Questions
Before you begin.
A short list of the questions clients ask before they begin. If yours is not among them, write to us, and one of the two Founders will answer within twelve hours.
How do you work with a new client?
We begin with a call. One of the two Founders takes your requirements — the routes you fly, the cabins you prefer, the hotels you return to — and holds them on file, so nothing is asked of you twice. From then on you write to one address and reach the same two people. There is no account team and no handoff.
Who runs VIRAM, and what are your credentials?
The practice is run by its two Founders, and you deal with one of them on every booking. Between us we hold the airline and hotel relationships that come only from years of booking first and business class and the rooms above the standard floor. We belong to a global network of luxury travel advisors, which is what puts a suite upgrade or a late checkout within reach where a public rate cannot.
How are you paid?
You pay us. We charge a flat advisory fee per booking, agreed before we begin, on top of the fare or the room rate itself. Our income comes from you and from nobody else, which is the whole point of the practice.
Do hotels or airlines pay you a commission?
No. We take nothing from hotels, airlines, or any supplier, and we hold no reason to steer you toward one over another. The room we put you in is the room we would take ourselves. This is what conflict-free means, and we mean it literally.
Do you book with points or with cash?
Whichever puts you in the better seat. We keep your loyalty balances on file and read award space against cash fares for every request, then tell you plainly which one is worth using. Points are a tool. We spend them when they earn their place and not before.
How quickly do you respond?
We answer within twelve hours, and usually inside three. When you are travelling we answer faster, at any hour and in any time zone. One phone number reaches a person rather than a queue.
What happens if I need to change or cancel a booking?
You write to us and we handle it — the airline, the hotel, the rebooking, the refund where one is owed. Premium-cabin fares and luxury rooms carry their own rules, and we tell you those rules before you commit, not after. When a flight collapses at two in the morning, the same number reaches us.
Do you handle corporate travel as well as leisure?
We handle both, often for the same person. The partner who knows how you like to fly to Tokyo for a board meeting also knows how you like to fly there with your family. The standard does not move between the two.
How are you different from a broker or a consolidator?
A broker sells you a fare and moves on. We hold your preferences across years, answer to you alone, and stand behind the booking from the first enquiry to the door of your hotel. The fare is the easy part. The relationship is the work.
How are you different from an online booking site?
A booking site shows you its inventory and leaves the choosing to you. We read the same routes and rooms with a partner's eye — which business cabin is genuinely worth flying this quarter, which suite faces the water and which faces the car park — and we act for you when a screen cannot. You speak to the person who made the booking, every time.
Will working with you save me money?
That is the wrong question, and we would rather answer the right one. We put you in the better cabin and the better room — the suite held back from public sale, the fare with the flat bed and the direct routing — and we make the whole thing effortless. What you get is access and time, not a discount.
Do you take new clients?
We keep the list short on purpose, because two people can answer one number well only for so many. We take new clients by introduction and, now and then, by direct enquiry. If we are the wrong fit for you, we will say so on the first call.
