I’m very excited to share with you the launch of a brand-new component of our work here at Prince of Travel.
In addition to offering advice and tips on maximizing credit cards and loyalty programs to fund and plan your travels around the world, we’ll now be able to serve you when it’s time to book your trips, too.
Our in-house travel agency launches today with the ability to book hotel stays on your behalf, including through Virtuoso and preferred partner programs.
Let’s take a look at how it works, and how we can help you unlock the best experience on your next hotel stay.
Book Your Next Hotel Stay with Prince of Travel
As Prince of Travel continues to grow, we’re always working to introduce additional ways that we can help travellers elevate their experiences.
While earning and redeeming points will always be our bread and butter, there’s an enduring truth that every points collector must eventually confront: points will only get you so far.
From positioning flights to boutique hotels to attraction tickets, paid travel bookings are often a necessary complement to points redemptions in order to build a well-rounded trip.
To that end, we have partnered with Direct Travel, one of North America’s leading travel agencies, to launch our hotel booking service for the Prince of Travel community.
This represents the first phase of our wider in-house travel agency that can assist you with booking all types of travel, whether it’s flights, cruises, activities, or more.
Why start with hotels? Well, over the years and as a team, we’ve visited and reviewed dozens upon dozens of hotels around the world along our travels, with many more to come.
Our personal experiences give us an unmatched level of expertise to help you choose the best hotel, room type, and rate package for your trip – all supercharged with a series of exclusive benefits just for booking with us.
Virtuoso, Marriott STARS, Hyatt Privé, and More
By booking with Prince of Travel, you’ll enjoy exclusive benefits when staying at luxury properties that you won’t get if you book directly, such as:
- Daily breakfast for two people
- $100 (USD) hotel credit
- Welcome amenity
- One-category room upgrade, subject to availability
- Early check-in and/or late check-out, subject to availability
- Additional property-specific promotions (3rd/4th/5th Night Free, double points, and more…)
These benefits are possible thanks to our access to Virtuoso, the world’s leading network of luxury hotels. Plus, we can also make bookings via the major luxury hotel groups’ preferred partner programs, such as Marriott STARS and Hyatt Privé.
When booking through these channels, the additional benefits during your stay come at no additional cost to you. Indeed, the rates are generally the same as the best flexible (i.e., fully refundable) rate offered by the hotel directly, but with extra benefits on top.
Below is the full list of booking channels that we offer:
- Virtuoso
- Marriott STARS & Luminous
- Hilton Impresario
- Hyatt Privé
- Accor STEP
- IHG Luxury & Lifestyle
- Four Seasons Preferred Partner
- Rosewood Elite
- Shangri-La Luxury Circle
- Mandarin Oriental Fan Club
- Peninsula PenClub
- Belmond Bellini Club
- Small Luxury Hotels withIN
- Dorchester Collection Diamond Club
- Preferred Hotels Platinum Partner
- Rocco Forte Knights
Together, these programs encompass a vast range of the world’s top luxury hotels, from the Ritz-Carltons and Waldorf Astorias that we’re all familiar with to distinctive non-points properties like The Fullerton Hotel Singapore under Preferred Hotels.
For explanations of how all of these programs work, look out for a series of in-depth guides that we’ll be publishing in the coming weeks.
For now, here’s one thing to know: when you book with Prince of Travel through Virtuoso or a preferred partner program, you are still eligible for elite benefits, points, and qualifying nights through your hotel elite status program of choice!
That’s right, the benefits you get for booking through us are in addition to your regular elite benefits. Plus, you’ll still be able to earn points and nights to get closer to your next points redemption or elite status tier.
No Booking Fees
Different travel agencies have different fee structures. Some travel agencies may charge a separate booking fee for booking luxury hotels through their platform.
At this moment, we do not charge any booking, change, or cancellation fees for handling your hotel booking. Thus, you will pay no more than the best flexible rate that you’d get by booking directly with the hotel.
Note that the best flexible rate may be higher than prepaid rates, member rates, corporate rates, etc., that you may also have access to. In this case, you’ll want to weigh up the savings between the rates against how much you value the extra benefits of booking with us.
On the other hand, booking with Prince of Travel can offer significant savings in some cases too, as many luxury hotels frequently offer lucrative 3rd/4th/5th Night Free promotions – representing 33%, 25%, or 20% discounts, respectively – exclusively to their preferred travel agency partners.
Note that our fee structure is subject to change in the future, as we evaluate how things go following this initial launch period and introduce more booking capabilities to our travel agency.
How Does It Work?
Ready for us to help you arrange your next hotel stay? Simply head to Book with Prince of Travel and submit an inquiry via the form.
One of our travel advisors will be in touch via email within 2 business days to assist with your booking request. Prince of Travel members receive priority handling on their booking requests, based on membership tier.
Via email, our advisors will work with you to pick the best hotel and booking channel for your needs.
Don’t know if you should stay at Hotel The Mitsui Kyoto or The Ritz-Carlton, Kyoto? We’ll draw upon the experiences of our own personal stays to recommend you the best option.
Not sure whether to book a Hyatt stay via Virtuoso or Hyatt Privé? Don’t worry, we’ll advise you on that too (hint: pick Hyatt Privé for the one-category upgrade at the time of booking rather than upon check-in, as well as higher priority for early check-in and late check-out).
When you’re ready to book, we will collect your credit card information via a PCI-compliant submission process and pass it along to the property to guarantee your booking.
After your booking is confirmed, we will communicate with the hotel on your behalf with respect to room preferences, upgrade requests, special occasions, etc., to ensure you have the best possible experience during your stay.
And yes, if you have elite status with the hotel chain, we’ll even “suite-talk” with the hotel on your behalf in the days leading up to your stay to give you the best chance of a dream suite upgrade!
Coming Soon: Member Benefits, Flight Bookings, and More
The launch of our hotel booking service represents the first phase of our in-house travel agency as a whole. In the coming months, we’ll be working on a few things to further expand the service.
At the moment, Prince of Travel members receive priority handling on their booking requests, based on membership tier.
We’ll be working on introducing a wider range of tangible benefits for our members when booking travel with us, and over time, we envision these benefits evolving into a core component of Prince of Travel membership.
Work is also underway on the ability to help you book travel beyond hotels: flights, cruises, trains, packages, and more, eventually allowing you to book entire trips with Prince of Travel!
Conclusion
We’ve now launched our hotel booking service in partnership with Direct Travel. If you’re planning an upcoming paid hotel stay, I’d invite you to leverage our access to hotel preferred partner programs and our travel advisors’ expertise to unlock the best experience possible.
This is an exciting new direction here at Prince of Travel, allowing us to help travellers optimize both points and cash towards making their dream trips a reality. I’d love to hear your ideas for what you’d like to see from our in-house travel agency in the future.
If you’re ready to book, head over to Book with Prince of Travel and submit an inquiry!