how your travel advisor can save you money

bill for two buffet breakfasts, FREE if you use a STARS travel advisor

It's a common misconception that hotel guests can find the best deals booking on the internet, either going to an online travel agency like Expedia or hotels.com or booking directly on the hotel's website. If you want to reserve a room at a luxury hotel or resort, that inclination is a fallacy.

This was our breakfast bill from this morning. My wife and I each ordered the breakfast buffet this morning at Ritz-Carlton Bacara Resort. At the end of the meal, our waiter brought us the pictured check to sign. If $77.58 sounds like a lot to pay for breakfast ... here's how you can enjoy that breakfast for free: make your booking through a travel advisor affiliated with a STARS agency. One of the perks you'll receive at Bacara is a free buffet breakfast for two each morning of your stay. And you'll get a late 4 p.m. check-out if available and a customized welcome amenity or service — all at the same rate you see on the web.

Even better amenities are coming, as I understand Bacara will soon be accepted into Virtuoso. Add to all of the above a $100 resort credit — and a room upgrade if available when you check in. That's even more value you can get just by using a Virtuoso travel advisor. 

So don't buy into the flawed logic that you're better off booking it on your own. You can find a Virtuoso advisor on Virtuoso.com.

copyright  (c)  2018 by Ourisman Travel LLC.  All rights reserved. We provide Virtuoso and other Preferred Partner amenities as an affiliate of Brownell, a Virtuoso® member. If you have comments on this column, or questions about booking travel, email me or visit our website.