Agent Selling Tips: Luxury Travel
02-Jun-2026
Category: News Stories
PATA Executive Committee Member & Global Head of Product at cazenove+loyd give his top tips for selling luxury holidays to the PATA region.
"Sometimes it feels like everyone is selling luxury travel. With ‘click and book’ properties and itineraries readily available online, it’s becoming harder to stand out. Worse still, it can feel like a race to the bottom on pricing, eroding margins and taking up time trying to match deals clients have already found themselves.
That’s why it’s more important than ever to understand what luxury really means – not just for your clients, but in the wider market. Ask yourself: what am I adding to this trip that they couldn’t get by booking direct? After all, we can all access the same hotels and resorts. Think of these as the ‘hardware’; what you add is the ‘software’ – the elements that make a journey seamless and genuinely special.
For us, that comes down to relationships. This goes far beyond a bottle of wine on arrival. It’s about unlocking private access, arranging unexpected moments or even steering clients towards something more considered and local. When you get this right, feedback shifts, it’s no longer about the hotel, but the experience as a whole. That’s what drives repeat bookings.
We’re seeing this reflected in current booking trends. Clients still expect the best places to stay, but conversations are increasingly focused on experiences, guiding and how their time will be spent. There is a growing appetite for something more personalised and less obvious, with real value placed on insight and access.
Looking ahead, we are likely to see travellers take fewer, but longer, more in depth trips, really maximising the value in the experiences, creating an opportunity to build more considered itineraries, making the most of stay-pay offers and adding depth to each journey."
