US-based Lush Experiences is set to revamp the traditional ‘fam trip’ model, after what it claims are years of listening to the advisor community calling for the model to change.
Lush Experiences’ PACE trips, or ‘Preferred Advisor Curated Experiences’, have been strategically designed to cater to agents’ interests and help them better sell the product to clients.
The programme rips up the rulebook that has long governed the standard fam trip; there are no back-to-back hotel showrounds; no four-hour dinners; and no irrelevant excursions.
Common goals
On many fam trips, it is not unusual for properties to host travel agents of multiple backgrounds and varying clientele.
But Lush Experiences believes it is more effective to tailor all aspects of the trip to be relevant to more of the advisors’ own interests. Rather than hosting advisors with differing customer types and packing the itinerary with a mishmash of activities, Beaty said companies should ensure all agents on a tour have similar goals in mind.
“The issue with traditional fam trips is that the agents don’t necessarily have the same specialties or the same clients,” he added. “So instead, we select a theme, and the advisors are then chosen based on their niche.”
An example of one of these themed trips is ‘Romance is an Adventure’, which was created for advisors in collaboration with DMC Deluxe France to enjoy a ‘second honeymoon’ or ‘anniversary trip’ with their spouse. Agents flew to Paris where they stayed in a number of Lush Experiences’ partner properties, received luxurious spa treatments and enjoyed a personal shopping consultation.
“They can then go back and talk to their clients who are engaged, or maybe older clients whose children have just left home and are looking for a romantic getaway,” Beaty explained.
Lush Experiences also recently organised a PACE trip for families, hosting five top advisors to visit the France properties it represents with their children. Each advisor was invited to take one child with them to stay in Hotel Royal Evian Resort and Paris’ Hotel Grand Paris, where they enjoyed a number of kid-friendly activities, including golfing, mountain climbing and a spa treatment.
“The kids had a ball and became immediate friends, so the parents were relieved, because they didn’t have to be dedicated to looking after their kids,” Beaty said. “Each one of these advisors subsequently made two or three bookings replicating what we did: that’s the goal of a PACE trip.”
Fresh Eats
Another priority of Lush Experiences is to shake up the culinary side of fam trips, which he believes can often be a source of frustration for agents. A common complaint is that meals, which tend to be dictated by a rigid itinerary, are simply too long, too rich and too frequent.
Lush Experiences is on a mission to change this practice – starting with slashing the amount of time dedicated to dining.
“Things have changed a lot in the culinary preferences of luxury travellers,” Beaty said. “In the past, clients may well have spent a lot of time eating on holiday, but now, they want to invest more of the time in experiences.”
While gastronomy continues to be important on PACE trips, it is not the set focus unless otherwise specified.
“The food can usually be experienced in way less time,” he said, and added that if the meal does take extra time, it is usually in order to accommodate something like a cooking demonstration.
“It’s better to have a chef come out and do a cooking class so people can be involved, rather than just sit for hours and be served dishes you know little about,” he said. Beaty also agreed agents should have more autonomy in their food choices, which can usually be limited by a set menu: “Agents don’t want to feel herded around, and like they’re not having a say.”
More freedom
Respect for the advisors in its community is central to Lush Experiences’ ethos, which is why it has done away with many of the practices of traditional fam trips. Its PACE trips are always a small group of less than eight, which also allows the company to ensure each advisor stays in their own guest room.
“We never asks advisors to share rooms, unless they wish to bring a colleague or a friend with them,” Beaty said. “After all, our goal is not to get as many people as possible on the trip, it’s to get the right ones.”
Agents on a PACE trip are also given breaks to rest, catch up on work and of course, explore the destination on their own: “We love our advisors to have free time. People work remotely these days and we know this isn’t a vacation. We also know we’re not the only hotel, so if they want to set up somewhere else to see, that’s okay with us.”
