Why Naylor & Co.

Five conversations, in order

Introduction. We talk. About where you've been, what landed, what didn't. If we're a fit, the practice opens its work to you.

Brief. A structured conversation that captures the obvious things, and the ones you didn't know you cared about until I asked.

Design. You see options where options matter and clean recommendations where they don't.

Departure. Before you leave: every property briefed, every detail confirmed. Throughout the trip: the kind of background presence that means you rarely need to use it.

Reflection. A few days after you return, the welcome-home call. What worked, what surprised you, what you'd do differently. That conversation shapes the next journey.

What working with me includes

The five conversations: Introduction, Brief, Design, Departure and Reflection
Two or three options for each decision that matters, each with a reason and the one I would choose
Every hotel briefed in writing on who you are before you arrive
Virtuoso amenities where the hotel offers them, usually breakfast, a hotel credit and an upgrade, early check-in or late check-out, subject to availability
Concierge for your journey: restaurants at the hour you like to dine, spa, activities, a surprise
Your own journey page and documents, saved to your phone
A reply within one working day, and usually the same day

The work that happens before the trip

A considered trip is not built from a brochure. It's built from a long conversation, a precise brief, several rounds of iteration, and direct contact with the people who run the properties involved.

That work takes time. Most households don't have it. Designing a multi-country trip well, finding the right hotel, the right room, the right sequence of cities, the right guide for the day, the right restaurant on the right evening, takes many hours of focused work.

The network

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.

Insurance against things going wrong

The flight gets cancelled. The hotel overbooks. The guide is ill. The restaurant changes chef. None of these are catastrophic. All of them require someone making calls to the right people, fast, on your behalf.

That someone has to be reachable. Has to have the relationships. Has to be able to fix the thing without you having to manage the fix yourself. That is, in many ways, the entire point of using a designer. Most of the time, nothing happens. When it does, the difference between a trip with a designer behind it and one without is unmistakable.

The continuity

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.

How I look after you: you deal with me, always

From the first conversation to the welcome home, the person writing to you is the person doing the work.

How I look after you: replies

I reply to every message within one working day, and usually the same day. If something is urgent, I say when you’ll hear back and keep to it.

How I look after you: two or three options, never twenty

When I suggest hotels or routes, I give you two or three I’d stand behind, and say which I’d choose and why. Part of the work is taking things out.

How I look after you: before you travel

Each hotel hears from me before you arrive: who’s coming, when, what the trip is for, and anything that must never go wrong. A few days before you leave, I reconfirm the rooms, cars and first-night tables.

How I look after you: while you’re away

You have my mobile number, my WhatsApp, and the direct numbers of the people looking after you, at each property and on the ground.

How I look after you: when you’re home

The Reflection, your welcome-home call. A few days after you return, I ask how it went: what worked, what didn’t, and what you’d change. It’s how the next trip starts better than this one.