Pro-Tips: Get Extra Perks and Avoid Upfront Fees: How to Make a Simple Hotel Booking

We at Ourisman Travel pride ourselves in offering you the best value and luxury amenities for your hotel-only bookings. Our compensation is provided by the hotels, making it possible for us to provide this service with no upfront fees to you for ordinary hotel bookings. To top it off, we can offer your hotel bookings to you hassle free with just a few simple tips!

UPDATE (2/27/2017) – Virtuoso.com Online Hotel Booking Tool is NOW LIVE!
Book your own hotel stay via Virtuoso.com and enjoy all of the same VIP perks as an Ourisman Travel Client. All you have to do is sign on and identify David Ourisman as your Virtuoso Advisor. Once you make a booking, we get an alert, and we will follow-up with the hotel as part of our usual VIP hotel booking process to make sure your stay is as enjoyable as possible!

Click here to start booking hotels online!

Easy Hotel Bookings via Email

  • Be as specific as possible – You may not know where you want to stay when you first come to us, and that’s okay. What you can do is tell us what you already know so that we can help you narrow things down to find the best fit for your trip. Perhaps you’re traveling with children and a room with 2 beds is a must? Or, you know the specific neighborhood you need to be located in a city but haven’t decided on a hotel yet. Be sure to let us know these things!
  • Let us know who is traveling – Surprisingly, we often do not hear from our clients who will be joining them on their trips. This only puts you at a disadvantage for potential perks! If we know who is traveling, we can alert the hotel on details such as birthdays, ages of children traveling, etc. – this allows the hotel to further customize your stay to make it extra special.
  • Avoid the last-minute rush – Booking requests made within 7-days of travel are subject to a $75 fee to ensure that our team can prioritize your request. However, last minute trips also fall victim to higher hotel rates and availability issues. This means that we have less time to work personally with the hotel to ensure all your details and preferences are communicated to allow them to provide you with an excellent stay. Save yourself the hassle and try to book early!
  • Help Us Narrow Things Down – Narrowing down your hotel choices to your top 2-3 picks will do wonders for you! There are a few resources that we suggest you take a look at to help you find the best hotel for your next trip:
    • Virtuoso.com Hotel Directory where you can see which hotels offer Virtuoso amenities. We also have partnerships with all Four Seasons, Ritz Carlton, Mandarin Oriental, Belmond, and Rosewood hotels and can provide amenities even when those hotels are not part of Virtuoso.
    • Maps of our preferred hotels in our top selling destinations
    • Our blog where we chronicle our latest trips and hotel site-inspections and our Hotel Review Index.

Pro-Tip: Did you know? Our nickname for the perfect hotel-only inquiry is “R2B” or “Ready to Book”. We believe these requests provide the best experience for our clients due to the ease and speed of the booking process – just one e-mail (or Travel Request Form) and you’re done! An R2B booking would include the following:

  • Name of Hotel
  • Dates of stay
  • Room Category and bedding preferred
  • Rate you are seeing or budget for what you want to pay
  • Travelers on the trip
  • Approval to book with “card on file ending in…”
  • If you found the rates on the hotel’s website, go ahead and include a screenshot!

It might look something like:

Hi Ourisman Team!

We’re looking to stay at Four Seasons Scottsdale over February 3-7. I see there is a Deluxe Casita Room with 2 double beds for 709 a night on the hotel’s website. Guests will be myself, my husband Tom, and our 8 year old daughter, Julia. Julia will be celebrating her 9th birthday on February 5 and she LOVES anything chocolate! If the rates match up, could we please book this with Preferred Partner amenities with our card on file, an AMEX ending in XXXX?

Thank you!
– Stephanie

Requests including these details can be booked shortly after we receive your initial e-mail and remove the back and forth required to get all the details straight in order to confirm your booking. It is the ultimate hassle-free experience!

Note: If there is a deposit required, we will not charge your card without your explicit permission. Also, if a rate is non-refundable, we’ll always double check with you that it is your preferred rate before booking.

Not All Inquiries are R2B and that is okay!

Sometimes, you don’t know what you want or need. Sometimes a deeper conversation and consultation is required to help you compare destinations, weigh the pros and cons, or remind you of travel details you hadn’t thought of on your own. That is A-OK and it is often those types of inquiries that we love working with the most under our Hotel Plus service! We also offer our Tailored Luxury service where we not only provide consultation, but a fully created itinerary tailored for your specific trip.

Ready to plan your next trip? Reach out to team@ourismantravel.com or send us a request through our Travel Request Form!

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