Inside the Secret World of Ultra-Wealthy Vacations

What does a $400,000 family vacation actually look like, and what could possibly make a hotel villa worth $15,000 a night? Ramit goes behind the scenes with luxury travel advisor Hao Tang to uncover the secret world of luxury vacations that most people never get to experience. Chapters:00:00 Introduction00:57 What Does a $400,000 Vacation Get You?03:11 The VIP Hotel Experience Nobody Sees05:24 Inside a $15,000 a Night Villa07:17 Private Chefs Who Make Anything You Want13:10 The Butlers Who Take Care of Everything21:15 The $60,000 Vacation Disaster25:06 Spending $300,000 for $1 Million in TravelThis episode is brought to you by:Gelt | Gelt is taking on new clients now. Find out if you qualify at https://joingelt.com/ramitRamit Sethi is the host of Netflix’s “How To Get Rich” and New York Times bestselling author of “I Will Teach You To Be Rich” and “Money For Couples”Come to me next live event: Virtual and In-Person Events: https://iwt.com/events Connect with Ramit: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ramit X: https://twitter.com/ramit Connect with Hao: Check out Hao's business, Besvisor: https://www.besvisor.com/ Follow Hao to see behind the scenes of ultra-luxury hotels: https://www.instagram.com/besvisor

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Ramit Sethi?

  I'm trying something new today because I've always been fascinated by the psychology of spending. And everyone tells you how you should spend less, but nobody ever talks about the skill of spending money meaningfully. So today I'm talking to someone who provides luxury services to some of the wealthiest families to uncover some of the most jaw dropping and awe inspiring things that people spend on when they travel and why they do it. Enjoy this special video and I'll be back with another episode of Money for Couples on Tuesday. What is a $400,000 summer vacation actually look like? Today I'm talking to Hao Tang, a travel advisor who plans $100,000 plus trips for some of the wealthiest families in the world.

• 0:43Ramit Sethi?

  What does somebody get for $400,000 for 20 nights?

• 0:47Speaker 01

  They're directly on the beach. It has a private butler. One of the villas has a private chef as well. You have your full size pool, huge pool.

• 0:55Ramit Sethi?

  Today, we're going to uncover how wealthy people travel, plus the hidden psychology behind travel spending at the highest levels.

• 1:03Speaker 01

  I almost don't want to tell you this because it's kind of my secret sauce, but.

• 1:09Ramit Sethi?

  Hao, you book luxury hotel stays for high net worth and ultra high net worth families. And I have an itinerary from a client that you booked an actual trip for. A $400,000 itinerary for a single dad and his kids. Can I put it up on screen? Can you walk me through this itinerary?

• 1:29Speaker 01

  Of course, happy to.

• 1:30Ramit Sethi?

  What's the price of this itinerary?

• 1:32Speaker 01

  So it's roughly $400,000, give and take by a few, when you're counting for the accommodation, the, the, some of the activities, food tips and the private jet home.

• 1:44Ramit Sethi?

  For how long?

• 1:44Speaker 01

  For, this is just under, I believe 20 nights, just under three weeks. Let's call it three weeks.

• 1:49Ramit Sethi?

  So this is a $400,000 trip for 20 nights.

• 1:52Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 1:52Ramit Sethi?

  I have questions. I have a lot of questions. What does somebody get for $400,000 for 20 nights?

• 2:00Speaker 01

  Sure. So this is a family who needs a three bedroom villa set up at the minimum, or three bedrooms, I should say. This is a trip to Turks and Caicos. So they're directly on the beach. They are in a villa that has obviously ample amount of space. It has a private butler. One of the villas has a private chef as well. You have your full size pool, huge pool, right? And you're on one of the best beaches in the world. That's just like the very high level. But there's much more that goes into it as well.

• 2:31Ramit Sethi?

  All right. So what did this client come to you with? What was the thing they wanted you to do for them?

• 2:35Speaker 01

  They came to me and said, hey, we'd love to go take a summer trip with my children. And he actually said, hey, Al, I saw the trip you took last year to Turks and Caicos for your 40th birthday. I thought that was really cool. I would love to do the exact same thing. So this trip was actually inspired by my 40th birthday trip, which I stay at Aman Yara in their villas. And then at Homme Parakeet in their villas.

• 3:01Ramit Sethi?

  Let's walk through the, the actual process because I want to take people behind the scenes of what is it like to arrive at one of these hotels? What's the check in process? Quite different than when I checked in at a Holiday Inn in my early twenties. It's very different. So let's walk through the check in process. You get there, actually you walk out of the taxi. Okay? What happens?

• 3:23Speaker 01

  So most of my clients, I would say, especially with resorts, we will actually arrange the transfers with the hotel. So the, so the experience starts not at the taxi when you arrive at the hotel, but at the airport, right? So as soon as you come off the airport, someone's already with a sign and then arrive at the hotel. And I will say this, the peninsula always does a fun arrival in that because when you book their vehicle, when you pull up, there's four people out there waiting on you, right? Because the, the driver typically call about three, four minutes out and says, hey, we're almost there. They come out, they have their PIN, they have their notebook. You get out of the car, they whisk you into your suite to check in or your room to check in.

• 4:02Ramit Sethi?

  You're not checking in at the desk?

• 4:04Speaker 01

  No, no, you're never checking in the desk. You never see your luggage. When you get out of the car, luggage is going to be in the room at some point in the next three, four minutes, like magic, right? Okay. And, and sometimes what I see them do is the team will ask you, hey, would you like a little brief tour before we take you to your room or suite first? And if you do that, they aim to get the luggage into your closet before you even check in.

• 4:27Ramit Sethi?

  Okay. So I get there, they're waiting to greet me. They take me up to the room. I don't go to any check in desk. I'm now taken up to a, to my room and what happens next?

• 4:40Speaker 01

  So this could happen in the room or sometime earlier. Every hotel is different, but they will usually have someone with a cold or warm towel, depending on the location of the place and have welcome drinks for you and everything like that. And sometimes they may have a printout of your itinerary, if you have an itinerary of things you want to do and, you know, things like that. And then, once you've settled into your suite, they will ask you to obviously perform some housekeeping items, like getting your passport and things like that. But then they will ask, hey, um, you know, if you guys are not tired, I would be happy to show you the suite and all the amenities and features and buttons and things like that. But if you're.

• 5:14Ramit Sethi?

  What's different in these suites versus like a Hyatt, you know, or a, any other hotel room?

• 5:20Speaker 01

  There are a lot of hidden features, like for example, my TV is hidden somewhere in this room that you cannot assume, right? You could not guess. So you have to know exactly how to access that. There are certain buttons, there are certain, um, some, some, like I stayed in a suite before where it had a hidden door to the bathroom. I would have never found out on my own.

• 5:37Ramit Sethi?

  Why are these clients of yours, why do they care so much? For example, this is $15,000 a night for eight nights at Aman Yara. 125,000 more than $15,000 a night. Whenever you hear somebody talking about numbers like this, it's really easy to say, that's crazy. What a waste of money. I can't believe people spend this. It's disgusting. So I want you to use something I call the D to C principle, from disparagement to curiosity. Personally, I prefer to get curious. What do you get in a hotel room for $15,000 a night?

• 6:11Speaker 01

  I would say, you know, one of the things I really love about beach properties is that there's really two very drastic ways, different ways to experience a beach hotel or beach resort, right? One is imagine the old school beach hotel in like Hawaii or something like that, where you go into this big complex, right? You have elevators, different floors with balconies and railings and everything. So every day you get up, you say, okay, kids, okay, everyone, pack your stuff up. Let's get our bag, go down to the pool, let's go find some seats if we can find them, hopefully we'll find them, right? And then let's make camp for the day, right? And if you, you know, like if you all of a sudden want to take a call, if you want to use the bathroom, I'm a bit of a germaphobe.

• 6:54Speaker 01

  So I don't like these public restrooms. You're like, okay, do I really want to dry myself off? Get my sandals on, take the elevator, go back up, blah, blah, blah. So that's one way to experience it, which is still great, right? Growing up, never traveling at all, that's habit. But imagine if you're on the most pristine beach in, on a private island and your room is directly on the beach. You take three steps out from your living room, you're on your private deck, half covered. In front of that is a gigantic pool just for you and your family. You can make all the noises you want. When you have kids, you don't have to worry about anyone else. At any point in time, you can take 30 additional steps. Now you're on the beach by yourself.

• 7:38Speaker 01

  Take another 50 steps, you're in the water, right?

• 7:43Ramit Sethi?

  And what does it mean if, if you have a chef in some of these villas? How does that work?

• 7:49Speaker 01

  It can be very different from different properties, but let's just use Aman Yara for, for example. So the chef will make anything you want, assuming that they have the ingredients. And sometimes if you will like, like for example, I have, um, I have some Indian clients who have various specific dietary needs and preferences, right? So for those clients, I love to always send ahead of time, hey chef, my clients do not eat these ingredients.

• 8:16Ramit Sethi?

  French food, they do not want French food because it has virtually no tastes. They do not believe in pepper and rosemary as a seasoning. Okay. I understand you send that ahead. What else?

• 8:27Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 8:27Ramit Sethi?

  So the chef gets these requests or these, like this list, and then what do they do?

• 8:32Speaker 01

  They can customize a menu for them, but a lot of times, uh, what's something that Aman is always known for is basically they can make anything off menu for you, right? So you can say, hey, listen, our family really loves Thai dishes. So one of the things that a lot of clients actually request by name is different types of chef at Aman. Some, certain chefs are proficient in Thai food, some in Indian food, some in French food, et cetera, right? So these specificities are very important and it's something that we also request, almost like requesting the room type.

• 9:04Ramit Sethi?

  Why not just go to the restaurant?

• 9:05Speaker 01

  You can do that as well. All the options are available to you. One of the things that I've really loved when I've spent time there is that we actually, when we travel with children, what we do is we actually have the children eat at a different time. So we have the children eating at like 5:00 PM. We have the chefs make them grill chicken, whatever the case may be. And then the kids all eat together and then they make a mess and then the butler cleans everything up. Everything is all nice and neat again. And then at seven o'clock, after we kind of put the kids aside or to bed, then the adults come together and then we have our meal, right? So they have a different cadence to everything and different menu. So it's fantastic. I've also had, uh, traveled with family there where some friends wanted Thai food, some friends wanted Italian food.

• 9:50Speaker 01

  It doesn't matter. All comes out. I just make whatever you want, right?

• 9:53Ramit Sethi?

  Okay.

• 9:54Speaker 01

  So it's whatever you can envision, they will try to execute.

• 9:57Ramit Sethi?

  Why do you think your clients care so much? Like, why not just go to a restaurant like 99.9% of other people do?

• 10:05Speaker 01

  It's convenience and I feel the same way, right? So for example, I go there every summer. I would just say there summer. And in the villa, you know, you have this idea of how the day is going to go before you go on your trip. You're like, oh, we're going to do XYZ, we're going to shower, dress up, go to the restaurant. But when you have kids. It's mayhem. It's 6:00 PM. You know, my little guy is running around like butt naked with his diaper off or whatever. The case you're just trying to survive. You're like, I want dinner here now. I don't want to change. I want to be my bathing suit and my T-shirt. I am in no mood to shower and then go get ready. Right? Like, so it's convenience. I would say at the end of the day, so much of the luxury that you don't, that doesn't translate on a website is flexibility and convenience.

• 10:50Ramit Sethi?

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• 11:35Ramit Sethi?

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• 12:16Ramit Sethi?

  Let's go back to what they get in the room or for paying this much, 5,000, 10,000, 15,000 a night. So we talked about you have convenience, you have food prepared for you with a chef. You mentioned a butler. What does a butler do?

• 12:28Speaker 01

  They basically are with you at all times, just to make sure that if there's anything you need, they can assist you with. And this could be make sure that there's always beverages, water, towels by the pool, et cetera. And, and with us, when we're traveling as a big group of friends or family, there's always a lot of mess, as you can imagine. Anytime they're not executing a request that's given by you, they're cleaning up, they're straining things up, right? So like, that's really that's for someone who loves like being organized and, and I don't like clutter at all. That's like heaven to me. Someone is always straining things up. And as, as a father, like that's one of the biggest annoyances of having a, having a kid playing with toys all the time.

• 13:11Speaker 01

  There's always a mess and that's always being cleaned up. So even on vacation, this is happening, which is, uh, is quite amazing. And then I would say in the example of Parakeet, this is one of my favorite butler concepts. So this butler not only looks after you when you're in your beach house, he or she will travel with you throughout the entire resort. They become your waiter. They become anything you do. So let me tell you where the magic is for that. If you were to go to the restaurant on the day one, your butler goes with you. He or she will know your drink preference. So for example, every time you sit down, you like to have a diet Coke with two slices of lemon, right? And half glass of ice. You say that once and you're, the rest of your trip is done.

• 13:55Speaker 01

  If your butler did not go with you everywhere outside of your room, which is what most butler services are like, you still may have to repeat that every time you sat down, right? So just small things like that. And the best thing about the butlers at Parakeet is that they're fantastic with children. And I hate to like, talk about how much this relates to children, because so much of this does, that most of my clients and myself included, one of the favorite hacks, I always call it is that I have clients who arrives at Parakeet the first night, they would send me a picture. And 50% of the time, the picture is something like they're having dinner and in the distance is the butler with her child.

• 14:37Speaker 01

  So the butler is almost like a nanny hybrid.

• 14:40Ramit Sethi?

  So this is like the dream. So they, they are at this nice hotel. They can be eating whatever food they want, or it's just like nice, having a glass of wine, sitting, watching the sunset. Yeah. And they know their kid is be having fun and being taken care of.

• 14:53Speaker 01

  Yeah. It's like your

• 14:54Ramit Sethi?

  half an hour.

• 14:55Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 14:57Ramit Sethi?

  Okay. Wow.

• 14:58Speaker 01

  It's just amazing. Like also think about this, right? So kids club is one of the biggest like amenities of, of resorts or families, right? So sometimes, uh, you know, let's just say your, your child is at the kids club and you're by the pool and it's time to pick them up. Instead of you getting out of the pool and kind of like snapping out of the moment you're in, enjoying the place, you just tell your brother, hey, could you please go to the kids club, pick up John and, and Jamie and take them back to the room or whatever they go bring them here, whatever the case may be, right?

• 15:29Ramit Sethi?

  You know, this is really interesting because when you're saying this, I'm into it. I love it. The idea that I only have to order sparkling water with limes once and then everybody knows it. I love that. Like, I love that hospitality and those details. I remember being at the Thodg Hotel in Jaipur.

• 15:49Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 15:49Ramit Sethi?

  And we were there with some friends and it was, we're having a dinner and it was getting a little bit late. They had kids and one of the kids was falling asleep. And I remember one of the staff members coming up and saying, would you like us to take the kids back to your room? And it was like, I, I had never seen that before and I thought it was magical. Let me get this straight. They're going to take the kids back to the room. They have a key to get in. They're going to make sure everything's safe. I'm sure they're going to send a little note saying, hey, everything's good. Interestingly, the friends that we were with were not comfortable. So they said, no, no, no, we're okay. Even though it was becoming a, you know, a little bit like the kids were a bit irritable.

• 16:32Speaker 01

  Sure.

• 16:32Ramit Sethi?

  And I asked them, I said, like to me, I'm like, how come you don't do that? That's, that's, it's free. It's included. Why not do it? And she just, she said, you know, I'm not comfortable doing that. So I thought it was an interesting example. There are a lot of options at these really high-end hotels, but not everyone takes advantage of all of them. Like I've stayed at places where there's a butler.

• 16:52Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 16:52Ramit Sethi?

  And I, I'll text sometimes, can you arrange this for that? I, I asked my wife, I'm like, do you want them to pack for us? Cause they can pack.

• 16:59Speaker 01

  Right.

• 17:00Ramit Sethi?

  I hate packing. I'm like, please pack this stuff. I don't want to have to pack it. It also gives me an extra two hours on the last day to not have to sit there. And then she goes, no, I don't want them to. I like packing myself. And I was like, what the hell? What? But what I've learned is just because it's there, doesn't mean everybody uses it. You find the same thing with your clients?

• 17:20Speaker 01

  Yeah, for sure. And I think this, you know, not to get off tangent, but it's the same thing. It's like, sometimes I go to a hotel, the younger me, the college kid into me. If I went to a hotel and you tell me, hey Hal, guess what? The minibar is included. The minibar is free. I will go bonkers. I would be just chugging Coke and eating gummy bears, right? And then whatever's left on the last day, I'm putting in my bag, right?

• 17:42Ramit Sethi?

  Yes, totally.

• 17:44Speaker 01

  Now I don't like my minibar sitting in front of me. I haven't touched it once. It's completely complimentary, right? Uh, I mean, I'm not going to go drink, you know, 80 grams of sugar just because it's free, right? So I think there's some like freedom in that and some satisfaction I take it in that I've kind of gone through a process. And there's nothing wrong with, you know, taking advantage of things that you, you've paid for. That's part of the amenities, right? Enjoy it. But I think the older, the more experiences like this I do, the more the luxury and the joy I get is getting the experience I want at any given time.

• 18:17Ramit Sethi?

  Love it.

• 18:18Speaker 01

  Not feel FOMO, not feel like I have to do anything, right?

• 18:21Ramit Sethi?

  Yeah. I, I remember once, um, because you've been my travel advisor for many years and you have learned that my wife and I don't really care for wine. Like we don't really drink that much. So sometimes when you go to these places, they'll have a bottle of wine waiting for you or some kind of like champagne. And we're just like, we're not really into it. And you found out that I love berries because as a kid, right? We couldn't basically eat bear. They're too expensive.

• 18:46Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 18:47Ramit Sethi?

  So basically every hotel I show up to, there's a plate of perfect berries like laid out for me. And I truly feel like a kid in a candy store. I'm like, these are for me and, and they're free. And the irony is at some of these places are quite expensive, these hotels.

• 19:06Speaker 01

  Of course.

• 19:06Ramit Sethi?

  But the idea that everybody still loves something that is made for them, like somewhere, somehow.

• 19:15Ramit Sethi?

  This hotel had, they figured out that I like berries. And obviously that was through you and you found out somehow because one day I probably casually mentioned it.

• 19:24Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 19:24Ramit Sethi?

  So there was a lot of work that went into this strawberry appearing on this beautiful ceramic bowl. And to me, that makes me feel like I'm taken care of.

• 19:35Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 19:35Ramit Sethi?

  Like someone is watching over me. And if I kind of really pull the, pull the thread, it's like, it's almost like being a child and knowing that somebody's out there watching over me.

• 19:45Speaker 01

  I'm so glad you brought that up because I think sometimes, you know, one of the things I'm sure you've heard many times is like, hey, why would you pay so much for a hotel when you're just sleeping there? Sleeping at a cheaper hotel is the same as expensive hotel functionality wise, right? But it costs money and resources and manpower to get to know somebody. So for, for me to get to know Michael, this is why I don't have a million clients. I can only have so many clients because it takes time to get to know each client.

• 20:10Ramit Sethi?

  Yeah.

• 20:10Speaker 01

  And then when I give this information to the hotel, it takes the manpower, it takes the, the time and energy to go track down or source, source certain amenities for these clients, right?

• 20:21Ramit Sethi?

  When something goes wrong, I want to talk about that. Like what's the worst call you've gotten from a client?

• 20:26Speaker 01

  I would say one of the worst calls is a client who was going to go on a safari and they've been looking for this their whole life. She's in her seventies. She calls me and tells me that she has cancer, which breaks my heart. And we've been playing this for like a year and a half, by the way. And she's a nice lady. So she tells me that I immediately, you know, like part of my mind is heartbreak. The other part is, oh crap, we're in penalty. They've already paid $60,000 and it's fully non-refundable at this point. And, and that was a bad call because of one, of, of, of her getting cancer. Second is this is probably one of the most difficult challenges to overcome, especially with a safari property. It's not New York.

• 21:09Speaker 01

  No one's going to walk in last minute and just book a safari for $60,000, right? So this is where I had to go into problem solving mode and, and try to be very creative and unconventional in ways to try to kind of make that work for her financially.

• 21:24Ramit Sethi?

  Did it?

• 21:25Speaker 01

  Uh, partially. I was able to find another client who was looking to go on safari. And I said, hey, I went to my, the client who had the cancer said, hey, what if I were able to find someone else who will be willing to go safari? I can get them to change their dates a little bit, but you give them a bit of a discount on what you paid, right? So everybody wants, it's a win-win situation, so, so to speak, right? But this is where I think it's, it's challenging. These are, these are some of the most challenging things because you're having a very, very bad news. And then on top of that, you're compounding with another bad news that's devastating as well.

• 22:00Ramit Sethi?

  Yeah. Okay. Is there a hotel that everyone thinks is worth it that you don't?

• 22:06Speaker 01

  I'm going to say a region maybe because there's so many. I think you're Europe in the summer is just insane to me, right? You could go to like Mothico, Positano, et cetera, or even Lake Como. You could get an entry level room at the top level properties for 3,000, 4,000 euros per night. So we're talking to what 3,600 to 5,000 USD per night and you're getting a 300 square foot, 300 square feet like closet.

• 22:30Ramit Sethi?

  So what if a client comes to you and says, I want to go to Positano?

• 22:33Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 22:33Ramit Sethi?

  What would you say?

• 22:35Speaker 01

  I mean, we would have, depending on the client, if they know the market well, I wouldn't even have this conversation with them because I already know, right? I just know that this is where they want to go and that's the most valuable thing. Cause sometimes, you know, one of my job is to actually understand what it is that you value.

• 22:49Ramit Sethi?

  Yes.

• 22:50Speaker 01

  On any given trip. It's not always money. It's not always the quote unquote bang for the buck, right? Or at least in that way, sometimes it's going to the south of France in the peak of summer because that's where you want to be, right? Like that is the most important thing, right? Just like New Yorkers in January, want to be in the Caribbean. Like that might be the only thing they care about, right?

• 23:08Ramit Sethi?

  You know, you, you once told me in a, in a very respectful way, because

• 23:12Speaker 01

  Oh shoot.

• 23:13Ramit Sethi?

  My wife and I love Rosewood Myakoba. We just love that hotel.

• 23:16Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 23:16Ramit Sethi?

  We've had so many great experiences and you were kind of like, oh, again, yeah. In polite terms, you're like, that hotel is a bit incongruous with the other places that you stay. Basically it's not as nice. When I personally, I, I love it. And the reason that I love it and we love it is we've just had such warm experiences with the staff. We brought some of our friends there. And I thought I was, I thought that was a great observation because what I've learned is I don't always need to have the most expensive, the most nice. Sometimes it's like, what, what's easy for people to get to? Or in this case, like what makes us feel really warm and taken care of? And it's, it's nice, no doubt. Rosewood Myakoba was a very nice hotel.

• 23:59Ramit Sethi?

  There are more expensive ones around.

• 24:02Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 24:02Ramit Sethi?

  But I thought that was a good observation that clients don't, just if, because you have money, doesn't mean you're always spending the max amount.

• 24:09Speaker 01

  Yes, yes.

• 24:10Ramit Sethi?

  Who pays for your travel?

• 24:12Speaker 01

  I make these like reels every year about how this works. So I pay for my travel.

• 24:18Speaker 01

  You know, I, I think last year it's still on my Instagram. I made a reel last May about how I spent $300,000, but I got a million dollars worth of travel experiences. And the point of that reel was that there was several hundred thousand dollar delta and that delta was through either invitation or upgrades and things like that, right? So like a free stay is a free stay, but it actually costs me something if I don't like the place. I'd rather pay either full price or discounted rate to go to a place that I like and love and that my clients will also like and love potentially, then go to a free place that isn't a good fit, right?

• 24:54Ramit Sethi?

  How do you tell in a few minutes, if someone is going to be a great client or a nightmare client?

• 25:01Speaker 01

  I almost don't want to tell you this because it's kind of my secret sauce, but I'm going to tell you, even the way they approached me to become a client is a flag. So if someone approached me and just says, how do you work? What's your fee? That's a flag. That's a red flag for me. My most high net worth clients have always approached me with, hey, Hal, we've been following you for some time. We really resonate with you. Are you accepting new clients? Right? And my

• 25:29Ramit Sethi?

  What's the difference in the two approaches?

• 25:31Speaker 01

  Well, I think one is the, the first example, they're still interviewing you and trying to figure out what it is that you can do for them, et cetera. I think the second one, they've already made a decision on you. They've spent time investing in you to see if you might be a good fit for them. And here's the thing, I think they must have other areas in their lives where they work with a top person. And that means that they know the top person are not necessarily looking to take on new clients. They're probably already at their max, right? The top, the top accountant for their taxes, the top, whatever it is, right? The top physician.

• 26:05Ramit Sethi?

  What is the average cost of a trip that you book for clients?

• 26:09Speaker 01

  On average, probably the hotels starts at about $4,000 per night on average, right?

• 26:16Ramit Sethi?

  Okay. And how many nights?

• 26:18Speaker 01

  Five.

• 26:18Ramit Sethi?

  Okay. What's the lowest price that a client books through you?

• 26:23Speaker 01

  Oh, I booked a client for a few hundred bucks before, but more so that, you know, once I have a client, I have a client. And if they need to go to a place in like Kuala Lumpur where like the Four Seasons of suite is like 300 bucks, you know? I still book that for them, of course. Once they're my client, they're my client, right?

• 26:38Ramit Sethi?

  What should someone look for if they are hiring a travel advisor?

• 26:43Speaker 01

  So I joked with Laura last year, which she did not find this funny at all. So if I die, you and Beckett work with an advisor, but this is what you look for. I said, first you must be able to tell if she or him, if their taste was developed, you, you must be able to see how their taste was developed, right? Meaning like you can see visually or through something that they went to these places and their taste or whatever their opinions are, is kind of refined by these trips they've taken, right? Like it's through personal experience. That's very important to me. And they also must have a strong perspective on things, right? Like that's very interesting to me. And also they must have demonstrated some ability or capacity to think unconventionally.

• 27:29Speaker 01

  Because sometimes, uh, like the example for the single dad, I got him a $40,000 upgrade. That deal, that, that stay was not going to be possible until I made that happen, right? I saw an opportunity for both the, the client and the hotel, and then made that happen. But that was unconventional thinking, right? So that's big. And then of course I said, uh, you know, they must be able to showcase that they're doing the right people, right? The right general manager and things like that, have their kind of like hands on the pulses of the industry. So I think that's, uh, those are, things are very important.

• 28:00Ramit Sethi?

  Why did you choose to do this job? Did you grow up going to luxury hotels?

• 28:04Speaker 01

  No, we, we were so poor, we didn't even go to motels. We, we, you know, my mom moved here as an immigrant. She was a housekeeper and a waitress raising me, which is why, by the way, I have such a soft spot for housekeepers at hotels. I started traveling when I first started working at Ralph Lauren, just here in, because we had company discounts. Right? That was huge. I could get into the Surrey on the Upper East for like 200 bucks, right? When it was like 800 and that was a splurge for me. I had to like save to get the 200 bucks. And I didn't even know what I was. I couldn't define it at the time, but I just had this vision of like, I wanted to know what's out there. I wanted to experience it. And then when I try a little bit of luxury travel, it really like resonated with me. And I really found everything about luxury hotels to be interesting. In fact, I could just stay in the hotel all day.

• 28:49Speaker 01

  I didn't want to leave, right? Like, like that's a big difference. You know, my friends and Laura were like, oh, let's go see this museum, let's go do this. I'm like, I want to stay in the hotel, you go. I just want to stay, I don't sit in the bed and just enjoy this space. I can't tell you why, right? The fact that I can actually add value to people's trip and it's immediate impact almost, right? Like when I work in the corporate world, you work on a project in my, realizing like two years, who knows, right? But I could work, I could do something for me. And when they take that trip, I will immediately know how that went, right? I mean, there's pressure with that, of course, but the reward is so substantial. And, and even for the wealthiest people who, who maybe don't lack in finance, but they lack on time, right? So to play a role in one of the most like pivotal assets or moments of their life and

• 29:34Speaker 01

  make an impact is really rewarding. You know, I would say like, there's nothing like, you know, we've texted, I'm like, hey, how's it going? There's nothing like getting a picture from your client and you're like, dude, look at these blueberries, their individual shelves, like those things, I'm getting a little bit of goosebumps, like, like, they're just amazing, you know? Like, yeah, I get texts and messages like that all the time. And, uh, you know, it's just something that I, I couldn't do previously and, and, and I love that.

• 30:03Ramit Sethi?

  I love it too. All right, Hal, thank you for taking us behind the scenes of luxury travel. I appreciate your time.

• 30:08Speaker 01

  Yep. Thanks.

• 30:09Ramit Sethi?

  Cheers. Thanks a lot. I find this whole conversation fascinating, especially because most people never talk about this publicly. I ask myself, hey, why would someone spend this money? If they can afford it, presumably they have a reason. What is it? It might not be something I care about, but maybe I will one day. And the only way I can understand it is by getting curious instead of disparaging it. So if you use the D to C principle, you're going to see lots of new ways to think about money everywhere you go. If you want to see more of these videos going inside what spending actually looks like at the highest levels and why, leave a comment and tell me what you want to see next.