Every travel business has VIPs. Most just haven't told them. A structured VIP program does two jobs at once: it makes your best clients feel chosen, and it de-risks your launches — because a trip that sells to the inner circle before the public ever sees it is a trip that was never in danger.
Three ways to define a VIP
- Intent: the people who join a trip waitlist early. A waitlist isn't a list — it's a buyer-intent detector.
- History: your top spenders or most frequent travelers. The data already knows who they are.
- Membership: a paid annual tier. Charging for VIP status sounds bold until you watch who happily pays it — your best clients WANT a formal relationship.
The benefits stack that costs almost nothing
The elegant part: most meaningful VIP benefits are things your commission already pays for. An early booking window before public launch. A private group chat and direct call access. Waived transfer or planning fees. Complimentary hotel-booking service — "free" to them, commissioned to you. A beautiful annual gift. The perceived value is enormous; the hard cost is a rounding error against what a locked-in repeat client is worth.
The deeper strategy
The goal isn't the fee — it's depth. Get so woven into how your clients travel that doing it without you stops occurring to them. A VIP program is simply that relationship, given structure and a front door. Build the tier, tell your best people they're in it, and watch your launches start selling out before they start.
Written By
Claire B. Soares
6× Condé Nast Top Travel Specialist, Certified AI Consultant, and founder of Travel AI University. $3.4B+ in enterprise sales at Google, Microsoft, and IBM; $16M+ in luxury travel sales with Up in the Air Life.
About Claire
