Luxury Travel by thirdpassport

Marketing is important, but running a small business that relies on commission (which you don’t pay extra for) requires making bookings. I’m so grateful to each and every one of you who has trusted me to book your next trip and for supporting me by sharing your experience with your network. Word-of-mouth is the most effective marketing tool available.

With that in mind …

Let’s meet Phil …

Phil is someone that a lot of the readers of this page will relate to.
Phil likes Avios points
Phil likes the convenience of booking hotels on booking[dot]com
Phil also really likes it when he can earn 6 Avios per £1 when using booking.com

Phil reached out to me on Instagram asking for advice on where to go using his BA companion voucher that was about to expire. After a few messages back and forth discussing his likes, interests, and timing, along with searches on BA.com for redemption availability, we settled on a few days in the green Algarve in Portugal. I consulted the Fora database and forum for first-hand experiences and validated guest reviews and suggested a couple of options. Phil thanked me and was ready to go book the beautiful Conrad Algarve on booking[.]com

Not so fast, young man!

I’ve been playing the miles & points game long enough to know a thing or two about the value of Avios, as well as the value of booking through a Travel Advisor.

Booking through booking.com would have cost Phil & his travel companion a minimum of £2,595 for a non-refundable rate, incl. breakfast.

For £2,595, Phil could earn 15,570 Avios with the current promotion of 6 Avios / £1. Different blogs value the worth of an Avios point differently. Head for Points uses the “ball-park figure” of 1p per Avios. So, worth around £155.

Still with me? Great.

You’ll be pleased to know that the Conrad Algarve hotel participates in both Hilton’s Impresario and Virtuoso programs. Both of these offer their own rates and perks to clients and are exclusively available to luxury travel advisors and cannot be booked on the hotel website.

In this case, I got in touch with the hotel (an important step in establishing rapport with the team onsite, especially when you have a VIP like Phil visiting) and I determined that the Impresario deal was a much better deal than the Virtuoso one. (For transparency, I showed Phil both rates later).

As a Travel Advisor I don’t charge a hotel booking fee. So the only cost is that of the Impresario rate paid directly to the hotel, i.e. 2,648.80 EUR or £2263.75

At 10 Hilton Honors points earned per $1 for Blue members (Silver, Gold, or Platinum would earn more), PLUS Impresario double points, PLUS double points due to the current promotion until the end of the year, Phil could earn about 115,000 points. Head for Points values a Hilton Honors point at 0.33p on average. You can also convert Hilton Honors points into Avios but that is normally not good value.

Summary

Booking.com:
Spend £2,595 – Earn 15,570 Avios (worth around £155.70) = £2439.30

Booking with me:
Spend £2263.75 – $100 F&B credit (£78.53) – Earn 109,123 Hilton Honors points (worth around £360.11) = £1825.11 plus whatever value you wish to assign the flexibility of a refundable rate, a potential room upgrade, and VIP status.

Which one would you choose?

(Disclaimer: Calculations may not be accurate to the penny due to exchange rate fluctuations. Phil, please don’t sue me).