You may remember that I wrote recently about the Mandarin Oriental in Las Vegas, which was about to open. Well, it turns out, on a recent trip to Las Vegas, I actually visited the hotel, three nights before it opened. How did I do this, you ask? I was the guest of Virtuoso, a consortia of some of the most powerful luxury-selling travel agents in the world.
The hotel executives were happy to have these travel agents over to the hotel, even while they were busy preparing to open it because it’s a well-known fact that if you speak to one excellent travel agent, it has the same value of speaking to at least 10 potential clients. At least. For some agents, you can multiply that by 10 or 20. Travel agents are multipliers. They can send a high volume of excellent business to a hotel. If they don’t like a hotel, however, they won’t send anyone. They’ll recommend a competitor that they prefer. In the case of Virtuoso’s agents, they are dealing with some of the most affluent travelers in the world. It doesn’t make sense to send their clients to a bad hotel, they’ll lose their business. Got all that? There will be a test at the end.
The Mandarin Bar, great view, no?
The luxury travel agents of Virtuoso liked the Mandarin Oriental, Las Vegas. They were very excited to be let in prior to opening and they were able to see a few rooms (the hotel was in the final throes of opening, so there was still a good deal of work to be done. In fact, they accidentally brought us the floor where the spa that I wrote about below was located and they shooshed us away very politely, since it was still being built. The spa already smelled good, though. I think it was of eucalyptus).
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