Luxury Travel Advisor - January 2008 - (Page 6) EDITOR'S LETTER On Keeping Up Appearances read an article in The Wall Street Journal a few weeks back on luxury auto retailers that are giving their car showrooms multimillion-dollar makeovers to make a positive impression on their affluent clientele. Some are even modeling their showrooms after five-star hotels; they’re offering complimentary espresso and cappuccino and handmade pastries by real chefs. “We have customers checking into world-class hotels, they shop on Fifth Avenue and they expect a certain kind of experience,” Mike Jackson, AutoNation’s chief executive, said in the article. Of course, this made me wonder if this is a concept luxury travel advisors should adapt, at least on some level. Does the environment you invite your guests into reflect the same level of experience they are paying you to create for them? Does it make sense for you to have faded furniture, old office desks and ugly wire baskets sloppily spilling over with piles of brochures when in reality your office should be a showroom that reflects the high quality of the luxury products you are selling? Even if you are not in a storefront setting, you still come into contact with your client when you send them an email, call them and forward travel documents to them. Do all of these interactions rate five stars? When clients call your office are they greeted in the same manner in which a Clefs d’Orlevel concierge would recognize them at a hotel or does it sound as if they’re calling someone’s home, which happens to be filled with noisy teenagers? It’s so easy to fall down on the little things that tend to impress people the most. If the affluent feel comfortable with you, they’ll typically want to do more business with you, not less. It’s easy to focus on impressing your high-end clientele, but what about the luxury suppliers you are striving to do business with as well? It’s important that your agency operate as professionally as possible in front of these individuals, who, after all, I Can all of your communications with your affluent clientele be rated as a five-star experience? have plenty of marketing dollars to spend cooperatively with you in order to promote their products to your clients. It’s more likely they’ll share that money with those agencies they feel will represent them the best, so putting a good front on for both clients and vendors alike is a good practice. Suppliers also tend to spread the word about those travel agents they’re most impressed with, in fact, many of those agents have even ended up on the cover of this very publication! Speaking of suppliers, I’m pictured here with Tim MacDonald, president of Classic Vacations, whom I met at the Classic Marketing Partners event late last year. This meeting is where Classic annually rewards and honors its 100 top-producing single-agency locations and its 50 top-producing multi-location agencies. This was the first Marketing Partners event Tim was attending for Classic, which he joined last April. He seemed very much at ease with his new role and said he’s been just delighted with meeting so many top luxury travel advisors since joining the company. I always enjoy attending Classic’s incentive event because I am privileged to meet many of the top luxury travel advisors in the business myself. What’s even more of a treat is that the luxury wholesaler draws its best producers from virtually every top agency consortia out there. (Note: For photos of some of my new acquaintances and old friends, see page 65.) By the way, the Classic event was held at The Kahala Hotel & Resort in Honolulu, which pulled out all the stops to host these star agents. If you haven’t heard, the resort has wrapped up the first phase of guest room makeovers. (For details, see Luxury Travel Advisor, December 2007.) I can vouch for the fact that the one-bedroom suites are akin to very private, luxurious apartments. The hotel’s owner, Chuck Sweeney, and his colleagues have done a great job of revamping this classic Hawaii gem. RUTHANNE TERRERO, CTC Editorial Director rterrero@questex.com 6 LUXURY TRAVEL ADVISOR | January 2008
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