For the ultra-rich, travel looks different than it does for the everyday person.
Their vacations often involve dining at the world’s grandest restaurants, private tours of the Taj Mahal, or contracts that stipulate a certain room temperature in five-star hotel rooms.
Insider spoke with five luxury travel experts who help high-net-worth clients book vacations that cost anywhere from $15,000 to a few million dollars. Here’s what surprises them the most about their jobs.
Greg Antone lle, the managing director of Mickey Travels, told Insider that his team of 250 travel agents has helped plan Disney trips for professional athletes, actors and actresses, and members of royalty.
They go on “deluxe” vacations, which often involve a VIP Disney tour guide that costs $850 an hour and $5,000-a-night hotel suites, and can cost anywhere from $15,000 to $100,000, Antonelle said.
Despite booking those trips countless times, Antonelle says she’s still amazed at how easy it is for consumers to say yes to beloved itineraries.
“There’s no deliberation. They just say, ‘Okay, let’s do it,'” he said. “They need to do everything they can to make this moment special and memorable. ”
On the other hand, Antonelle said that while a VIP tour consultant might be worth $30,000 to a client, that same client probably wouldn’t care as much about dinner reservations or which hotel they’re staying at.
For example, Antonelle said his team helped coordinate a vacation last December for a well-known singer and actor who booked a basic room at a Disney World resort.
“We’ve booked certain clients that you would think go all out and spend incredible amounts of money,” Antonelle said. “But they don’t.”
Celebrities most likely have express accommodation requests, experts told us.
Jason Couvillion, a partner at Bruvion, a travel firm that works with famous musicians, comedians, and actors, estimates that his leisure travel clients spend an average of $20,000 on a trip, though budgets vary. He’s currently helping an ultra-wealthy family book a $600,000 weeklong vacation.
Couvillion said many of his clients have riders, which are contracts that outline hotel and backstage requests.
As Marie Claire reports, riders can sometimes include extravagant requests like how Mariah Carey reportedly requested a bottle of Cristal champagne with bendy straws on a tour, Britney Spears wanted a framed photo of Princess Diana in her dressing room, and Rihanna asked for a large fur rug.
Couvillion said runners are part of the task and said he’s responded to requests such as setting a quick room temperature, filling a mini-fridge with a certain amount of water or controlling the amount of sunlight coming through the window.
But what surprises you most is that some celebrities don’t need to satisfy all of your strange requests. “We have other people who just throw things at the pilot,” he said. “Not because they are things they particularly need, but because they just need to know that the hotel read the total. “
For example, Couvillion said he worked with an artist who needed an express Diptyque candle in his hotel room while he was on tour. In the end, the musician had plenty of candles but left the request to his date just to “make sure the hotel paid attention to everything else. “
Couvillion said that his clients are great but are sometimes not used to doing “everyday things” or adapting when travel goes awry, whether it be a missed flight or an airport greeter no-show.
“Sometimes you think walking through the airport is the hardest thing in the world to do alone,” he said.
Catherine Heald, co-founder and CEO of Remote Lands, a luxury company that books trips around Asia, and Meg Shepro, a representative of luxury tour operator Scott Dunn Private, said relationships are the most unexpected aspect of a career in the luxury industry.
Heald told Insider that he connects his ultra-wealthy clients, who spend between $25,000 and $500,000 on vacations, with prominent artists, politicians, royals and architects around the world. These connections last longer than the planned trip, he explained.
“We’ll find someone with a local archaeologist in Siem Reap, in Angkor Wat, and they’ll end up keeping in touch with that user for years,” he said. “It’s actually the human connections that are the most rewarding at the end of the day. “
Shepro agreed, saying she and her colleagues worked with the same consumer multiple times. They can help a consumer book a safari in Africa one year and a villa in the Maldives next year. The average for Scott Dunn’s personal travelers is $50,000, but Shepro said they receive email requests that cost more than $100,000 at least once a month.
Over time, advisors expand their friendships with their clients, he said.
“They know about our lives and we know about their lives,” he said. “It’s less transactional. “
Jaclyn Sienna India, founder of luxury lifestyle company Sienna Charles, told Insider that after working with clients worth $500 million or more, no request, no trip, and no task can discourage her.
It said it closed global monuments such as India’s Taj Mahal and Italy’s Colosseum and booked tickets for the 50-meter Superbowl the day before the event.
“Nothing is unexpected because this is all very normal,” he said. “We can do anything really, it depends on how much you’re willing to spend. “
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