't, I understand business and I was never made aware of that threshold. I also definitely booked some sub $1k stays with them successfully before. But that answer completely put me off and I moved on to another TA even if I was happy to support Ben's family.
Hah, quite the coincidence. Not every booking of mine is over $1k, but the travel advisor I work with now appreciates that my cumulative spend is significant. To knit pick which opportunities to take on will lead to none at all, eventually.
One thing I’ve learned in sales is many small wins are equal or greater than, and more stable, than 1 large one.
Trust takes centuries to build and seconds to break. And that’s exactly what FBT did to me as far as I’m concerned.
@Ben, happy to support you in other ways, like the Premium Subscription service you floated. But you should really stop advertising FBT to your loyal readers. The treatment we receive is not that of a five star travel advisor. I understand it’s a family affair, but even a simple apology would be nice. I never heard back after asking for one.
I didn’t have the same experience with Sean at Ford’s team. I have found him to be very responsive, helpful, and honest. I am sorry to hear of your experience. My trouble is that a lot of travel agents do not like to book airfare anymore - my spouse and I currently reside in different continents and planning travel together takes a lot of time on my part. I had hoped that I could use the services of a travel agent to help us book complicated itineraries but alas it fell on me to do that. I think it is not reasonable to expect someone to provide service at a earning rate that is not worth their while. I very much welcome online tools that make my booking process easier. We all have to make a living, and I understand their limitations. Just because you have money to spend does not compel anyone to provide service. Just my 2c.
I really don’t think that’s a valid argument - the ota get twice the commission and if something goes wrong Mr Expedia ain’t really going to back you . But I also do agree that putting up a link and not giving some sense of the relationship is also not the intent of the hotels paying the commission or as you note classy . I expect some hotels will back track against this
@ JourneysbyJay -- I'd strongly disagree that there's any ethical issues here. Hotel groups agree to participate in this, and travel advisors can still provide support for bookings made through TravelWits. The only thing this is doing is giving people the opportunity to look up rates on their own online, and to book instantly, if that's something they value.
I'm sure many clients will also use this to simply look up rates and then still book the traditional way.
Honestly, all of this isn't that different than Virtuoso's online hotel booking tool, which has allowed self-booking for years.
Matt and Clem,
I’m really sorry we left you with a bad impression and were not able to help with your inquiries. There have been periods I’ve struggled to manage FBT’s workflow and have had to make the tough decision to let clients down when we’re not able to take on more work. We don’t like to do it, and I too would find it off-putting and seek help from a different advisor. This is one of the reasons we’ve recently introduced TravelWits and set a clear minimum for bookings with the FBT team. I appreciate your feedback and am taking it to heart. I wish you happy travels however they are booked!
There's some China APP have provided same features for few years now （八大洲, 游虾） , and they even give you their own reward points back for every booking.......TravelWits doesn't tell you rate came from where （Virtuosi Marriott STAR....etc）right? China APP do.
Spoiled children take their bat and ball home when they cannot win the game …. You know why ….
I thought the point of these programs is to sway customers (generaly Americans over ?40) who use travel agents because they are not confident to deal directly with the websites of the hotel brand-groups?
In other countries, people whose time is more valuable than cash tend to delegate to their spouses/PAs instead.
Does the opportunity arise because American PAs are less familiar with other countries than PAs in other countries?
Thanks Ben, I appreciate the follow-up. I do understand it's Ford's business and he can run it how he wants.
The wannabe comedians and satirists who post herein, would do better if they employed the services of a decent script writer. Some may have more patter than the Chinese army in flip-flops, however, they will never be funny as long as they possess an orifice into which a monkey can stuff its nuts.
We all know who the organ grinders monkey is, now don’t we?
I thought the point of these programs is to sway customers (generaly Americans over ?40) who use travel agents because they are not confident to deal directly with the websites of the hotel brand-groups?
In other countries, people whose time is more valuable than cash tend to delegate to their spouses/PAs instead.
Does the opportunity arise because American PAs are less familiar with other countries than PAs in other countries?
"Of course you should always book in the way that’s best for you, like if you have any credit card perks or benefits that would offer value, as those can’t be stacked here."
I can't work out what can't be stacked if it is "as if you booked directorly on Hyatt's website"
Thanks for your thoughtful response. I will do my best to find the e-mails, although I may have purged them since I was so incensed. On the other hand, I genuinely don't want to cause further discord with my "Pretty Woman" moment. This was I believe pre-pandemic. If he is so unhappy turning away people (for any reason), my gentle suggestion is to convey this sentiment graciously in responses. I'm not entirely sure whether TravelWits solves this issue -- if a $300 reservation goes south, does FBT have the bandwidth to step in and assist? Suggest that you keep some of these experiences in mind if you ever promote FBT in the future.
I hesitated a lot writing these comments, as I have really valued reading your blog over decades and did not want to offend you. Thanks for genuinely engaging and not dismissing this as dramatic flame-bait.
This is a great share, thank you.
For those of you who have any issues, you do you.