174. How I Got My Luxury Travelers a $500 Paris Experience for Free

What if the best luxury travel experiences aren’t actually available to book online? I just got back from my first Virtuoso Travel Week in Las Vegas, and one unexpected nine-minute meeting turned into a $500 private Paris shopping experience that my travelers will get for free. In this episode, I’m taking you behind the scenes of what really happens when travel advisors build relationships with the world’s top hotels, destinations, and luxury travel partners—and how those connections can turn into upgrades, insider access, and experiences you’d never find through Google, Instagram, or a booking site. 

Emily in Paris Registration: https://app.tern.travel/trips/oiA0_HMxasYZHn0Q8IGV1A/itineraries

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Contact Michele to plan your next vacation: https://jetsettingwithme.com/contact

This episode was produced by The Podcast Teacher: www.ThePodcastTeacher.com. 

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Welcome to Jet Setting With Me, a weekly podcast about all things luxury travel. I'm Michelle, your extra AF hostess. In this podcast, you'll discover luxury travel hacks to maximize your precious travel time and resources. We'll dive into which destinations and experiences are worth your effort. And you'll get to travel vicariously with me on my own trips. So grab your bevy of choice and join me for a quick coffee chat. Gilmore Girl style. Hello, Jet Sutters, and welcome back to another episode of Jet Sutting with Me. It's me, Michelle, your friendly Wanderlust instigator. And I hope you can hear how excited I am through my voice. Because I just got back from Las Vegas. Not that that's not the exciting part. And before you picture anything involving Blackjack or a magic show, which I actually did get to see on my last night in town, please allow me to clarify. I was there for Virtuoso Travel Week. Five days spread across four Las Vegas hotels, as in more than a block. Days started at 8 a.m. and went well into the twilight hours if you went to everything. It's an invitation-only conference, and I got to go for my first time in August last month. I came home with so many new relationships, some new trip enhancements, which I'm going to talk about in a minute and why they matter to you, and a clear understanding of why, as if I didn't already know, but how I can explain to you that the best travel experiences in the world are not on any booking site or in Chat GPT. If you have ever wondered why booking with a travel advisor is actually a better strategy than using your Facebook friend's or your husband's recommendations, this is the episode that answers that question. If you know someone who still books travel by searching, comparing, doing a spreadsheet or an Excel, going down the IG and Pinterest time sucks. This is the episode to send to them because what I am about to tell you, absolute game changer. So first, let me explain what Virtuoso Travel Week is. For those of you who aren't in the industry, you wouldn't have any way of knowing. But Virtuoso, it's a global network of luxury travel agencies. It does happen to represent many, many accomplished travel advisors, but only accomplished suppliers in the world because they have to really apply to be accepted. To be a virtuoso advisor andor a supplier, you don't get to just go out and hang up your shingle and say, hey, I'm a virtuoso travel advisor. It doesn't work like that. You have to apply, as I said. And I happen to earn it through my association with my host agency, which is Coastline Travel, which I know you've heard me talk about because they just feel like home to me. I'm so happy that I finally found them in my journey and of this career. But so Virtuoso Travel Week is Virtuoso Network's annual gathering. Are you still with me? Now, as a newcomer, of course, I wanted to soak up the conference schedule and the whole website, making sure I knew everything dress code, timing, you know, location of everything, because I knew I was going to be overwhelmed just being in four different hotels in Las Vegas can do that to someone. But oh my God, I was so ill prepared. I had no idea that it's really more than the matched appointments between advisors and the world's leading suppliers. Think of this more as fashion week for travel. The designers, they're the suppliers. The analogy. We advisors, well, we're the buyers. And what goes down the runway, it shows up in your itinerary like next week. There are happy hours, lunches, and dinners held by all of these suppliers who are present every single day. And they are all invitation only. They are all held at some of Las Vegas' most celebrated venues. I mean, these suppliers go all out for making sure that we, the advisors, get to know them and have just incredible experiences. It was not a sprint, it was a marathon. And trust me, me and my rehabbing knee felt it every minute of every day. It was a five-day marathon and it had excellent food, extraordinary company. But at the end, I was both exhausted and more energized, as you could tell from my voice, about this industry than after attending any other travel conference I have been to. As a first year attending, you know, like a freshman year, I was invited to lunch on two separate days and to dinner every single evening of the conference, which I really couldn't grasp what that meant until I was there and experiencing it. Not everybody gets that kind of momentum in their first appearance at Virtuoso Travel Week. It was a really big honor. And I really feel like I almost maybe got out over my skis, but I didn't fully understand what that meant. It was such an honor. Not every freshman at Virtuoso Travel Week gets so many personal invitations extended. I couldn't possibly go to all the different happy hours. I know people went happy hour hopping, but I just couldn't make it. I was exhausted. So it really set the tone, all these invitations for a week that truly exceeded all my expectations. And here I'm wax on and waxing off, and you don't even know why this matters to you. But here's the thing: I had to experience it for myself. But some of the most significant moments of the week were the ones that the universe planned for me so that I can share them with you, my clients. They use a matching system, and I go into the computer and I log like who my clients are and what I book the most of. And then the algorithm goes to work and it pairs up with suppliers based on these potential shared interests and client profiles. I had not heard of more than 50% of the algorithms matched appointments for me. So I kind of went in thinking that it was just going to be nine minutes of them spieling to me and me not really caring. But in other words, I walked into a lot of these matched appointments with no expectations and I walked away from every single one of them, going, wow, I learned something new. But one of them was a single most extraordinary addition to the 2027 Emily in Paris journey coming up next May. The Samarita, oh my God, I just mangled it. I told y'all I can't do French anymore. The Samaritaine, which if you watch Emily in Paris, which of course I have, you've already seen it. The store appears in the show. It's one of Paris's most storied department stores, and it's been recently restored to its original grandeur after years of restoration and renovation. And what's the other word we laughed about? You can be down for rehab, you can renovate, you can glow up, you can restore. Those are all the different words we heard from different people talking about their renovations. But this one's true. And I left a link to the store in the show notes. They have something called Le Portement. I said it well, Le Partement. And it's a private VIP shopping space. It's accessible by appointment only and a personal fashion guide stylist for either makeup, clothing, perfume, or all of the above. They can do your colors for you. It's a completely bespoke experience, and it's around every guest's style. They don't even ask for minimum spend, so it has nothing to do with your budget. And what I secured for the 2027 Emily and Paris group journey is this. Every guest on the trip is going to receive their own fully personalized La Samaritaine experience. It's a one and a half hour guided tour of the store, followed by a three-hour private shopping session with snacks and champagne, crude, and a special fashion guide just for you. This person has already been briefed on who you are and what you are looking for. This experience normally costs 500 USD per person, even without a minimum spend. But for us, because I belong to Virtuoso and because I went and made a connection at Virtuoso Travel Week, it's included in the trip. And it really happened because a computer somewhere out there decided I should meet the right person at the right time. And that is jet setting, it's most complete. We're not just visiting a city where the show was filmed. We are getting to go inside a specific space from that show, hopefully meeting the designer at the store who was a background character in the show, guided by this person who knows the show intimately on a trip that I've designed around the exact world that the show created. So, as I said, the link to the show and also to registration for Emily Paris trip, they're both in the show notes. So La Samatarine, I I give up. It was the headline, but it's not the only story. I got to have happy hour with the team from De l'Europe, Amsterdam, an award-winning independent five-star hotel. In fact, it won the Virtuoso Consortia's award for the best independent five-star hotel in the world. I get to go see it in person during my upcoming Europe trip. And even the team that represents that hotel was so generous. When they heard I was going to be there, aside from coming to visit, they wanted to make sure I knew the best nighttime canal cruise to take. They wanted to make sure that I had secured my tickets to the Anne Frank house. They validated my choice of the best fruits in Amsterdam, which, if you haven't heard episode 171, that's also in the show notes. It's where I proudly stand on my soapbox about these fruits. It's a matter I take very seriously. But they did more than that. They helped me arrange BTS tickets to the Van Gogh Museum, which I'm very excited about, even though I'm not a huge Van Gogh or even really an art museum person. I have never been to the Rijksmuseum, which is like one of the largest art museums in the world, and it's right there in Amsterdam. But I just finished reading about the Van Gogh Museum, and it's a fictional book, but it's based on some nonfiction truth, The Paris Heist by Joe Piazza. If it's not on your TBR, it should be. It's a really good book. So I've read all about the Van Gogh Museum. So I'm super excited to get to go and to have some kind of behind-the-scenes secrets and tours. But that kind of a relationship where like the hotel team becomes my personal concierge, not just at the hotel, but really for the whole city. That's what relationships look like in practice. And those are the kind of things that Google, chat, Facebook, Meta, they just can't duplicate that human-to-human contact. I had dinner with a team from Independently Yours, which represents some of the world's finest independent luxury hotels. I sat next to a Scottish salesman, Kilt and all. Oh my God, he's so handsome. He, I will make sure there's a picture of him in my Instagram stories when the week this episode drops. I mean, he's all that. He represents Cameron House on Loch Lormond. And we worked it out right there at dinner. We locked in one night there for the 2027 Outlander Set Jetting Experience. So if you've watched Outlander, and now I can say that at least I watched part of season one, but you felt the pull of the Scottish Highlands and the accent and the man. Cameron House, it's a five-star state. It's on the banks of Loch Mormon, and it's the kind of property that I seek out for all of my set-jetting curated group trips. And then there was my full day at the tech summit. So, as you can imagine, as All Tech is talking about in every industry, it focused on how the travel industry is navigating artificial intelligence. And I walked in thinking I was doing reasonably well with AI. I mean, I broke up with Toby, I broke up with Chad. I'm on Claude, he's my best friend. Mr. Jet setting with me says if I ever leave him, it will be for Claude. And we are in a pretty mutually love-love relationship. But I walked out of Tech Summit having been quoted by Luxury Travel Advisor, and I will link to that in the show notes. It's a trade industry magazine, so it may not be of any interest for you to read it, but I was pretty psyched because it quoted me on how far and advanced I am using it than other travel advisors who were present in that same tech summit. It was one of those moments that reminded me that the work that I do siloed away in my home office, it sometimes turns out that I am farther ahead than I realize or give myself credit for. Another thing I got to do was I got to spend time and catch up with my first mentor in the industry, Roslyn Rance of Travel Agent Achievers. She lives all the way in Australia. And even though we have a very, very fond mutual admiration, we've only actually met each other in person twice. And this was the second time. So I was so excited to get to hug her and spend time with her. I listen to her podcast every single week. She continues to shape my business and how I work with all of you with her wisdom, her vast knowledge and experience, and her charming wit. And like I said, being in the same room with her again, it was like a breath of fresh air. And especially when she shared with me that she will also be speaking at the Love Mexico event in Merida this October. So for my fellow travel advisors who are listening, and Nikki and Melissa, shout outs to you because I know you guys do listen. This should be a conference on your radar. And that registration link is in the show notes too. And they do have some hosted opportunities. So I would love to see you guys and catch up with you there. So I came home from Las Vegas with relationships that are going to shape how I design my travel for you from here on out. They're going to show up as hotel recommendations, excursion enhancements, and the kind of access that you will not be able to find online. Just like that private shopping experience and the partement that Emily Cooper walked through on television, included in a trip at no additional cost to all of you who are going. So if that Emily and Paris journey is still on your mind, come on. What is holding you up? Get in now. Seats are already selling, and that was before the announcement of this new edition, which you all are the first to hear about. I haven't written about it, I haven't told anybody. You are the first. Early registration for this trip closes December 31st, but I'm telling you, I don't know if there will still be any seats available through the end of this year. So come join us. The registration link for that is in the show notes. So somebody asked me before I left for Las Vegas what I was hoping to get out of Virtuoso Travel Week. And really, I was like, just survive Las Vegas for five days. That's like four days too many to spend in Las Vegas. I did say I was excited to catch up with my friends. I wanted to meet all the faces behind the names with my host agency at Coastline, but I have to say my expectations for the conference were like survive. What I did not say, because I could not have known about it, was this. I was hoping to walk into a randomly matched appointment and come home with a $500 personalized shopping experience for my guests in a store from a Netflix show for a group of travelers who chose Paris because a fictional American in an impossible wardrobe made them fall completely in love with a city they had never visited. Did y'all keep up with that? If not, just rewind 15 seconds. I'll say it again. No, I won't. Because then you'd have to fast forward. The universe, it turns out, had a plan for me. And I am so grateful that I showed up for it. Until next time, make every journey a memory worth savoring. And just like that, this episode is over. Thank you for joining me. If you've enjoyed today's episode, I would be thrilled if you would follow, like, and share this podcast with all of your like minded, wanderlusting friends, and leave a review on Apple iTunes or whichever podcast platform you listen to.