Our Process
Ready to book your trip and experience seamless, VIP travel planning? Become a client with Caroline Travel and let us handle the booking details. As a traveler with our company you can expect exceptional travel arrangements with all of the amenities. Make your dream trip a reality now.
Travel Fees and Planning Process
How we work
The best trip is a seamless one, where all pieces all the details flow together into one cohesive itinerary. Because of this, Caroline Travel prefers to work on trips as a total package, and not just assist with small, “a la carte” pieces (such as rental car, activities, or airport transfer only). From experience, we have learned that in planning the custom trip as a whole, we are able to step in if there are any issues, and ensure the experience is exceptional. Your trip is tailored specifically for you.
- First, I want to know about your interests, why you are planning this trip and what you want to accomplish. I will listen closely to determine how I can best deliver what is important to you.
- Next, we will work collaboratively to design an exceptional travel experience. All clients are different and have their own ideas of what is the perfect vacation. By working together and hearing what you have in mind, we can come up with a plan to transform a good experience into a spectacular one.
- Once we have discussed you travel needs and I have received your planning fee, I will put together your itinerary.
- While you are traveling, should something unexpected happen, I am here as your advocate to work through it. Prior to your trip, I will be touching base with hoteliers and tour companies to ensure your VIP status.
- Upon return, I want know how your experience was. I love feedback – What did you love most? Could anything have been better?
Hotel only fees
Our vendor relationships allow us to offer value-added amenities and VIP experiences to your hotel stays. For hotel-only bookings that require no additional consultation or travel planning services, we do not charge any booking or planning fees. If the hotel you book is part of the Virtuoso Portfolio, you’ll enjoy amenities such as upgrades (if available), spa or food and beverage credits, breakfast daily, VIP status and more.
However, in some cases, a fee may apply:
- Last-Minute Bookings: We reserve the right to charge a $50 fee per booking for last-minute requests.
- Non-commissionable rate hotels: In some cases, smaller boutique hotels do not pay commission. We will charge a booking fee equal to 15% of the total room rate.
- Changes and Cancellations: We reserve the right to charge a $50 fee per change or cancellation on all hotel bookings.
** We reserve the right to waive and change fees on a case-by-case basis.
** We never charge fees without first informing and discussing with our clients.
Travel planning fees
The process of researching and putting together a customized, tailored proposal that matches your travel desires takes time. Travel planning fees cover the initial consultation and discussion of your trip expectations, time spent researching, developing, and revising the proposal(s), booking and managing all components, as well as support while traveling.
Because of the initial up front time involved, a non-refundable $250 trip planning deposit will be charged for custom travel experiences in Western North America designed by Caroline Travel. This will go towards the total travel planning fee on your final invoice. The total fee for these trips will not be less than $400 for a trip that is 7 nights or more, and can go up to 10% of the land based trip cost, though this is very rarely the case. The total fee for a typical week long trip is $400 – 500, and the fee for a typical 2 week trip is $600 – 800, sometimes less.
For travel experiences throughout the rest of the world, fees are often not required. But in the event work is done for a trip that does not come to fruition, we reserve the right to charge $250 for the time spent in consulting, as well as obtaining proposals on your behalf. If you hire us to assist you with creating your travel experiences, it is assumed that you are 100% ready to move forward with an itinerary that matches your needs and budget. If you are in the initial planning stages and are not sure your family can get away, please hold off on making the request until you know your exact dates or range of dates, have the destination(s) in mind, and know what your budget will be if you have one.
Airline Ticket Fees
- Domestic and International Tickets are $40 per person.
*In some cases, where there is a contract with the airline on the International route you want, there will not be a fee.
Travel Insurance
For non-refundable deposits and payments, as well as peace of mind while traveling, travel insurance is highly recommended. To purchase your own policy for a trip planned by Caroline Travel, please ask your Travel Advisor to purchase the policy or visit www.travelexinsurance.com using Location Number 33-6065.