How we choose
Most booking sites list everything and let the algorithm sort it. We do the opposite. A property earns its place through direct experience, an established relationship with the people who run it, inspections and the judgement of specialists who know the market. The portfolio is deliberately short, and it shrinks again when a place stops deserving its spot.
We do not take listing fees and we do not sell placement. The order you see on the site is the order we would recommend.
How we are paid
Hotels and suppliers pay us a commission when you reserve, the same way they pay any travel agency. You pay the property's own rate, never a marked up one, and the benefits we negotiate come on top. On a small number of services, private aviation and complex group logistics for example, a fee applies and it appears on the proposal before you agree to anything.
Who we are
A small team of travel advisors, working with trusted partners on the ground in the places we send people, so a request is handled by someone who knows the destination rather than passed around. We are not influencers and we do not accept free stays in exchange for coverage.
What we write down
Ask someone about a journey they took ten years ago and they rarely mention what it cost. They mention the table that was waiting by the window, or that nobody had to be told it was an anniversary.
So we write things down. How you take a steak. Which wine you actually drink, rather than the one on the list that looks correct. Which side of the bed, how firm the pillow, the hour before which nobody should telephone, whether your daughter will eat fish. Some of it you tell us once. Most of it we pick up along the way, and none of it has to be said again the following year.
The rest is organisation, and we do all of it: the hotel, the car that meets the flight, the restaurant that is difficult on a Saturday, the guide who is worth a whole day and the three who are not. One person holds it from the first message to the last night, so there is no point at which you are handed on and have to start again.
This takes longer to set up than a booking site, and the first trip we arrange for someone is always the least personal one we will ever arrange for them. Travel is remembered in small pieces, long after its cost has been forgotten. We would rather get the small pieces right.
