Having somewhere comfortable to rest your head each night can make or break a holiday. It can also take a long time to find a hotel that is right for you, and you’re never really sure how it will turn out until you get there. On all of our tours, we carefully select each of our properties from leading brands and boutique properties to ensure you’ll always have a great room to come back to after each day of travelling. Here’s some of the considerations we look at when we handpick hotels for our guests. After reading this and experiencing handpicked hotels on one of our tours, you’ll never have to search yourself again.
Location, Location, Location.
A hotel above a bar is great for those who want to be in the heart of the city and need somewhere they can stumble home to in the early hours of the morning. That same room isn’t great for a growing family with an early wake up call or a couple who’ll be up early exploring the museums or taking a morning hike of a nearby mountain. When we consider recommending a hotel, we look at how our guests are likely to travel and selection a location that will suit their plans accordingly.
Big or small?
While some large resorts with hundreds of rooms and a brand logo hanging above the front door are amazing (such as the Marina Bay Sands hotel in Singapore), some are also a little too generic. Sometimes a generic hotel is actually really great option, but sometimes it’s nice to stay somewhere a little more private. We look at the quality of the hotel – does it have quiet rooms, block out curtains, a pillow menu or a beautiful open fire to have a nightcap by before bed. We also look at how our guests will be treated when they arrive – will they be remembered or will they be just a room number. We also look at the hotels that other large tour companies use – we don’t want your relaxing morning breakfast invaded by 50 other guests all scrambling to make their 8am departure.
Money, Money, Money…
We all love staying at luxury boutique hotels, but that comes at a price and we realise that not everyone can afford it all the time. We use a mix of affordable mid range hotels and try and negotiate great prices for the top of the line luxury hotels. It doesn’t matter the itinerary, we always select the best hotel that will fit with our client’s budget. Sometimes just because a hotel is cheaper than another, doesn’t mean it’s not great. Often small boutique hotels on the edge of town have more charm and charisma than the tall tower in the city and can often provide good value.
Try before you buy…
Our handpicked hotels are just that – handpicked. As we build our tours and itineraries we stay at several hotels to work out which is the best for our guests. Sometimes we can’t stay at every hotel, so we instead talk to those who have. We also read a lot! There are an endless supply of bloggers covering the world with stories of amazing luxury stays and horrible rodent infested rooms. Countless hours of research happens for each property before we try a hotel and then, recommend it to a guest. We aren’t locked into any contacts with large distributors, we choose the hotels based on quality, not on how much they pay us to sell their brand. We are frank if we don’t like a property and will only recommend a property that we actually think will be a good fit for you.
Tell us what you want (what you really, really want)!
Although we have a fair bit of experience in finding great handpicked hotels, we know that sometimes you may have your heart set on a hotel that we don’t currently use. If that’s the case, just let us know the details and we will check it out for you. As we’re fully independent, we can contact any hotel and arrange your perfect, personalized stay.
