Selling luxury travel comes with major perks: higher commissions, a loyal client base, and prestige in the industry. But standing out in this niche takes more than destination expertise; you’ll need a deep understanding of travel marketing, personalisation, and client expectations.
In this article, you’ll learn how to effectively access and sell luxury travel experiences with the help of the Bedsonline Luxury Collection.
What do today’s luxury travellers want?
What luxury travellers want depends a lot on their travel style, wealth level, and generation. Recent research offers some valuable insights:
- Ultra-high-net-worth individuals ($30 million+ in assets) want a combination of quiet destinations and personalised service. Think remote places, exemplary stays, private airports, and high-touch service with a focus on exclusivity.
- Very-high-net-worth individuals ($5-30 million in assets) are likely to choose large suites as their accommodation and local experiences for their daily activities.
- High-net-worth individuals ($1-5 million in assets) tend to trust boutique travel agents and look for exclusivity as a key booking motivator.
- Luxury is fast becoming ‘normalised’ – Millennials and Gen Z are emerging as high-value luxury travel clients, set to make up 60-70% of luxury purchases by 2030. Many Gen Z travellers are also willing to spend more on luxury features or highly personalised trips.
- Similarly, high-value audiences also include executive travellers who want a touch of luxury during their trip, but who aren’t part of this more exclusive high-net-worth market. Enhance their trip with high-touch service, thoughtful upgrades, and added comfort to increase their satisfaction.
- While getting the most value from a trip is essential, branded luxury will pique the luxury traveller’s interest.
- Premium customer service is a vital stand-out factor. The luxury segment is projected to grow at 6% per year through 2025, and alternative options – such as rental villas equipped with chefs and increasing premium products in nonluxury hotels – are intensifying competition in the marketplace. This exemplifies how important service will be, for sellers and providers both, to stand out.
- Experience-led travel is key. This is a notable shift across the entire travel landscape, where travellers are prioritising high-value experiences as opposed to the ‘opulence’ of their surroundings. Here it will be critical for travel sellers to adopt a ‘culture of excellence’ to stand out, rather than focusing on the material features available to travellers during their stay.
So, when considering the needs of today’s luxury traveller, there are three key pillars to keep in mind:
- Personalised experience: Luxury travellers have diverse interests, income levels, and requirements. Personalising their experience isn’t a nice-to-have – it’s a must-have. Here is where a concierge service, like those offered as part of The Luxury Collection, become so essential to curate a truly bespoke itinerary.
- Exclusivity: Whether that’s offering after-hours museum visits or arranging private tours, a sense of privacy will go a long way.
- High-quality service: Luxury travellers are paying for premium service, so they will expect to see that reflected. This could be everything from smooth logistics to quick responses throughout the journey.
How to better personalise your luxury tourism offers
Enhance your offerings with a specialist partner
To plan the perfect luxury trip, you’ll need a strong network of high-end hotels, car dealerships, experiences, and concierge services. So, it makes sense that you should be more particular about the partners you entrust to meet your customers’ requirements.
When you partner with us, you’re empowering your business with support from a specialist equipped with the products, service, and experience to help you deliver every time. And when it comes to the luxury segment, positioning yourself as a reliable, trustworthy expert is the key to success.
Not only are you able to access an expansive product portfolio – 250,000+ hotels, 23,000+ experiences, 500+ car rental companies across 170+ countries, to be exact – but when your customers require high-end tourism experiences, we offer the Luxury Collection.
Our Luxury Collection, available via our online travel booking platform using the ‘Luxury Collection’ filter, is all about allowing you to seamlessly offer exceptional stays to any traveller. You’ll find 5000+ exceptional hotels and resorts, carefully curated into a portfolio of options that helps you provide memorable trips across highly desirable global destinations.
These accommodations come with exclusive privileges such as early or late check-in/check-out, thoughtful touches like gourmet welcome amenities, and 24/7 concierge services.
This concierge service by Luxury Collection is exclusively for our agent partners, allowing you to offer the comprehensive service expected by high-end travellers, simply by getting in touch with our dedicated team once a booking has been made via the Bedsonline Booking Engine. You’ll find we have the right contacts to elevate your customers’ experience, from organising a memorable meal, recommending local activities, to briefing a property before arrival. Our concierge service takes care of the finer details for you, so you can sit back and enjoy the success that comes with satisfied customers.
Register your travel agency to expand your luxury travel offering with the Luxury Collection today.
Segment your audience
Divide your luxury travel clients into smaller groups to send personalised marketing messages and trip recommendations. For example, you might group clients by trip type (honeymoon, family getaway, Valentine’s day), luxury trip budget, or destination.
Use data to personalise your customers’ experience
Ask clients about their preferences, their ideal destinations, and the things they simply won’t compromise on. Then, use travel agent tools like Insights to combine this valuable client data with market insights, growth opportunities tailored to your specific market, and competitor analyses, all within an intelligent and user-friendly travel data platform.
This allows you to provide highly relevant and inspiring recommendations to your customers, depending on their preferences or who is travelling, successfully elevating your level of service.
Go the extra mile
McKinsey recently spoke to luxury hotel general managers to understand what helps them stand out. One of the respondents, a general manager, mentioned arranging a metal detector service to recover a guest’s lost wedding ring and surprising them at dinner. Beyond exceptional customer service, this is a story the client will tell for years.
Take the same approach by going beyond the itinerary. For example, for a client interested in gastronomy, this could include finding luxury culinary tourism experiences like exclusive tastings or a private dinner featuring their favourite cuisine.
This is exactly the type of service that the Luxury Collection's concierge services can take care of for you, so be sure to use the ‘Luxury Collection’ filter on the Booking Engine to find hotels which include this service.
Bedsonline's Luxury Collection: easily offer luxury experiential travel
As a valued Bedsonline partner, you will uncover a wealth of luxury travel experiences that allow you to better cater to today’s ever-more discerning and experience-focused luxury traveller.
Booking through our Luxury Collection is the smart choice for travel agents looking to accommodate today’s luxury traveller, and here are a few reasons why:
Seamless Access to the Luxury Collection –
Easily explore and select from a curated portfolio of 5,000+ luxury hotels and resorts worldwide. This enables you to effortlessly incorporate premium accommodations into your clients’ travel plans with just a few clicks.
Concierge Support for More Personalised Customer Service –
From arranging private transfers and exclusive experiences to handling special requests for your customers, support is available throughout the entire journey – before, during, and after travel – helping you save time and enhance your service quality as travel agents.
Exclusive Experiences and VIP Benefits –
Luxury Collection Concierge provides bespoke local experiences, VIP amenities, and priority access, transforming ordinary bookings into luxurious, personalised adventures tailored to your clients’ desire for exclusivity.
Cost-Effective, Maximum Impact –
Best of all, these premium concierge services are included at no extra charge, allowing you to deliver a high-end experience without affecting your margins. It’s a strategic way to impress clients and strengthen your competitive edge with a more personalised, high-touch service.
How do the Concierge Services by the Luxury Collection work?
Using Bedsonline’s Luxury Collection Concierge gives you a powerful tool to deliver exceptional, personalised travel experiences effortlessly. All you have to do is:
- Search: log in using your Bedsonline credentials, search for your client’s destination or hotel, and select ‘Luxury Collection’ from the filter options.
- Book and activate: Once you’ve chosen and booked the perfect property, check your inbox for a confirmation email with concierge contact details. Then, contact the concierge with your booking reference and client requests. A confirmation email will be sent to confirm that benefits are secured before arrival.
- Deliver the Benefits!
Expand who you sell luxury travel to and how
According to McKinsey data, 80% of the luxury leisure market is under 60. Travel peaks at 40-60, often with families. One growing trend in this group is multigenerational travel, where grandparents, parents, and children vacation together. Group travel, therefore, is a key consideration if you’re looking to maximise your appeal to luxury travellers in today’s landscape.
Interestingly, recent insights from World Travel Market also support the growing sentiment that luxury travel is changing, that ‘luxury as a concept means time,’ said Alessandra Priante, President of ENIT SpA, the Italian National Tourism Board. Travellers are increasingly likely to balance the cost of a hotel with time spent on high-value experiences, ‘even if you’re spending $200 or $2000 a night’, so it’s vital that you understand your clients’ travel motivations.
No matter who you are looking to appeal to, it’s important to meet travellers where they are. Some of our top strategies for that are:
Show real experiences on social media
Share those once-in-a-lifetime luxury travel adventures your clients enjoy and attract younger audiences.
Broaden your accommodation portfolio
Some luxury travel clients are indeed interested in high-end hotels. But others, like families or large groups, will want to see options such as luxury villas where they can enjoy this sense of connection together.
Highlight trip-enhancing ancillary products
Besides the hotel, ensure you curate their overall experience with relevant and interesting add-ons, such as travel experiences in-destination, private airport transfers, or tailored car hire to get them from A – B in comfort.
Consider accessibility
Offering accessible rooms, family-friendly transfers, and adapted experiences means more clients can enjoy your luxury travel destinations. Luxury, as its nature is inherently personal, is a key sector where experiences should be tailored to all traveller requirements; therefore, there is a vast amount of growth potential available to travel sellers who accommodate inclusive and accessible travel requirements.
This awaiting opportunity was recently supported by Richard Thompson, CEO of Inclu Group at the recent World Travel Market, with this segment offering ‘1 billion travellers who stay longer and will tell ten times’ the number of other travellers about the good experience had with inclusive travel sellers.
Emphasise personalisation
Clients might be drawn in by a package on your website, but they’ll stay interested when they see it can be tailored to their exact preferences.
Enhance your luxury travel services with Bedsonline
Understanding luxury travel marketing and personalisation is the first step. Next, focus on building your brand, signing your first clients, and showing up as a luxury travel advisor. The luxury travel market is thriving, and your ability to offer both curated luxury accommodations and personalised concierge services will set you apart.
By utilising the Luxury Collection available via Bedsonline, you can create memorable, high-value experiences that foster client loyalty and increase your revenue streams.
Register your travel agency to benefit from our exclusive rates, growing portfolio of exceptional stays and experiences, and seasonal marketing campaigns, and more easily capture today’s luxury traveller.