Our primary objective is to give you access to the luxury hotel VIP programs we work with at hotels in San Diego and worldwide. I can do this as an Independent Affiliate of Cadence, which is conveniently located in my community of La Jolla, CA.
You can access these value-added benefits directly online through Virtuoso, our new TravelWits platform, or with our assistance. Here’s a little bit about what to expect in either case.
We Only Communicate by Email (Unless There’s an Emergency)
Our process is designed to be efficient so that we do not have to charge additional fees for booking hotels with Virtuoso and other VIP program benefits.
We keep all communication limited to email.
This way, conversations are logged, and other team members can view a conversation history, which allows them to quickly respond to or troubleshoot issues.
Therefore, we do not answer general travel questions by telephone or provide telephone consultations. We also only accept payment information via secure forms and not by phone.
That being said, you may receive a text or phone call from a team member in the event of an emergency or urgently needed additional information.
When You Book Through Virtuoso.com
Most hotels we work with can be booked with our benefits directly through our Virtuoso.com site. It’s fairly easy to use on a desktop/laptop computer, but here are tips for using it on a mobile device.
You will get an email confirmation from Virtuoso within minutes after processing your booking. Rest assured that once you process a booking on Virtuoso.com, your hotel room or suite is booked! Your benefits are automatically attached on the hotel’s side, so there is nothing additional you need to do.
Virtuoso.com typically emails us within a few minutes of a client booking through our page. We will typically contact you within 48 business hours to confirm your stay and collect additional details, which we will pass on to the hotel.
If you do not reply, we do not connect with the hotel on your behalf. We’ve learned that some clients prefer this, and that’s totally okay! Our assistance with online bookings processed directly through Virtuoso.com by clients is optional, so we will assume that you prefer to DIY. We are still available to help you troubleshoot issues related to your stay if they occur (rare).
When You Need to Request Hotel Rates
Some hotels or hotel brands, like Four Seasons, don’t show their VIP rates on Virtuoso.com. In these cases, we’ll need to provide rates for you.
Existing clients typically request rates by email. Potential clients should request rates using one of our forms:
You will receive an email confirmation confirming your form submission details that you may reply to with corrections. If you don’t receive an email confirmation of your form submission, there might be a typo in your email address and you may want to consider resending the details.
It may take 24-72 business hours to receive a reply to a rate request, depending on the level of complexity, but our team works on them daily (some but not all weekends), and we try to return them ASAP.
What Happens After Your Hotel Is Booked
We’ll pass information received from you (special occasions, allergies, names, etc.) to our VIP contacts at the hotel. After this, in most cases, you’re all set for arrival, and we’ll alert you if anything else is required.
If you need to modify or cancel, we can help. If you modify or cancel with the hotel directly, please let us know, as they don’t always update us.
You would usually contact the hotel’s concierge desk (some hotels have apps) to coordinate dining reservations and activities. After your stay is completed, we send a survey to ask a few questions about how it went.
Tip: One of the benefits of booking through a VIP program is that there are dedicated hotel staff who log this information and oversee your bookings.
What We Expect From You During the Quoting Process
Five things are very helpful to us.
1. Close Your Ticket
If you have filled out a form and decided that you no longer need rates, please close your ticket (a link to do so is automatically included in our confirmation email).
2. Be Honest
We can’t go to bat for you if we don’t have the whole truth. Here are a few examples of when things can go awry, to the surprise of clients.
- When you request rates, please be truthful about how many adults and kids will stay in each room or suite. We will not be able to help if you have an issue at check-in should you arrive with too many people.
- Please also be truthful about your kids’ ages. Kids ages 12 and older are charged like adults in some destinations and by some hotel brands. (Overseas hotels collect passports at check-in and will figure it out.)
3. Let Us Know About Existing Reservations
Please also let us know if you have an existing reservation and are comparing rates. Knowing the rate that you have and where you booked allows us to quickly determine whether you should keep or cancel it.
4. Know That Rates Can Fluctuate Until You Book
Hotel rates are always subject to change and are not guaranteed until you book your reservation. What we send you in a proposal is where rates stand at the time we create the proposal.
We will contact you if you have submitted your booking information and we’ve noticed that the accommodations you would like are priced materially higher. We will contact you for approval first.
5. Understand Weekend Limitations
We do actually process quotes and reply to emails on weekends, but overall, our response times to nonurgent requests will be more delayed than during weekdays. (We take major holidays off and also, occasionally, vacations.)
Also, keep in mind that the hotel staff and decision-makers we typically work with do not always work on weekends and holidays so answers to more complicated questions and actioning complicated requests can be challenging if you need something done on non-business days.
What We Don’t Do
While we don’t plan full itineraries, we can direct you to sightseeing passes that we or our clients like, awesome tour companies, and attraction ticket discounts.
We also don’t book flights because we would have to charge a little extra for that, and with all of the online tools available, most clients coming to San Diego or planning trips on their own take care of flights themselves.
In a Nutshell…
Our goal is to help you get the best value for a luxury hotel. And no one, no matter the class of travel, likes to pay more for theme park tickets and sightseeing, so we have other money-saving tips throughout the site for to take advantage of as well.
We look forward to working with you!
Katie
