Article and photos by Dylan Clements
When you book a hotel, cruise, or rail journey through Clements Travel, the reservation is only the starting point. Every client has complimentary access to our dedicated Guest Experience team, whose sole focus is enhancing confirmed reservations before travel. They work with hotels, cruise lines, rail operators, and local partners to advance your trip, highlight upgrade opportunities and preferred partner benefits, communicate celebrations and preferences, and help arrange practical details such as private transfers and airport meet and greets. It means there is someone specifically looking at your reservation before you travel, rather than simply making the booking and leaving it there.
A reservation can only reflect the information that has been provided. A hotel may know your name, dates, room category and number of guests. A cruise line may know your cabin, sailing date and itinerary. A rail operator may know your route and seat. What they may not know is that you are on honeymoon, celebrating a 40th birthday, arriving after a long overnight flight, traveling with young children, connecting between several parts of a longer trip, or returning to somewhere that is particularly important to you.
That is where Guest Experience comes in.
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Preferred Partner Benefits and Added Value
Clements Travel works with many of the world's leading luxury hotel groups, cruise lines and travel partners, including Four Seasons Preferred Partner, Rosewood Elite, Mandarin Oriental Fan Club, Peninsula PenClub, Hyatt Privé, Marriott STARS and Luminous, Belmond Bellini Club, Virtuoso and others.
Depending on the hotel, cruise, rail journey and rate booked, benefits can include breakfast, hotel or onboard credits, room or cabin upgrades subject to availability, early check-in, late check-out, welcome amenities and additional property or sailing-specific benefits.
Guest Experience works alongside these programs. Before travel, the team can make sure the supplier is aware of the reservation, highlight relevant requests and celebrations, and ensure the booking has been properly advanced.
An upgrade may still be subject to availability, and we will never present one as guaranteed unless it has been confirmed. However, having someone actively advance the reservation, communicate with the supplier and highlight the trip gives them more information to work with than simply allowing the booking to sit untouched until arrival or embarkation.
The preferred partner or cruise program provides the formal benefits. Guest Experience focuses on making sure the client is properly prepared to receive them.
Honeymoons
Honeymoons are a good example of why this service exists. A honeymoon can involve several hotels, a cruise, scenic rail journeys, transfers, special arrangements, spa appointments and a lot of moving parts. Without someone coordinating the details, each supplier may simply see another reservation.
Our Guest Experience team can make sure the hotels, cruise lines and relevant partners know you are honeymooning and understand where each part of the trip sits within the wider itinerary. We can share relevant information about the couple, make sure important requests have reached the right people, and help arrange the parts of the trip that should be organized before you leave.
If you are staying at several hotels, taking a cruise and continuing by train, we can also work across the itinerary rather than treating each booking in isolation.
The aim is not to manufacture surprises or make promises on behalf of a hotel or cruise line. It is to give the people looking after you the information they need to do that well.
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Celebrations and Milestones
The same applies to anniversaries, birthdays, engagements, proposals, babymoons, graduations, retirements, promotions, family reunions and other personal trips.
If a hotel or cruise line knows why you are traveling, it has a better chance of preparing appropriately. That might mean a discreet note, a cake, flowers, a bottle, a local amenity or simply making sure the team acknowledges the occasion.
Some clients want a celebration to be recognized. Others would prefer it to remain low-key. Both are useful for us to know.
Guest Experience can make sure that information is communicated clearly before travel.
A Team Focused on What Happens After You Book
Travel advisors spend a lot of time researching destinations, comparing hotels, cruises and rail options, preparing quotes and making reservations. We wanted to separate the next stage of the process and give it dedicated attention.
That is why we created Guest Experience.
Once your reservation is confirmed, the team can review the trip, understand who is traveling, gather useful information and communicate directly with the hotel, cruise line or relevant travel partner.
Their role is not to sell you another booking. Their role is to help you get more from the reservation you have already made.
For Clements Travel clients, this service is complimentary.
What Guest Experience Can Help Arrange
Guest Experience is not limited to adding notes to a hotel booking. Depending on the destination, itinerary and supplier, the team can also help arrange:
- Private airport transfers
- Airport meet and greet services
- Chauffeur services
- Transfers between hotels
- Cruise port transfers
- Private transfers to and from rail stations
- Train station meet and greet services where available
- Private guides
- Sightseeing tours and day trips
- Boat charters
- Helicopter transfers where available
- Spa treatments
- Golf tee times
- Tennis or padel bookings
- Ski arrangements
- Beach clubs
- Museum and attraction tickets
- Cultural activities
- Cooking classes and wine tastings
- Children's activities and kids' clubs
- Babysitting
- Car seats
- Flowers and cakes
- Proposal arrangements
- Photographers
- Special occasion arrangements
- In-room or in-cabin amenities
- Luggage assistance
- Arrival coordination
- Embarkation and disembarkation planning
- Pre and post-cruise hotel arrangements
- Rail connections within a wider itinerary
For restaurant recommendations and reservations, we generally prefer to put clients in touch with the hotel's concierge team. They are on the ground, know what is currently good, understand local availability and are usually best placed to secure and manage dining arrangements. Guest Experience can make sure you are connected with the right concierge team when needed.
Some services are complimentary, while others are charged by the hotel, cruise line or local supplier. We make that clear before anything is booked.
Arrival, Embarkation and Connections
Arrival time is one of the most useful details a hotel, cruise line or transfer provider can have.
If your flight lands at 6:30 am, the hotel should know that before you arrive several hours ahead of standard check-in. If you are boarding a cruise, your arrival time, transfer arrangements and embarkation window can all be important. If you are connecting from a hotel to a train, or from a train to a cruise, those handovers need to be considered too.
Guest Experience can pass on flight details, estimated arrival times and transfer information, and request early check-in or late check-out where applicable.
Where benefits are subject to availability, we cannot guarantee them. If access to a room is essential, or if a connection is particularly tight, we will tell you when a different arrangement is the safer option.
Room, Cabin and Seating Requests
Many of the preferred programs available through Clements Travel include an upgrade subject to availability.
Our Guest Experience team can make sure the supplier understands the reservation, highlight important occasions and pass on relevant preferences before travel. Having someone actively advance the reservation also gives us an opportunity to raise upgrade requests rather than leaving everything until arrival.
For hotels, this may include requests for a quieter room, high floor, certain part of the resort, nearby rooms or a particular bedding setup.
For cruises, this may include cabin location preferences, dining arrangements, special occasions, accessibility requirements or other onboard requests.
For rail journeys, it may include seating preferences, luggage considerations, adjoining seats or help coordinating the train journey with the rest of the itinerary.
We do not promise upgrades that have not been confirmed. If a particular suite, view, cabin category or room layout is essential, we will usually advise booking it rather than relying on an upgrade.
Families
Family trips often involve details that are not obvious from the reservation.
The hotel, cruise line or rail operator may need to know the children's ages, whether you require a crib or rollaway bed, whether several rooms or cabins belong to the same family, whether grandparents are traveling with you or whether the children have particular interests.
Guest Experience can help communicate requests for nearby or connecting rooms, adjacent cabins, children's amenities, kids' clubs, babysitting, car seats and other arrangements that may be useful during the trip.
For larger family trips, simply making sure the different reservations are clearly linked can help considerably.
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Food, Drink and Personal Preferences
Good personalization often comes from small details.
If you do not drink alcohol, there is little value in a hotel or cruise line sending wine. If you prefer tea to coffee, love local pastries or always ask for sparkling water, those details can be useful.
The same applies to room and cabin preferences. Some guests want to be near the main facilities. Others prefer somewhere quieter. Some like high floors or upper decks. Others prefer easy access to lifts and common areas.
We do not expect suppliers to provide every requested item free of charge. The purpose is to give them a clearer picture of the person who is arriving.
Dietary Requirements and Allergies
Dietary requirements are another area where advance notice helps.
Guest Experience can inform hotels and cruise lines about vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free and other dietary preferences. We can also flag allergies before travel.
For serious allergies or medical requirements, we recommend that the guest also speaks directly with the hotel or cruise line so the appropriate operational or food and beverage team can discuss the requirement in detail.
Returning Guests and Repeat Cruisers
If you are returning to a hotel or sailing again with a cruise line, tell us what you liked last time.
Perhaps you loved the room location, had a favorite member of staff, preferred a particular cabin area, or found one part of the property or ship too noisy.
Hotels and cruise lines often keep guest histories, but we do not assume every previous preference will automatically be seen before arrival.
Guest Experience can make sure the useful details are raised again.
What We Can and Cannot Control
There is a difference between requesting something and guaranteeing it.
Room and cabin upgrades, early check-in, late check-out, connecting rooms, specific room numbers, particular cabin locations and complimentary celebration amenities are often subject to availability.
We will always make the request where appropriate, but we will not present it as confirmed unless the supplier has confirmed it. Having someone actively advance the reservation can improve the chances of requests being seen and considered, but it does not turn a request into a guarantee.
If something is essential to your trip, we will tell you when it should be booked rather than left as a request.
Why We Created Guest Experience
Booking a luxury hotel, cruise or rail journey is easy. Looking after the trip properly takes more work.
Someone needs to make sure the hotel understands the occasion, that family reservations are linked, that arrival times are known, that cruise transfers are arranged, that rail connections fit the wider itinerary, that preferred partner benefits are recognized and that the right requests have reached the right people.
That is the job of our Guest Experience team.
Our advisors can focus on finding the right hotels, cruises, rail journeys, rates and preferred partner opportunities. Once the booking is confirmed, Guest Experience can focus on what happens next.
For every Clements Travel client, that service is complimentary.
Ready to Plan Your Next Trip?
Whether you are looking for a luxury hotel, a cruise, or a rail journey, Clements Travel can help you choose the right option and look after the details that follow.
Book through Clements Travel and you will also receive complimentary access to our Guest Experience team, who can help advance the reservation before you travel.
Start planning your hotel, cruise or rail journey with Clements Travel.
