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Frequently Asked questions
DeSalvio Travel
If you have never worked with a travel agent before, it can be difficult to know what to expect.
How much should you tell them? How much should you be involved? Do you need to know exactly where you want to go? Is it more expensive than booking yourself? What does a travel agent actually do once you have paid them?
The simplest answer is that a good travel agent should make your trip better, not simply make the booking easier.
At DeSalvio Travel, we begin with the traveler rather than the destination. We want to understand why you are traveling, what interests you, what you value and what you want to spend. From there, we use our experience, relationships and knowledge of destinations to design a journey around you.
This FAQ/guide explains what you can expect from that relationship, what to prepare before contacting an agent, and how to get the most from the process.
A travel agent does much more than make reservations.
A good agent takes your interests, budget and reason for traveling and turns them into a workable journey. That means helping you choose the right destination, hotels and experiences, arranging the logistics between them and making sure the different parts of the trip work together.
The value is in the judgment behind those decisions. There may be twenty hotels that look excellent online. Your agent's job is to understand which one actually suits you. The same applies to guides, restaurants, transfers, cruise ships, neighborhoods and experiences.
A travel agent should also know the people behind the products they recommend. At DeSalvio Travel, we build relationships with hotels, destination management companies, guides and other local specialists so that we know who we are recommending to our clients. We inspect properties and meet partners whenever possible, rather than relying only on brochures and online reviews.
The result should be a trip that feels considered from beginning to end.
You can book almost every part of a trip yourself. The question is whether you want to.
Booking a hotel online is relatively simple. Designing a two- or three-week journey involving several destinations, hotels, trains, private drivers, guides, restaurants and special experiences is considerably more complicated.A travel agent saves you time, but time is only part of the value.
An experienced agent can help you avoid poor hotel locations, badly timed connections, unsuitable excursions and experiences that look impressive online but are not right for you (Small details can matter a lot as well, rates that are not refundable might seem great but can cause problems when flexibility is needed). They can also connect the different parts of a journey so that you are not responsible for coordinating everything yourself. Then there is what happens when something changes.
A missed connection, cancelled flight, hotel problem or unexpected disruption can turn a carefully planned trip into a series of phone calls. With an agent, you have someone who already knows your itinerary and can help solve the problem.
For us, the goal is peace of mind before, during and after the trip.
It depends on the trip.
If you are booking a simple weekend away and already know the hotel you want, you may not need a travel agent. But if you are looking at added value through our special Virtuoso amenities, you will need a travel agency like DeSalvio Travel that can make this happen for you.
The more complicated the trip becomes, however, the more useful professional planning becomes. A multi-destination European journey, a honeymoon, a multigenerational vacation, a river cruise with extensions, or a trip involving private guides and complex logistics can involve hundreds of decisions.
A travel agent helps you make those decisions efficiently and in the right order.
There can also be financial value. Depending on the hotel or travel partner, agents may have access to preferred rates or added benefits that are not available when booking independently. For participating Virtuoso properties, benefits and amenities can include things such as breakfast, property credits, early check-in, late check-out or upgrades, subject to availability and the property's terms.
The point is not simply to find the cheapest price. It is to find the best overall value for the money you want to spend.
The more complex the trip, the more useful an agent is.
This is particularly true when you are:
Visiting several destinations
Traveling for a special occasion
Traveling with several generations of a family
Combining different forms of transportation
Planning a honeymoon
Taking a river cruise
Looking for private guides or special access
Traveling somewhere unfamiliar
Working with a specific budget and high expectations
Wanting a highly personalized experience
Wanting special Virtuoso Amenities.
Distance can also make a difference. When you are traveling far from home, understanding local logistics, customs/cultures, transportation and reliable suppliers becomes more important.
A good agent does not need to have personally visited every destination in the world. What matters is knowing how to research a destination properly, how to evaluate local partners and how to determine whether a destination actually fits the traveler.
For a major trip, around a year in advance is a good starting point.
That does not mean every trip needs twelve months of planning. But the most sought-after hotels, guides, restaurants, cruises and experiences can book far in advance, particularly during peak seasons.
Starting early gives your agent more opportunities, choices and possibilities.
It also gives you time to develop the itinerary rather than making decisions under pressure. A good trip often takes several rounds of discussion and refinement.
For particularly important journeys (such as honeymoons, milestone celebrations, family trips or complex multi-country itineraries) earlier is usually better.
Look for someone whose interests and way of traveling align with yours.
You are not simply hiring someone to make reservations. You are asking someone to make hundreds of decisions on your behalf.
Look at the trips they design. Read what they write. See what destinations and experiences they talk about. Ask how they approach planning.
Most importantly, talk to them.
The right agent should ask questions about you before immediately recommending destinations.
At DeSalvio Travel, we believe the relationship matters because travel is personal. The agent needs to understand your interests, preferences and expectations well enough to make decisions that feel right for you.
Destination expertise is valuable, but it is not the only form of expertise. No agent can realistically have personally experienced every hotel, guide and destination a client may want to visit.
What matters is how an agent works when a destination is new to them. An experienced agent should research the destination, study its hotels and logistics, speak with trusted DMCs and local specialists, and determine which recommendations fit the particular client.
At DeSalvio Travel, we do this whenever we work on a destination that is not one of our most frequently booked. We study the destination, talk to our partners and assess all the hotels and experiences before recommending them.
That process is particularly important when choosing hotels. A beautiful hotel is not necessarily the right hotel for every traveler.
You can ask:
What value do you add beyond what I can book online?
How much experience do you have with this destination or type of trip?
How do you design your itineraries?
How do you choose hotels and local guides?
What kinds of travelers do you work best with?
What are your planning fees?
How many itinerary revisions are included?
What support do you provide while I am traveling?
What do you need from me before you start planning?
What happens if something goes wrong during the trip?
You should come away from the conversation understanding both what the agent does and how they work.
Pay attention to the questions they ask you.
If you say you want Italy, a good agent should want to know why Italy. Are you interested in art? Food? Wine? Architecture? Music? History? Landscapes? Shopping? Relaxation?
Do you prefer large luxury hotels, smaller properties or resorts? Do you want a full schedule or plenty of free time? Do you enjoy private guides or prefer to explore independently?
The agent should gradually turn those answers into a picture of the trip.
The best relationship is collaborative.
You bring the desire. The agent brings experience, knowledge and access. Together, you arrive at something that neither of you would necessarily have produced alone.
Three things are particularly important:
Why you are traveling.
A honeymoon, anniversary, family reunion and first trip to Europe are very different journeys, even if they involve the same destination.
What interests you.
Tell your agent what you enjoy, and what you don't. Art, food, wine, history, architecture, music, nature, shopping, beaches, wellness, active travel and relaxation can all shape an itinerary.
Your budget.
Your agent needs to understand the financial framework before making recommendations.You should also mention your preferred dates, who is traveling, previous travel experiences, hotel preferences, dietary requirements, mobility considerations and anything else that will affect the trip. You do not need to have the trip figured out. That is part of what you are hiring the agent to do. The great aspect of having a long term relationship with your agent is that once they have have the information that is recurring, like your requirements, so that you don’t have to tell this every time and they are automatically taken care of for you.
That's fine.
You do not need to arrive with a destination.
You might simply say:
“We have two weeks, we love food and art, we want somewhere warm, and our budget is around $20,000.”
That is enough to start a conversation. Your agent can begin suggesting destinations that fit those interests and constraints.
In many cases, this is where an agent adds the most value. Instead of starting with a search engine and narrowing hundreds of possibilities down to one, you start with your interests and allow someone with experience to identify the possibilities.
Be honest about it.
A budget is not a limitation that you should hide from your agent. It is actually one of the most useful pieces of information you can provide.
A $10,000 trip and a $50,000 trip can produce very different options.
More importantly, the budget helps your agent decide where to spend and where not to spend.Perhaps the hotel matters enormously to you but you are happy traveling by train.
Perhaps private guides are your priority and you are willing to stay in a simpler hotel. Perhaps you want a beautiful room with a balcony and don't care about having a spa.
Knowing the budget and preferences allows your agent to make those decisions intelligently.
At DeSalvio Travel, we use your budget together with your interests and the reason for your trip to determine what kind of journey makes sense.
You should be involved but you should not have to manage every detail.
The best relationship is collaborative.
You tell us what matters to you. We research, recommend, arrange and refine. You make the final decisions.You should not feel that you have handed over control of your vacation. At the same time, there is little benefit in hiring an agent and then researching and coordinating every reservation yourself.
Trust allows the agent to do their job.
You can always say that you don't like a hotel, don't want a particular experience or would rather spend your money elsewhere. That information helps the agent improve the itinerary.
This is one of the most valuable, and magical, parts of working with an agent.
Some experiences are easy to find online. Others depend on relationships.
A private guide may know a specialist who does not advertise publicly. A local partner may be able to arrange a visit that is difficult to organize independently. A hotel may be able to facilitate something because your agent has an established relationship with the property. But access alone is not enough.
The experience also has to be right for you.
At DeSalvio Travel, we tell our guides about our clients before they meet. We explain their interests and expectations so the guide can tailor the experience rather than simply deliver the standard tour.
That is the difference between booking an activity and designing an experience.
Travel agents can work in different ways.
Some earn primarily through commissions from travel suppliers. Others charge planning or consultation fees. Many use a combination of the two.
At DeSalvio Travel, our planning packages carry a professional planning fee. Our current full custom itinerary service includes destination consultation, itinerary development and edits, transportation and activity assistance, concierge support, destination information and 24/7 travel assistance. Direct hotel bookings and pre chosen cruises have no planning fee.
The important question is not simply whether an agent charges a fee.Ask what the fee covers.
Planning a complex itinerary can involve many hours of research, correspondence with suppliers, itinerary design and revisions before a single booking is made. The planning fee recognizes that professional work.
Not necessarily, but it is important to understand what you are comparing.
Sometimes the public price is the same. Sometimes an agent has access to a preferred rate. Sometimes the price is similar but the booking includes additional benefits.
For participating Virtuoso properties, benefits may include complimentary breakfast, property credits, room upgrades or other amenities, depending on the hotel and availability.
The larger point is that price is only one part of value.
If you spend less but end up in the wrong hotel, in the wrong neighborhood, with poorly timed transfers and experiences that don't suit you, you have not necessarily received better value.
A good agent looks at the entire trip.
Once you approve an itinerary, the agent takes care of the arrangements that you have asked them to handle.
At DeSalvio Travel, we can assist with hotels, transportation, activities, tours, dining and other travel arrangements. We do not charge a client's card without authorization.
The exact payment process varies by supplier. Some bookings require deposits, while others require full payment at a particular date.
Your agent should explain these terms before you approve the booking.
Every supplier has its own terms.
Hotels, cruise lines, tour operators and private guides may all have different cancellation deadlines, deposits and refund policies.
Your agent should explain these before you commit.
Travel insurance is also worth discussing before the trip is fully booked.
A significant trip can involve thousands or tens of thousands of dollars in non-refundable arrangements. A serious illness, family emergency, cancellation or major disruption can therefore have substantial financial consequences.
Insurance is not simply about medical emergencies. Depending on the policy, it can also protect against certain cancellation, interruption, delay or baggage problems.
Your agent can help you understand what needs to be insured, but you should review the policy and determine what coverage is appropriate for you.
Yes.
Some clients prefer to book flights themselves, particularly when they are using miles or points. Others prefer to have the agent handle everything.
There is no single right answer.
Even when you book your own flights, your agent can help make sure the schedule works with the rest of the itinerary.
Flight timing can affect your entire trip. A cheaper flight that arrives at midnight may not be the better choice if it means losing a day or making an inconvenient transfer.
The goal is to find the option that works best for the journey as a whole.
Yes, and hotel selection is one of the most important parts of the work.
A hotel is not simply somewhere to sleep. It is your base for several days and can affect how you experience an entire destination. We look at the location, rooms, design, service, atmosphere, amenities and relationship to the rest of the itinerary.
We also consider the traveler.
Someone who loves contemporary design may have very different preferences from someone who wants a historic palazzo. Someone who wants to spend the day exploring may prefer a central city hotel, while someone seeking privacy may value a resort outside town.
DeSalvio Travel is affiliated with Virtuoso and works with preferred hotels and other travel partners. Where relevant programs apply, clients may receive additional amenities or benefits subject to availability and supplier terms.
Sometimes, travel agents affiliated with preferred hotel programs can have access to benefits that may include room upgrades, breakfast, hotel credits or other amenities.
But upgrades are never something that should be presented as guaranteed unless the property has specifically confirmed them.
The real advantage is having an agent who knows the property and can advocate for you. A good agent can also help select the right room category from the beginning instead of simply hoping for an upgrade.
Yes, and guides can be one of the most important parts of a luxury trip.
A guide does more than explain what you are looking at.
The right guide understands your interests and knows how to bring a destination to life. A historian may approach Rome differently from an art specialist. A gastronome may show you a completely different side of a city.
This is why relationships matter.
At DeSalvio Travel, we work with vetted guides and local specialists and take the time to understand how they work before recommending them. We want to know not only whether someone is knowledgeable, but whether they are the right person for a particular client.
Our philosophy is that the new luxury travel is about attention and highly customised itineraries. Working closely together with guides and customising it to your preferences allows us to work in the new luxury philosophy.
Yes!
For us, food is part of understanding a destination rather than simply filling a reservation slot.
Restaurant recommendations should take your tastes into account: what you like to eat, how formal you want the experience to be, whether you prefer traditional or contemporary cuisine, and where the restaurant fits within the day's itinerary.
DeSalvio Travel has gastronomic expertise in-house, which allows us to consider dining as part of the overall journey rather than treating restaurants as an afterthought.
Often, yes.
Availability depends on the institution and the local partner, but private visits, specialist guides, after-hours experiences and other forms of special access can sometimes be arranged.
This can be particularly valuable in heavily visited museums.
The goal is not simply to avoid a queue. It is to make the cultural experience more meaningful.
A specialist guide who understands your interests can change the way you experience a museum. Because DeSalvio Travel has Robert Poortinga, who studied intensely for nearly two decades with Hans Smelik and Andries Stokking, two antique dealers and museum-directors, he knows the value of special access and matching museums and exhibitions to our clients.
Yes. Transfers are one of those details that are easy to underestimate when planning a trip yourself.
A journey may involve an airport, hotel, train station, ferry, private driver and another hotel—all on the same day. When those connections are planned properly, they disappear into the background. When they are not, they can become one of the most stressful parts of the trip.
We therefore treat transportation as an important part of the itinerary rather than something to be added at the end.
Absolutely. DeSalvio Travel has a long standing experience with honeymoons, doing multi trips annually. A honeymoon is not simply a luxury vacation. It is often a once-in-a-lifetime trip attached to a very important moment.
That means understanding the couple matters.
Some couples want complete relaxation. Others want culture, food, adventure or a combination. Some want one exceptional hotel for two weeks. Others want to move through several destinations.
The itinerary should reflect the couple rather than a standard idea of what a honeymoon should be.
Yes, and this is one of the situations where professional planning can be particularly valuable.
Different generations often have completely different ideas about a good vacation.
One person may want museums. Another wants food and wine. Children need downtime. Grandparents may have mobility considerations. Someone else may want to spend an afternoon by the pool.
The solution is not to make everyone do everything together.
A well-designed multigenerational trip creates shared experiences while also allowing people to have their own time and interests. This aspect of travel might be hard to recreate on your own and it is best left to Travel Agents who understand how each generation travels.
Yes.
Group travel requires another layer of logistics because the preferences, budgets and expectations of several travelers have to be coordinated. At DeSalvio Travel, we also create hosted group journeys built around particular interests, including combinations of art, music, culture and gastronomy.
The objective is not simply to move a group of people from one place to another. It is to create a trip that works as a group while still allowing for individual interests.
Yes and knowing the budget usually makes the planning better.
Without a budget, it is difficult to know whether you are discussing realistic options. A clear budget allows the agent to make decisions about where your money will have the greatest impact. If your hotel is the most important part of the trip, we can prioritize it. If private guides matter more, we can allocate more of the budget there.
A budget does not necessarily make a trip less ambitious. It makes the choices more precise.
That's what the first draft is for.
The first itinerary should start a conversation.
You might decide that there are too many hotels, that you want more free time, that a particular experience isn't for you, or that you would rather spend the budget somewhere else.
That feedback is useful.
The agent should then refine the itinerary until it reflects your priorities.
There is no universal number, but several rounds of refinement are normal for a complex trip.
At DeSalvio Travel, our full planning service currently includes up to three itinerary edits. A typical process might look like:
First draft: broad direction, destinations and major hotels.
Second draft: refined hotels, experiences and logistics.
Final itinerary: confirmed arrangements plus the detailed concierge work such as dining, spa appointments and other requests.
The aim is not to create endless versions. It is to use the revisions to make the trip increasingly precise.
Often, yes, but changes can become more complicated once reservations have been made.
Some bookings can be changed without penalty. Others have deposits or cancellation fees. That is why your agent should explain the relevant terms before you approve major arrangements.
After the principal itinerary is confirmed, the focus often moves to the smaller details: restaurants, spa appointments, special requests and other concierge arrangements.
When we have a client that prefers more flexibility we normally discuss this with our DMC so that we are prepared for sudden changes.
This is one of the moments when having a travel agent becomes particularly valuable.
The agent already knows the rest of your itinerary, so they can look at the consequences rather than treating the flight as an isolated booking. Depending on the situation, that may mean helping with a new flight, informing the driver, adjusting a hotel arrival or coordinating with the local DMC.
At DeSalvio Travel, 24/7 travel assistance is part of the full planning service.
Depending on the problem you should contact your travel agent or the local partner supporting your trip.
The advantage of having both is that there can be someone who knows you and your itinerary as well as someone physically close to the situation.
DeSalvio Travel works with destination management companies and local partners who provide on-the-ground support. That gives clients another layer of assistance when something needs to be resolved locally.
The hotels we recommend are selected partly because we trust their service. But problems can happen anywhere. What matters is how quickly and effectively they are handled.
They should.
Booking is not the end of the relationship. At DeSalvio Travel, the planning process continues through the concierge stage and includes support while traveling. The objective is that once the trip begins, you can concentrate on experiencing it rather than managing its logistics.
That ongoing relationship is one of the fundamental differences between working with a person who knows your trip and making a series of independent online reservations.
The terms are often used interchangeably.
Traditionally, a travel agent was often associated primarily with making bookings. Modern travel agents increasingly focus on research, curation, destination expertise, relationships and personalized trip design.
The title matters less than the service.
If someone simply takes your requested hotel and books it, you are essentially receiving a booking service.
If someone asks questions, challenges your assumptions, researches alternatives, understands the destination, selects partners and designs the journey around you, you are receiving agenty service.
DMC stands for Destination Management Company.
A DMC is a local company that works on the ground in a particular destination. They may arrange guides, transportation, activities, logistics and other local services.
For a travel agent, a good DMC can be an important partner.
The agent understands the client. The DMC understands the destination.
Together, they can create and operate a trip that would be much harder for a traveler to coordinate independently.
The relationship matters, which is why we carefully vet the DMCs and local partners we use.
Virtuoso is a global network of luxury travel agents and travel providers, including hotels, cruise lines and other travel companies.
For clients, the value can include access to preferred programs and amenities at participating properties and travel suppliers. These benefits vary by partner and booking, and they are generally subject to availability and the property's terms. It also means that we are vetted, giving you more trusts from the beginning.
For DeSalvio Travel, the network is also valuable because of the relationships it creates with hotels, cruise companies and other travel professionals. Our affiliation does not replace our own judgment. We still decide whether a particular hotel, cruise or experience is appropriate for the client.
A good travel agent should:
Listen before recommending.
Ask why you are traveling.
Understand your interests rather than simply your destination.
Ask about your budget.
Tell you honestly what your budget can achieve.
Explain why they recommend a particular hotel or experience.
Know the logistics between destinations.Have trusted local partners.
Be willing to say when something is not worth your money.
Give you options without overwhelming you.
Respect that the final decision is yours.
Take responsibility for the arrangements they make.
Be available when something goes wrong.
Continue to care about the trip after the booking is complete.
Most importantly, they should make the process easier while making your trip fully customised to you.
You do not need to arrive with a finished itinerary.Instead, bring:
Your approximate travel dates
Who is traveling
Your approximate budget
The reason for the trip
Places you have enjoyed before
Places you have disliked
Your interests
Your preferred hotel style
How active you want the trip to be
How much free time you like
Any dietary or mobility requirements
Anything that would make the trip particularly meaningful to you
And if you have no idea where you want to go, say so.
That is a perfectly good place to begin.
The best travel agent relationship is not client versus agent. It is collaboration.
You know yourself. You know what you enjoy, what you value and what you want from the trip.
Your agent knows destinations, hotels, guides, logistics, suppliers and the realities of putting all those pieces together.
The agent's job is to bring those two things together.
At DeSalvio Travel, we believe meaningful travel begins with understanding the person traveling. The destination comes afterwards.
That is why we do not simply ask, “Where do you want to go?”
We ask:
Why do you want to travel?
What interests you?
What matters to you?
And what would make this trip worth remembering?
Those answers are where the itinerary begins.
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