There’s huge value to be had with booking luxury travel through Virtuoso, which typically requires booking through a qualifying travel advisor. What many people don’t realize is that you can actually make Virtuoso bookings online as well. In this post, I’d like to outline how that works, and talk about the pros and cons, especially in light of a recent post I wrote about TravelWits.
What is Virtuoso, and how does it work?
Virtuoso is a network of luxury travel agencies, with a total of over 20,000 advisors worldwide. Virtuoso advisors can get you extra perks when staying at over 1,700 luxury hotels around the world.
The concept is simple — hotels use all kinds of techniques to sell rooms, and one thing they do is offer Virtuoso travel advisors perks for their guests. This is intended to be a win-win — guests can get more value, while travel advisors can add perks for their clients, without their clients having to pay more.
Typically for booking a hotel stay through a Virtuoso travel advisor, you receive the following additional benefits:
- Daily breakfast for two people per bedroom
- Room upgrade, subject to availability
- Early check-in and late check-out, subject to availability
- A special Virtuoso amenity once per stay (usually a $100 property credit, or a complimentary massage, car transfer, meal, etc.)
Now, it’s worth noting that many hotel groups have their own proprietary programs, offering similar perks to Virtuoso. These include programs like Accor Preferred, Belmond Bellini Club, Four Seasons Preferred Partner, Hilton for Luxury, Hyatt Privé, Mandarin Oriental Fan Club, Marriott STARS, Oetker Pearl, Rosewood Elite, Shangri-La Luxury Circle, and more.
If you want to book Virtuoso stays through Virtuoso’s website, you can only book the Virtuoso rate. If you want to compare all the available rate options, you’ll want to work directly with a travel advisor, or book through TravelWits (more on that below).
How much more does a Virtuoso rate cost?
As a general rule of thumb, the Virtuoso rate is the same as the best flexible rate offered directly by the hotel (this typically excludes pre-paid rates, promotional rates, and member only rates). In most cases you’re not paying anything extra for booking through a Virtuoso agent, and in some cases, there may even be Virtuoso exclusive promotions available.
Virtuoso advisors typically get paid a commission by hotels, so most of the time they won’t charge any sort of a fee for you booking through them. Some agents may charge a planning fee based on the complexity of the trip.
Can you earn points when booking Virtuoso rates?
Since this is a points blog, this is a natural question. 😉 Yes, for those major chain hotels that belong to Virtuoso, you absolutely still earn points, elite credits, etc., when booking a Virtuoso rate. This is considered an “eligible” rate for all practical purposes. After all, you’re still charged directly by the hotel for your stay, so it’s not Virtuoso that’s billing you for a hotel stay.
How can you book Virtuoso hotels online?
You have two options for booking a hotel stay through Virtuoso:
In this post, I’d like to walk through the step-by-step of how to make Virtuoso hotel bookings online.
Virtuoso displays hotel rates online, though in order to actually book, you need to go through a Virtuoso travel advisor’s page. This has to be an advisor who has opted into this specifically. For example, for Ford Beckett Travel, you can find the Virtuoso page here, through which you can book (other advisors who participate in this are welcome to leave their page links below).
On the initial page you’ll see the “Hotel Catalog,” and you can just enter the hotel’s name or location, the dates of your stay, and the number of travelers.
For example, say you’re looking at a stay in Frankfurt, Germany, over certain dates. You’ll see that there are three hotels to choose from.
For each hotel, you can see a tab that lists “Virtuoso Amenities,” which shows the property specific perks.
Then there’s also a “Room Types” tab, which shows the rates you can book, and the details of the rooms.
Once you select a rate and click “Book,” you’ll be prompted to log into your account. If you already have a Virtuoso account, you can just log into it. If you don’t yet have an account, click on “Sign up here.”
To create an account, you’ll be asked to enter your email address, name, and country, and to create a password.
The next page will just ask you to confirm your advisor, and then you’ll just have to enter your booking details. This includes your name, billing information, and loyalty number (if applicable). Make sure you review the Virtuoso amenities, cancelation policies, total including taxes and fees, etc. You’ll then receive an email confirmation directly from Virtuoso.
Note that when you’re booking through Virtuoso, you’ll be charged directly by the hotel, in case that impacts which credit card you pay with (for example, which card offers the most points, which offers a hotel credit at the brand you’re staying at, etc.).
If you’re going to book a hotel through Virtuoso’s website, there are a few things to be aware of:
- You must be connected to an advisor to confirm a booking online; you can’t do it if you’re not connected to an advisor
- There is a field to add your loyalty program number to the reservation during the booking process, if applicable
- If you want to book multiple rooms, you’ll need to make separate reservations for each room
- If you want to cancel, you can’t do so through Virtuoso; you can either call the hotel directly if you need to cancel immediately (or go to their website, if they allow that), or you can contact your Virtuoso advisor, though you’ll want to leave some time if you choose to contact your Virtuoso advisor to cancel for you
Who should book hotels through the Virtuoso online booking tool? It’s good to book through the Virtuoso website if you just want to instantly confirm a booking, and know what you’re doing, if you’re booking two or fewer guests (sometimes there are issues with the rates displayed if there are more guests), and/or if you’re booking at least one business day in advance (same day bookings aren’t generally available through the Virtuoso booking tool).
The ability to book Virtuoso hotels online has been around for years. However, for those who prefer self-booking, there’s another option. I recently wrote about TravelWits, which is a tool that select travel advisors can offer, in order to provide extra perks at a variety of hotels.
What’s the difference between booking through the Virtuoso tool vs. booking through TravelWits? I’d argue that TravelWits has some major advantage:
- TravelWits allows you to compare a wider variety of rates and perks, as it doesn’t just give you access to Virtuoso rates, but also to the other rates travel advisors can offer, like Four Seasons Preferred Partner, Rosewood Elite, and much more
- TravelWits is a bit more robust of a platform, as you can typically even easily cancel your booking on your own online, without needing to contact the hotel or a travel advisor
I’d say the only potential downside to TravelWits is that the portal needs to be password protected, so you need to get the password for TravelWits from a travel advisor (this is so that all partner rates can be offered). However, beyond that, there’s not a need to otherwise register for an account).
As I mentioned in the previous post, Ford Beckett Travel has their TravelWits portal here, and you can email [email protected] for the password.
Bottom line
There’s a lot of value to be had in booking through a Virtuoso travel advisor, and if you’re someone who wants to book instantly or avoid human interaction, being able to make a Virtuoso booking directly online can be a great option.
However, it’s also worth being aware of TravelWits, which is a similar concept, but a little more robust. The catch with TravelWits is that you need to manually request the password, but once you have it, it lets you pretty seamlessly compare the various exclusive rates.
