The Return of the Travel Advisor: Why Ultra-Luxury Travelers Are Ditching Algorithms for Human Expertise

The promise of digital travel planning was seductive. Type a destination, scroll through options, click to book. Technology would democratise luxury, making the world's finest hotels accessible to anyone with a credit card and an internet connection.

Yet something curious is happening at the upper echelons of travel. While mass-market tourists continue their love affair with booking algorithms, ultra-high-net-worth individuals are quietly returning to an older model—one built on relationships, discretion, and irreplaceable human judgment.

The Limits of the Algorithm

Online travel platforms excel at aggregating inventory and comparing prices. What they cannot do is understand that a client celebrating a wedding anniversary requires a corner suite facing east for the morning light, or that a family with a child on the autism spectrum needs advance coordination with hotel staff.

"Algorithms optimise for metrics. They show you what's available, what's popular, what's profitable for the platform. They cannot show you what's right for you."

— Albina Sharapova, Founder & CEO, Via Privata

This distinction matters enormously when bookings routinely exceed five figures. At these price points, the cost of a wrong choice—a resort too remote for a client who values nightlife, a hotel too bustling for one seeking solitude—extends far beyond money. It costs irreplaceable time.

Access Beyond the Booking Engine

The most compelling argument for human advisors lies in what cannot be booked online at all.

Preferred partner relationships with luxury hotel groups—Four Seasons, Aman, Rosewood, and others—unlock benefits invisible to direct bookers: guaranteed room upgrades, property credits, early check-in, late checkout, and the intangible advantage of being flagged as a VIP before arrival.

These programmes exist because hotels recognise a fundamental truth: advisors send their best clients. The guest arriving through a trusted advisory relationship is statistically more likely to respect the property, spend generously, and return.

"My clients pay the same published rate they'd find booking directly with the hotel—not a dollar more. The difference is what comes with it: they receive amenities worth hundreds of dollars per stay, plus the assurance that if anything goes wrong, they have an advocate."

— Albina Sharapova, IATA-accredited Travel Advisor

The Privacy Premium

For certain travelers, the appeal of human advisors is simpler: discretion.

High-profile individuals—executives, entertainers, political figures—have learned that digital footprints accumulate. Every online booking creates data points. Every loyalty programme tracks patterns. Every saved credit card represents potential exposure.

A skilled travel advisor serves as an intermediary, booking under agency accounts, coordinating with hotels through secure channels, and ensuring that the client's name appears only where absolutely necessary. This service cannot be replicated by any app.

The New Generation of Advisors

Today's elite travel advisors bear little resemblance to the retail agents of decades past. They are often former hospitality executives, seasoned travelers themselves, and shrewd businesspeople who have recognised that the ultra-luxury segment rewards expertise over volume.

They conduct site inspections. They maintain relationships with general managers. They know which suite at which property photographs well for social media and which offers genuine privacy. They remember that a client is allergic to shellfish, that another insists on hypoallergenic pillows, that a third travels with a beloved dog requiring specific accommodations.

This accumulated knowledge—updated continuously, stored in human memory rather than databases—represents their true value proposition.

A Hybrid Future

The travel advisor's renaissance does not signal technology's defeat. The most effective advisors leverage digital tools extensively—for research, communication, and logistics management.

What has changed is the recognition that technology serves best as infrastructure, not interface. The client experience, particularly at the luxury level, benefits from human mediation.

As travel grows simultaneously more accessible and more complex, this division will likely sharpen. The algorithms will continue serving the many. The advisors will continue serving the few. And for those few, the return on that relationship—measured in time saved, experiences elevated, and problems prevented—will continue to justify the choice.