1. THE UPGRADE · WEEKLY · Summer of Europe, Hotel Upgrades, and The Masters
The Masters Went Viral, The European Grand Tour, and Your Hotel is Holding Out on You
🗝️ The Upgrade · Weekly by Anne Marie Brown
In this week’s The Upgrade:
Pre-Departure - Derby Season, the Summer of Europe, How to Score an Upgrade
The Room Report - Attending the Masters
The Lobby Bar - Susurros Corazon and Rosewood Mandarina
Travelers,
The Masters. Holy cow, what a show it was this year. Our post about the top tips for attending went viral, and we are here for it. Learn where our clients are headed this summer in Europe, and the honest truth about hotel upgrades.
Happy travels, Anne Marie Co-Founder, Alpenglow Travel
🗝️ Pre-Departure - Travel strategy, what our team is working on
Derby Season is Here
The Masters is over, which means the Kentucky Derby is next up on our roster. The pageantry, the electricity, the hats, it never gets old. Our clients will be in Millionaires Row and the Stakes Room this year, wearing custom hats from a local milliner and taking paddock tours. Kylee wrote up everything you need to know about attending on the blog if it’s been on your list.
[Read: Behind the Scenes of the Most Iconic Two Minutes in Sports]
Anyone who knows me knows I have an enormous collection of hats and fascinators - (below: Kylee and Anne Marie in Millionaires’ Row at the Kentucky Derby)
The Summer of Europe
Everyone I know is going to Europe this summer, and not just for a week - extended stays. It feels like the “European Grand Tour” of the 17th-19th centuries is back. I’ve planned a couple’s trip to Mallorca, a family jaunt through the English countryside, girls’ trips in Ibiza and Mykonos, villa rentals in Lake Como, bike tours with Backroads, river cruises in France for milestone birthdays, and much more.
My own little family, (Jack age 5, Malia age 7, and Matt, my husband), are heading to England (Estelle Manor and the Firmdale Covent Garden hotel in London), the Dolomites at Sonnwies, and renting a house in Grasse (South of France) for a friend’s big birthday. Finding hotels with kids’ clubs is now a real driver for me personally, and I can’t wait to experience Sonnies’ farm programming for littles.
A few things worth knowing if you’re planning Europe this summer: early June is your sweet spot for Greece, Paris, and Italy. By July and August you’re looking at mass crowds and five-star hotels starting around $20,000 for the week, minimum. If Passalacqua or any of the marquee Lake Como properties are on your list, book a year out. I mean that.
The Real Story on Hotel Upgrades
You’ve probably seen “upgrade on arrival, subject to availability” on a hotel confirmation. That note comes from our preferred partner programs like Rosewood Elite, Mandarin Fan Club, Four Seasons Preferred, and our consortium membership through Virtuoso. It’s a real perk. But how much does it actually mean?
More than you’d think, and less than people hope.
Hotels build a profit margin into every booking. If you book direct, the hotel keeps it. If you book through a third party - such as Amex, Chase, an OTA (Expedia), or a travel agent, those parties receive commission for your stay, typically around 10%.
If you Expedia or Booking.com, the hotel takes zero responsibility for your reservation. If something goes wrong, you’re on your own.
A travel agent costs you nothing extra (unless you are booking a trip that we charge a planning fee for), and the hotel knows we expect our clients to be taken care of. We monitor your stay every step of the way, and hotels are more worried about a bad advisor review than dealing with Expedia.
There is a hierarchy to upgrades at every hotel (some may argue different orders, but this has been my own industry experience from both sides):
Preferred Partner clients
Consortium clients
Return clients
Amex/Chase
Direct bookings
OTAs (Expedia, Booking.com)
Travel advisors spend a significant part of our year meeting with hotel sales directors so our clients get prioritized. Before a client travels, we email the hotel reservations desk and the sales directors to notify them that our clients are VIPs and request that they be prioritized for upgrades. The more sales we do with a property or brand, the more we build those relationships with sales directors, the better chances we have of scoring an upgrade for our clients.
That said, upgrades are never guaranteed. Low occupancy alone doesn’t guarantee a hotel will upgrade you, because the property may have reduced housekeeping staff on a slow night, or may have a policy against upgrading to suite categories because of the additional labor involved in turning those larger rooms.
This is why I always tell my clients: book the room you actually want to be in. If an upgrade comes, it’s a great surprise. If it doesn’t, you’re still exactly where you wanted to be. Don’t count on an upgrade for your happiness.
🗝️ The Room Report - Personal reviews from my own travels
The Masters: A Wild Weekend
Q: Why did the golfer bring an extra pair of pants to the Masters?
A: In case he got a hole in one.
My husband was at Augusta this year for the Masters with a group of friends celebrating a milestone birthday. Kylee and I posted a quick Instagram recap of the advice we’ve given Masters clients over the past ten years we’ve worked together, and it went viral.
The video comprised these three pieces of our advice:
Have a merch plan. Know everyone’s sizes and color preferences before you walk in. Get in, get out. Be prepared to throw some elbows.
Try everything on the concession menu, especially the Georgia Peach ice cream sandwich.
Bring a list of phone numbers for the payphones on the course. Phones aren’t allowed inside. A call from Augusta National lands differently.
Our inbox filled up overnight with people who’ve been entering the ticket lottery for years. This felt like the year influencers discovered the Masters, and suddenly it wasn’t just on every golfer’s bucket list. It was on everyone’s.
Kylee and I have been running Masters packages together for a decade, first at a luxury destination club, now through Alpenglow. It’s one of those events that feels impossible to people, from sourcing housing, to access, to complicated logistics. It reminded me why what we do matters.
The Masters is just one version of a complicated trip. Safaris, multigenerational Europe itineraries, yacht charters, corporate retreats, every trip we build has its own moving pieces, and I genuinely love that every day feels like a Rubik’s cube.
My husband, Matt, at the Masters, looking happier than on our wedding day
🗝️ The Lobby Bar - Hospitality updates, promotions, and the occasional pun
Firstly, the rumors are FALSE - Marriott is not buying Rosewood. Confirmed directly by the global sales director of Rosewood. Some exciting Rosewood updates to come next week in The Upgrade Weekly.
Two promotions worth knowing about right now:
Susurros de Corazon — from $400/night starting in May through fall.
Rosewood Mandarina — rates starting at $800/night in May (normal ADR is $1,500+) following low occupancy after the cartel incidents in March. I stayed next door at the One & Only Mandarina over spring break and got a look at the property. It’s stunning.
To book either of these or any hotel, visit our [Booking Portal] or email Info@alpenglowtravel.com.
🗝️ Anne Marie
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