Virtuoso Travel Advisor in the UK

Virtuoso is the invitation-only network of the world's most considered hotels, cruises, tour operators and private guides. Naylor & Co. operates within it through Colletts Travel, a member agency of the Global Travel Collection. The practice books within the network. It does not hold the membership itself.

What that brings to a stay depends on the hotel, and I check it before I recommend anywhere. A stay booked this way generally brings daily breakfast for two and an amenity the property sets itself, often a credit to spend there. A room upgrade, early check-in and late check-out usually come with those too, all subject to availability on the day.

It is not a discount. The nightly rate is the hotel's own. Booking this way makes the stay worth more, not the room cheaper. The Global Travel Collection also has agreements with many hotel groups of its own, and the practice books those the same way.

What a hotel programme is

Candlelit tables set with white flowers on a rooftop terrace, with the Eiffel Tower at sunset. — Cheval Blanc Paris. Photo: Cheval Blanc Paris

A hotel brand's trade programme is an arrangement between that brand and a limited number of agencies. A traveller cannot join one, cannot buy into one, and does not need to: the benefits attach to the booking rather than to the guest, and they arrive on a first stay exactly as they do on a tenth.

Naylor & Co. books these through Colletts Travel, within the Global Travel Collection, alongside Virtuoso.

The brand programmes I book

A suite balcony with wicker seating overlooking the Chao Phraya river and city towers. — Mandarin Oriental, Bangkok. Photo: Mandarin Oriental, Bangkok

I book 19 brand programmes through Colletts Travel, within the Global Travel Collection. Each is set out, with what it gives you, on Programmes.

Where a brand has no programme of its own

An aerial view of the castle on the shore of Lough Corrib, surrounded by woodland and lawns. — Ashford Castle. Photo: Ashford Castle

Some of the hotels most worth booking belong to brands that run no trade programme at all. For those, the benefits come through SELECT Hotels & Resorts by Internova, the Internova Travel Group's own hotel programme, of which the Global Travel Collection is part.

That covers Aman, Auberge Resorts Collection, COMO, Corinthia, The Doyle Collection, Kempinski, One&Only and Atlantis, The Leading Hotels of the World, Loews, Claridge’s, The Connaught and the other Maybourne hotels, Montage and Pendry, Anantara and Elewana, and 1 Hotels and Baccarat, among others.

What none of them do

The entrance hall, with a chandelier, a marble statue and an inlaid floor. — Hotel Sacher Wien. Photo © Hotel Sacher and Adrian Gaut / Hotel Sacher

None is a discount. The nightly rate is the hotel's own, and a programme makes the stay worth more without making the room cheaper.

None creates availability. A full hotel is full.

None can be added after the fact. The benefits attach when the booking is made, which is the single most common thing people discover too late.

Stays on this site

An infinity pool with parasols and loungers below the stone borgo at sunset. — Castiglion del Bosco, A Rosewood Hotel. Photo: Castiglion del Bosco, A Rosewood Hotel

343 of the stays on this site are within Virtuoso, and each page says so. Stays.

The network

A gold desk bell on a wooden table. — The front desk, briefed ahead. Photo: Mrg Simon / Unsplash

The hotels I work with operate at a level that responds to relationships, not to credit cards. When you book through Naylor & Co., the property knows who you are before you arrive. They've been briefed on what you care about. The room they hold for you is the right room, not the room they had left.

This is layered: Virtuoso amenities at the network level, brand programme amenities at the chain level, personal relationships at the property level.

The continuity

A long hotel hallway with a patterned blue and red carpet. — The same person, trip after trip. Photo: Waldemar Brandt / Unsplash

The first trip the practice designs for you is a learning trip, for me as much as for you. By the second, the file has learned enough to begin from a different place. By the fifth, conversations are short and most things happen by implication.

This is the thing private travel design uniquely makes possible. The compounding is real, and it is the point.

Questions about Virtuoso stays

A lobby lounge with indoor trees, armchairs and a crystal chandelier under a glass dome. — Baur au Lac. Photo: Baur au Lac

Can I use my points or card benefits? For flights, yes. Many households book long-haul flights on points, and that sits comfortably alongside everything else I arrange. Hotels are different. The benefits that come with booking through the practice apply to rooms booked through the network portal. A points stay, or a room booked through a card's own hotel programme, usually sits outside that. So for each hotel it is one route or the other, not both. If you hold a card with its own hotel programme, tell me in the first conversation and I will say which route gives you more at each property.

Do you book cruises and yacht charters? Yes. Yacht charter is handled through a small number of brokers the practice trusts.

What happens if something goes wrong during the trip? You have my mobile number, my WhatsApp, and the direct numbers of the people looking after you, at each property and on the ground. Most things that go wrong are resolved by a call from me to the right person. The time difference between London and most destinations is workable, and the relationships are the point. Travel insurance with cancellation cover is required on every trip and arranged separately.

How private is the practice with my information? Completely. Client information is kept in private business accounts, and nothing is shared with third parties beyond what's necessary to make the bookings. The practice never publishes photographs of clients. A client's words appear here only with their written permission, signed with their first name or initials, the destination and the month.