Serandipians has established itself as an esteemed network among partners and its network of travel designers, says a senior executive with the only European-based luxury consortia.
Peter Conway, Director of Memberships and DMC Partnerships says that over the last five years, Serandipians – or Traveller Made as it was known until 2021 – “has developed a positive reputation within the industry itself.”
“We’re not well known in the consumer world but that is our current intention. We’ve always felt that the agency needs to be at the forefront, not us. We are there to support, in the background.”
“The reputation of Serandipians within the community – when an agency goes to a hotelier or a DMC as a Serandipians’ agency – they are immediately treated with respect because we’ve done the assessment and our reputation stands with them,” Conway told LATTE at last month’s Essence of Luxury Travel conference.
“It’s a very fast-moving environment in luxury travel. It’s not just a number of new hotels opening. There are new products that are appearing, staff are changing frequently. It can be very hard to keep on top of that. Our advisors have access to a consistently updated database of contacts worldwide, new products, etc.
“But our strategy has always been focused on trying to elevate the independent companies rather than the big brands.
“If you look at our hotel portfolio there’s a sense of independent properties rather than big brands, which presents our luxury travel designers with an assessed collection of alternative options the client may not know about.”
“We spend the time building relationships from agent to agent,” Conway explained.
While luxury hotels & resorts and DMCs are the core products available to travel advisors, Serandipians’ ‘Private Collection’ offers villas, châteaux, apartments, estates and private jet charters, as well as a stable of boats, yachts and ships, no more than 200-guests in total.
Quentin Desurmont, Founder and President says Serandipians isn’t necessarily interested in major cruise lines at present, saying “they don’t fit our current approach”.
“We’re going slowly. We’ve tried to ensure we have the best,” he adds, mentioning those luxury cruise lines that Serandipians has already partnered with.
“Silversea, it’s a great partnership. Quark Expeditions, a great partnership, the Belmond boats, another great partnership.”
Questioned by LATTE if the likes of Four Seasons Yachts or The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection may be a consideration for his network, Desurmont said: “We’re studying and we’re thinking. We have a good mapping – it’s a big market. We’re working with Explora Journeys,” he adds.
“For now we’re talking about 100 cabins, 200 people maximum,” he says, particularly excited about the future Orient Express Silenseas sailing boats. “I can’t wait for those to launch.”
