One Year of Luxury Travel Report: 10 Stories That Defined Our First Year

Choosing just 10 stories from our first year wasn’t easy. But these features, interviews, and reported pieces represent some of our favorite work—and the kind of journalism we hope to do much more of in year two:

The $3,500-a-Night Safari That Conservationists Don’t Want

Luxury safari openings usually arrive with beautiful wildlife photography and breathless descriptions of the bush. When the Ritz-Carlton, Masai Mara Safari Camp prepared to open in Kenya, however, the story was considerably more complicated.

Our reporting examined concerns from conservationists and Maasai community members about the camp’s location and development, including questions about wildlife corridors and construction near the Sand River. We later returned to the story as the legal dispute progressed.

It was a reminder that luxury travel doesn’t exist in a vacuum—and that sometimes the most important story about a new hotel isn’t found in its press release.

How Much Does It Cost to Rent a Private Jet?

Private aviation is one of the most opaque corners of luxury travel. Everyone knows flying private is expensive. Far fewer people can explain exactly how expensive—or why two seemingly similar flights can come with wildly different price tags.

We talked to private aviation experts about hourly rates, repositioning costs, aircraft categories, and the fees that can turn a quote into a much larger final bill. The resulting feature broke down real-world pricing, from light jets costing roughly $6,000 to $8,000 per hour to long-haul charters that can climb above $100,000.

The goal was simple: answer a question clients are absolutely asking without making readers dig through a sales pitch to find it.

Neil Jacobs Is Back—And He Has Strong Opinions on What Luxury Hotels Still Get Wrong

Few hotel executives are as candid as Neil Jacobs.

The former Six Senses CEO returned to hospitality with Wild Origins, a new venture focused on regenerative hotels and residences. When we spoke with Jacobs, the conversation went well beyond the usual discussion of upcoming properties and development plans.

He talked frankly about sustainability, wellness, and the mistakes luxury hotel companies continue to make. The interview was a good example of why we launched our Compass series in the first place: Give smart, interesting people room to explain what they actually think.

The Power Broker Behind Britain’s Hardest-to-Access Experiences

What does exclusivity actually mean when almost every luxury travel company promises access?

For Nicola Butler, founder of NoteWorthy, the answer might involve closing down Westminster Abbey, arranging private access to Highclere Castle, or finding a way into places that money alone can’t necessarily open.

Our profile looked at Butler’s career and the unusual business she has built around access, relationships, and deep knowledge of Britain. More importantly, the conversation explored why truly exceptional experiences can’t always be ordered from a menu—and why the people behind them matter as much as the experience itself.

Henley Vazquez on Fora’s Future: AI, New Advisors and the $2 Billion Question

Few companies in travel have generated as much conversation in recent years as Fora. The fast-growing travel agency has attracted thousands of new advisors, raised significant venture funding, and faced considerable criticism along the way, particularly over its embrace of part-time advisors and its use of technology.

We sat down with co-founder Henley Vazquez to talk about all of it. Vazquez addressed the “side hustle” debate, Fora’s approach to artificial intelligence, and the company’s ambitions as annual bookings approached $2 billion.

We didn’t expect everyone to agree with her—but that was part of the point.

Four Seasons Yachts Delays Maiden Voyage of Four Seasons I

Sometimes the story changes quickly. When guests booked on the highly anticipated maiden voyage of Four Seasons I began receiving cancellation notices, we reported that the ship’s debut had been delayed. We updated the story as Four Seasons Yachts provided additional information, and the timeline became clearer.

The launch of Four Seasons Yachts has been one of the most closely watched developments in ultra-luxury cruising. For advisors with clients paying significant sums to be among the first on board, a delay wasn’t simply industry news. It had immediate consequences.

What 1,000 Six-Figure Trips Reveal About Luxury Travel Right Now

Luxury travel is full of sweeping predictions about what affluent travelers supposedly want. Sometimes the most interesting answers are hiding in actual booking data.

Global Travel Collection shared data with Luxury Travel Report showing that its advisors had booked more than 1,000 trips worth at least $100,000 over the previous year. We dug into those bookings to understand where the money was going and what some of the industry’s biggest trips could tell us about high-end travel more broadly.

The findings offered a rare look at luxury spending at the very top of the market—and helped separate real booking behavior from trend-report buzzwords.

We Started Reviewing Hotels Differently

Luxury Travel Report was never meant to publish hotel reviews that simply tell readers a property is beautiful.

Over the past year, we’ve developed a review format built around the questions that matter when choosing a hotel for a client: Who is this property actually right for? Which rooms should you book? What should you know before arrival? Where does the hotel excel, and where might it fall short?

From Park Lane New York and The Kensington to Hôtel Métropole Monte-Carlo and Rosewood Mayakoba, our reviews are based on firsthand stays and written with booking decisions in mind. We’ve expanded the format across our contributor network and into cruising, too.

We’ve slept in the beds, ordered the room service, and tested the Wi-Fi. Someone has to do it.

Why A&K’s Most Expensive Itineraries Have the Highest Repeat Rates

Abercrombie & Kent’s private jet journeys can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars per person. They’re also among the company’s most repeat-booked products. That contradiction (or what initially seemed like one) became the starting point for one of our favorite features of the year.

Sarah Milner’s story examined why travelers return to A&K’s private jet trips, sometimes repeatedly, and what those bookings reveal about the psychology of ultra-luxury travel. At a certain level, convenience and access are only part of the equation. Community, familiarity, and the confidence to hand over the details can be just as valuable.

Ensemble Hits Its Stride Four Years After Its Cooperative-to-Private Transition

Industry conferences produce plenty of announcements. We wanted to understand the bigger story behind Ensemble’s. Four years after the travel consortium transitioned from a member-owned cooperative to private ownership, our reporting looked at where the organization stood and how its strategy was translating into member growth, referrals, and new programs.

The resulting story was a snapshot of a travel organization several years into a major transformation—and an attempt to assess what had actually changed.

On to Year Two

A year isn’t a particularly long time in publishing, or in an industry where hotels can take a decade to build, and cruise ships are announced years before anyone steps on board.

Still, the past 12 months have reinforced why we launched Luxury Travel Report. This is an industry filled with fascinating people, extraordinary products, enormous sums of money, and complicated questions. There are plenty of stories left to tell.

Thank you for reading, sharing our work, and trusting us to keep asking questions about where luxury travel is headed next. We’re already working on year two.