00:00Last time we talked to you from afar in Atlanta, so it's really lovely to have you here. How are
00:05you?
00:06I'm really well. We were just talking about the heat wave. It's a little warm, right?
00:09It is a little warm. It's beautiful here.
00:10Is that impacting, though, people about where they want to go in terms of travel?
00:13Yeah, I think it is. I mean, obviously, people love to travel, especially during the summer.
00:17It's a really booming summer travel season, so we are seeing, especially in luxury, it's very resilient no matter the
00:23market.
00:24So we're seeing a really strong summer travel season.
00:26Remind everybody the way that the Forbes Travel Guide standards and ratings work, because we talked about this last time
00:33a little bit, but that was back in February.
00:34Not everybody who's tuning in right now is tuning in then.
00:36It's my dream job, I think, to be like, right?
00:38It's really cool.
00:39Yes. So, you know, it's a really interesting process and probably a lot more detail than a lot of people
00:44imagine.
00:44I think on the surface it sounds great that you travel the world and you stay in fabulous hotels,
00:48but the work itself to curate the list that we publish every February with all the Star Award winners and
00:54restaurants and spas and ships, it's a lot of work.
00:58And, you know, we compose our own standards in collaboration with some industry experts,
01:02and we use that criteria to evaluate the properties day in, day out.
01:07The inspector's job is actually really hard.
01:09You know, after a meal, they're not going back and going to sleep.
01:12They're going back to their room and remembering their experience and how that service made them feel and typing that
01:18up and sending it in to us.
01:20And they're not the ones, actually, that even decide the rating.
01:23We have an algorithm.
01:24Amanda, is it one person, though, who determines, like, or assesses a hotel or some kind of experience in the
01:33luxury space?
01:34Is it just one person or do you do multiple visits?
01:37So it's not one person in and of the visit, in that visit itself, that decides the outcome.
01:43So the outcome goes into our system, and it's the algorithm.
01:46And we place a heavy percentage of our algorithm onto service.
01:49So 70% of the overall experience that that evaluator has is based on how those individual staff created an
01:57emotional connection.
01:58Yeah, it's so hard, though, because it just shows that these places have to be so standardized when it comes
02:04to the experience.
02:04Because you can have a great experience with one staff member but have a terrible experience with somebody else.
02:10Well, you know, you bring up a really interesting point.
02:12I think the key to success, especially at, you know, that real high level of service, is really about consistency.
02:18And we're looking for that all the time.
02:20And we don't mean homogenizing and making it cookie cutter.
02:23We mean being consistent so the guest feels confident.
02:26So where is everybody – where should everybody be going right now?
02:28Well, you know, I think at the end of the day, if you can travel and you have found the
02:33time because our lives are increasingly busy, I mean, go anywhere.
02:36If you're going to go afar, there's some beautiful resorts as far as the Maldives that are really, you know,
02:42doing a great job with the family travel trend and really leaning into the well-being and longevity.
02:47Or you can do that.
02:48You can find that much closer to home, you know, Miami or Florida as well.
02:52Where are people, though, going?
02:54Like, is it – are they looking to go?
02:56I'm thinking about – let's just talk about folks from the U.S.
02:58I don't know how much you guys, in terms of breaking it down, geography, are they leaving and they want
03:02to go overseas?
03:03Was it last year that was everybody going to Italy?
03:06Italy is still a real hot spot.
03:08Italy – I mean, Europe in general.
03:10Greece is huge.
03:11Croatia is really popular.
03:12I know.
03:12Everybody's going to Croatia.
03:14Montenegro is coming up.
03:15So some of these more far-flung destinations that maybe weren't top of your mind maybe a few years ago.
03:21What about Japan?
03:23Japan is amazing.
03:25And actually, they've got some fantastic new hotels.
03:27And I think that is always an amazing destination to visit culturally as well.
03:32You mentioned longevity.
03:33And, you know, every – we've been doing this for quite a while.
03:36And our Bloomberg Pursuits team does a great job of giving us information about places to go every single year
03:43and countries that are sort of off the beaten path and areas and resorts that are off the beaten path.
03:47But one thing that seems to change is what travelers at this end of the spectrum are looking for in
03:53terms of amenities.
03:54You mentioned longevity as one of those things.
03:56What else are you noticing pop up?
03:58I mean, yes, longevity and well-being is huge.
04:00That's a market that we're watching carefully because it's just taking off.
04:04The numbers are incredible.
04:05But generally, at the end of the day, what people are looking for is that emotional connection.
04:09So they're moving from caring as much about things and more thinking about the thoughtfulness that that service is really
04:16making them feel connected to the brand or the hotel.
04:19Service, food, and cleanliness.
04:20Like, I want – you know what I mean?
04:22Like, not necessarily in that order, but those are things that, like, kind of really make for, I think, a
04:28good experience, at least on my end.
04:29What are the –
04:30You know what I really like?
04:31Going on vacation.
04:32Yes, going on vacation.
04:34But we actually – so we went –
04:35We got – we stayed at a resort last year in Sedona.
04:40You talked about this a lot.
04:41We had a great experience.
04:42And one of the things that I really liked was that the service was amazing, but there was a resort
04:48fee included.
04:50And they were specifically said, there is no tipping.
04:53The tipping is completely taken care of.
04:56And this was really important because –
04:57Because of the resort fee?
04:58Because of the resort fee.
04:59It's taken care of every day.
05:00And it really felt like – it felt good because, you know, you couldn't park your car anywhere yourself.
05:06There was, like, a really complicated parking situation, so they had to use valets.
05:08And it's like, ugh, I hate going somewhere where you have to have a valet, right?
05:13Yeah.
05:13I mean, any time a property can take away friction from what the guest has to think, the less you
05:17make the guest think, the easier the experience is.
05:20And that's really what it is at the end of the day as well.
05:22So what's the biggest booking mistakes that families make?
05:25You know, I think for us, I mean, honestly, really think about the destination first.
05:31Because travel is such an emotional experience that you want to have, because you're trying to create a really hopefully
05:36happy memory with whoever you're traveling with, think about how you want to feel from the end of your trip.
05:42What are you looking for, for the family or the people that are traveling with you?
05:45And then look at the hotel.
05:47And always, always look at a trusted system or a trusted travel advisor to really make sure that you're making
05:53yourself feel that you made a really smart investment in your trip.
05:56I will say when, like, our daughter was younger, I mean, we always thought about when traveling with her, like,
06:01she still loved to swim.
06:02Like, we had to make sure that there was a, like, there were things that we just knew that was
06:06our guiding principle.
06:07And then we figured out the rest around it.
06:10If the kids are happy, yeah, then, yeah, it makes the whole trip.
06:12So if there's one place we should go, we just got about 30, 40 seconds.
06:16You know, if you're going to go really far, you were talking about kind of, you know, long distance travel.
06:20You had me piqued with the Maldives, but go ahead.
06:21Yeah, there's a beautiful property in the Maldives that actually we just wrote about, Jawali being.
06:25Not only is it really forward with its efforts around longevity and well-being, but they do this amazing family
06:32program.
06:32So if you're wanting to do something, you know, with your kids, it's an activity.
06:36They've got such interesting programming, and it's a really amazing destination, of course.
06:40Daughter's 23. I don't care, right?
06:43Can I go there as well with my husband, and that'll be fun?
06:46Definitely, always.
06:47I'm not kidding. I love you, Aggie. I love you.
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