Here's a piece of leverage most advisors never use: time itself. Contact a hotel eighteen months before your trip, before their online inventory for those dates even exists, and ask them to hold a block of rooms for thirty days. They'll often say yes, precisely because they're not selling those dates yet. You've just secured your trip's foundation with zero deposit down.
“Base your budget off transient rooms, book the rooms where you can hold it with no payment.”
Why the runway works
- Hotels a year and a half out have no revenue pressure on those dates, a serious group inquiry is good news, not a negotiation.
- A thirty-day hold gives you a free option: launch the trip, measure demand, and commit only when bookings justify it.
- You're selling while competitors are still waiting for rate sheets. By the time they can quote the destination, your departure has momentum.
Claire's own numbers
The framework, step by step
- 1
Hotels a year and a half out have no revenue pressure on
those dates — a serious group inquiry is good news, not a negotiation
- 2
A thirty-day hold gives you a free option
launch the trip, measure demand, and commit only when bookings justify it.
- 3
You're selling while competitors are still waiting for
rate sheets. By the time they can quote the destination, your departure has momentum
Claire's own framework from this essay, in the order she teaches it.
Source: Claire B. Soares, from her own travel business and live trainings.
Pair it with the profitability calendar
The runway is also where you make the every-other-year decision: if a destination isn't reliably profitable, run it biennially instead of annually, Iceland this cycle, Iceland again in two or four years. The catalog stays fresh, demand accumulates between departures, and you're never competing with your own last trip. I've canceled charters that lost money; the discipline of NOT running a trip is as much a strategy as running one.
Long runways, free options, and the courage to skip a year, that's how group trips get launched from a position of strength instead of a position of deposits.
Common Questions
How far in advance should you contact hotels for a group trip?
Around eighteen months, before their online inventory for those dates even opens. Hotels often hold a block for thirty days because they are not selling those dates yet.
Can you launch a group trip with no deposit?
Yes. A thirty-day hold on unsold inventory gives you a free option: launch, measure demand, and commit only when bookings justify it.
Should you run a signature trip every year?
If a destination is not reliably profitable, run it every other year. The catalog stays fresh, demand accumulates, and departures stop competing with themselves.
Written By
Claire B. Soares
6× Condé Nast Top Travel Specialist, Certified AI Consultant, and founder of Travel AI University. $3.4B+ in enterprise travel software sold to Google, IBM, Boeing, the federal government, and the DoD; $16M+ in luxury travel sales with Up in the Air Life.
About Claire
