Belmond | double hotel credits

Planning a stay in a Belmond hotel? For new, 3+ day bookings made from now until July 15, 2017 (with travel completed before August 31st), enjoy a double hotel credit. This means, you'll get the added value of...

$180 hotel credit (food, beverage, spa) for room bookings (normally $90)
$400 hotel credit (food, beverage, or spa) for Suite bookings (normally $200)

There's nothing for you to join. As Bellini Club luxury travel advisors, our clients will receive the double credit along with full set of Bellini Club amenities with every booking:

• Buffet or full breakfast for 2 daily
• VIP welcome treats with a local taste   
• Complimentary upgrade based on availability at time of check-in 
• Complimentary WI-FI access 

There's something quite special about Belmond hotels and resorts. The company does not build new hotels; they acquire iconic hotels with character — the Cipriani in Venice, La Residencia in Mallorca, Villa San Michele in Florence, and Charleston Place in Charleston, SC (among others).  Every Belmond hotel with the exception of Grand Hotel Europe in St. Petersburg is participating in the double hotel credit program.

What about Belmond trains and cruises? Enjoy a complimentary one-way airport transfer when booking through a Bellini Club travel advisor.

Terms and Conditions
Valid for new bookings only, made between 10 May - 15 July 2017
Valid for travel completed before 31 August 2017
Valid for bookings at selected hotels, trains and cruises — direct hotel bookings made at the BC rate (= the BAR rate) and train/cruise bookings made at the official published rates.
For hotels, offer is only applicable for bookings with a minimum length of stay of 3 nights
Premium Bellini Club amenities apply (rather than consortia amenities)
Advance reservations required, offers subject to availability, blackout dates may apply
Terms and conditions are subject to change

copyright (c) 2017 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 my website.

#VirtuosoWeek top ten | Langham Sydney

This is number seven of my "top ten list" from Virtuoso Week.

Remember the Observatory Hotel, the former Orient Express (Belmond) hotel in Sydney? After Belmond sold the property, it came under Langham management and was renovated in 2014. While Sydney has a number of great hotel choices, The Langham should be your choice if you're looking for a boutique hotel with a residential feel.

Most of the Sydney hotels are large — Four Seasons has 531 rooms, Shangri La has 563, InterContinental has 509, all extremely large by Virtuoso standards. It's difficult to provide personalized luxury service in a large hotel with half a thousand guest rooms..

The shining jewel of Sydney Harbor is the Park Hyatt, with a manageable 155 rooms and a stunning direct view of the Opera House from the best rooms in the House. For guests with the budget to afford the best view in Sydney, go for the Park Hyatt.

But if you'd prefer to be just a short walk away from the action on Argyle Street in a quieter, residential neighborhood whose cobblestone streets are lined with restaurants, go for the Langham Sydney. Priced midway between the Four Seasons and the Park Hyatt, Virtuoso guests enjoy great value with a daily buffet breakfast for two, upgrade if available, and one Afternoon Tea for two in the Palm Court.

copyright (c) 2015 by David Ourisman LLC. All rights reserved. We provide Virtuoso and other Preferred Partner amenities as an affiliate of Brownell Travel. If you have comments on this column, or questions about booking travel, email me or visit my website.

when is a Ritz not a Ritz?

rotunda of the Ritz London

This column is inspired by yesterday's announcement that Four Seasons will cease management of the Ritz-Carlton Chicago effective July 31st. On that date, Ritz-Carlton Chicago will become a Ritz-Carlton. Did you know that there are currently five (5) Ritz properties that are not managed by the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company. They are:

Ritz Paris — one of my favorite hotels anywhere (I've stayed twice), the Ritz Paris has an enviable location right on the place Vendome. In the heart of Paris's 1st arrondissement, it's easy walking distance to anywhere in the center of Paris and is steps away from high-end shopping opportunities. The Ritz is in the midst of a quarter billion euro renovation. Expected to reopen by the end of 2015, I definitely want to visit when it reopens.

Ritz London — a very British hotel right on Piccadilly and on the northeast corner of Green Park (Buckingham Palace is on the opposite southwest corner, I enjoyed my 2009 stay at the Ritz. Come for the Afternoon Tea, and enjoy your stay in a very reasonably priced, traditional London hotel. Deluxe rooms and above, request a room on a high floor with lots of natural light, and for a real WOW, book a 1BR Deluxe Suites overlooking Green Park.

Ritz Lisbon — a Four Seasons hotel in the heart of Lisbon, Portugal, I enjoyed my stay here in 2009. A tip: it's relatively easy to score a room upgrade into a Deluxe room here. Just book through a Four Seasons Preferred Partner travel consultant for priority status on the upgrade list ... as well as enjoy a rich set of FSPP amenities. Email me for full details on FSPP amenities at over 90 FS hotels worldwide.

Ritz Madrid — the Ritz Madrid is owned by Belmond (formerly known as Orient Express), and it's located in central Madrid next door to the Prado Museum. The Ritz is an older, traditional elegant hotel with great service. While I had to wait in line for concierge service at the Westin Place across the circle, two concierges approached me as soon as I walked up the Concierge desk at the Ritz.

Ritz-Carlton Chicago — still a Four Seasons Hotel (until July 31st), I can provide you with Four Seasons Preferred Partner amenities up until then ... and Ritz-Carlton STARS amenities afterwards (which include a complimentary daily breakfast for two, free internet, and more). I expect the hotel will remain a member of Virtuoso after the Ritz-Carlton take-over.


I can provide added-value amenities at each of the above hotels, including complimentary daily breakfast for two, upgrades if available, and extra amenities that differ by property. Contact me for full details!

copyright (c) 2015 by David Ourisman LLC. All rights reserved. We provide Virtuoso and other Preferred Partner amenities as an affiliate of Brownell Travel. If you have comments on this column, or questions about booking travel, email me or visit my website.

room upgrades | the holy grail of hotel stays

Ocean View Prime Suite at FS Hualalai

I can't show the comic strip, as King Features wanted $60 for a one-time license, but go to the Rhymes with Orange website and click back to the April 15th cartoon. Cinderella is standing in front of "The Enchanted Forest Rental Desk" to rent a pumpkin coach. The rental agent, a flying fairy godmother complete with wand, informs her, There are no more pumpkin coaches on the lot, but for the same price we can upgrade you to a butternut squash.*

Room upgrades are the holy grail of luxury hotel stays. For many hotels and resorts, the only difference between a less inexpensive lead-in room and higher room categories is the view. A great example is the Four Seasons Maui where lead-in Mountainside rooms look away from the ocean with a view of the roof of the parking garage. Higher room categories (Garden, Partial Ocean, Ocean View, and Ocean View Prime) have progressively better views. So a room upgrade is a valuable perk that can save you $100 every night of your stay, depending on time of year.

How can you increase your chances of getting a coveted room upgrade? Find a luxury travel consultant who

(1) is a preferred partner of your favorite hotel families. Brownell Travel has preferred partner relationships with Four Seasons, Ritz Carlton, Mandarin Oriental, Park Hyatt, Orient Express, and Rosewood, among other luxury brands. We are among a handful of agencies that are the biggest producers for these brands, and our clients go to the top of the upgrade list.

(2) is a member of Virtuoso, or another consortium with negotiated amenities such as Signature or FHR. These perks include room upgrades on check-in, subject to availability, at over 900 five star hotels and resorts around the world.

(3) has personal relationships with sales managers at the hotels you want to book. If you send a lot of guests to certain hotels, and work with sales managers to VIP your clients, they get to know you and will often try to guarantee an upgrade in advance.

It can help if you are a frequent guest of certain hotels. So when you find a hotel you love, stay with it! Your own relationship, especially when combined with that of your travel consultant, will help you score a room upgrade!

room upgrade (search here on Google)

*Hilary B. Price, "Rhymes with Orange" (April 15, 2012)


copyright (c) 2012 by David Ourisman LLC. All rights reserved. If you have comments on this column, or questions about booking travel, email me or visit my website.
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Ritz-Carlton | Let Us Stay With You

new Ritz-Carlton advertisement to be released tomorrow

The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, as reported by an article in yesterday's New York Times, will begin a major rebranding tomorrow morning. I am free to release additional information at midnight EDT, but here is the gist of the new Ritz-Carlton Let Us Stay With You marketing campaign.

Let Us Stay With You is the new tagline shown in the ad copy above. The rest of the text, which you may not be able to read, states:

• Let us take your eyelids back in time.
• Let us re-create the recipe from your favorite meal in Paris.
• Let us help you unwind without leaving the city.
• Let us turn a weekend of pampering into a memory you'll be reminded of at every turn.

The idea is to focus on guest experiences, the memories and special touches that guests will remember always, rather than the material aspects of luxury travel.

Other purveyors of luxury travel are taking their marketing in a similar direction. For instance, Virtuoso has been using the tagline "What's Your Return on Life" for several years. And Orient-Express will begin a marketing theme using the tagline "Embark on a journey like no other" featuring the travels of a fictional family, the Astorbilts.

Watch this space. Additional information will be released at midnight EST tonight.


Ritz Carlton | Let Us Stay With You (search here on Google)

copyright (c) 2011 by David Ourisman LLC. All rights reserved. If you have comments on this column, or questions about booking travel, email me or visit my website.
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Maroma Resort | Riviera Maya

It's our next-to-last day at Maroma Resort & Spa — we fly back to SFO late tomorrow afternoon — and it's been a wonderful place to spend four days. Set alongside a wide, beautiful stretch of beach, Maroma is an intimate 80 room Caribbean resort. Originally a gracious Spanish-style hacienda estate, Orient-Express has maintained the Mexican feeling of the place in developing the property.

What to do at Maroma? Snorkeling, for one thing! Just off shore is the second largest coral reef in the world (the largest is the Great Barrier Reef in Australia). Each guest receives a complimentary snorkeling expedition. We went for ours on Wednesday morning - there were only the two of us on this particular outing. Maroma's boat took us out to the best section of the reef where we saw hundreds of colorful tropical fish and our guide pointed out sea life we would otherwise have missed: a giant starfish, Moray eels, and a sting ray. We spent 45 minutes in the warm water before heading back to shore.

Maroma Resort has a variety of room types. We stayed in an Ocean View room whose large balcony overlooks the beach and sea, but I would especially recommend the Junior Suite category (of which there are four); the photograph above was taken from the suite's terrace. A lot is included in the room rate at Maroma — including daily breakfast, roundtrip airport transfers, complimentary wireless internet — and Virtuoso guests also receive room upgrades if available upon check-in and other special amenities. Contact your Virtuoso travel consultant for more information.

Maroma (search here on Google)

copyright (c) 2009 by David J. Ourisman. All rights reserved. If you have comments on this column, or questions about booking travel, email me or visit my website.
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Botswana safari | 2 for 1 luxury safari

Among the incredible luxury travel values to come across my desk in recent weeks, none will save you more money than this once-in-a-lifetime safari in Botswana. Buy one land safari, and the second guest's land safari is FREE!

Botswana is located in Southern Africa, bordering South Africa to the southeast, Namibia to the northwest, and touching Zambia at a single point. During your vacation, you will stay at renowned Orient-Express properties. In Johannesburg, your home will be the historic Westcliff Hotel for two nights. In Botswana, you will experience a total of six nights at three Orient-Express luxury safari lodges — Khwai River Lodge, Eagle Island Lodge, and Savute Elephant Camp — which feature luxurious air conditioned tents with en-suite facilities. Your safari includes all meals and drinks as well as daily breakfasts in Johannesburg and private airport transfers.

Of course, the reason to go on safari is the experience of seeing African wildlife in their natural habitat. Most travelers to Africa enjoy experiences that surpass their expectations. This exclusive offer of a 2-for-1 luxury safari is not likely to be seen again, and it's valid only through 2009.

Buy one, and the second guest stays for free. Land price from August - October is $8,675. In November and December, the land price decreases to $6,595. Not included is international air from the USA and roundtrip air between Johannesburg and Botswana.

luxury safari (search here on Google)


copyright (c) 2009 by David J. Ourisman. All rights reserved. If you have comments on this column, or questions about booking travel, email me or visit my website.
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