What the Amanvari Incident Actually Reveals About Working With a Travel Advisor

Ryan Walker showed up for a $6,000-a-night reservation at the newly opened Amanvari in Baja. Security knew his name at the gate. His reservation had been quietly canceled the night before. When he asked to speak with a manager, no one came. The property called the police instead.

The part that I find very interesting is the fact that Aman corporate has said nothing publicly, no, “we’ve been informed of this situation and we’re looking into it further” no simple acknowledgement, nothing. Meanwhile, advisors are left fielding client emails about the situation and we have zero answers to provide. Virtuoso Week (THE travel advisor conference) kicks off in two days. And we’ve heard crickets.

And in the middle of it, a Reddit post is going viral arguing that any hotel a travel advisor consistently recommends should be avoided on principle. That advisors are salespeople in an artifice of impartiality. That you, the client, are not the customer…the hotel is.

And, honestly, the post has some pretty valid points and it’s something that we, as an industry, should be talking about. But some of it is very wrong and I think both are worth talking about. Here’s my thoughts:

What the critique gets right

The mechanics are real. Advisors are paid commission, a percentage of the nightly rate, typically 10%; however, it can flex from 3% to 15+%. We use 10 as an average because that’s most common. The levers to earn more are mathematically obvious: book more nights, or book higher rates. The critique also correctly identifies that consolidated portfolio brands (Aman, Four Seasons, Rosewood, COMO) are easier to negotiate with than boutiques, which is why they can appear on certain advisors recommendations at a rate that looks suspicious from the outside.

Pretending the incentive structure doesn't exist would be insulting. We all know it exists.

But identifying the mechanics isn't the same as identifying the motive. And that's where the Reddit post kind of goes off the rails.

What the critique gets wrong

The post assumes single-transaction economics, that an advisor's game is to extract maximum commission from you once and move on. Which, sure, that model exists. It's also a spectacular way to run a business into the ground.

What actually happens at Noir & Ivory, the business is longer-term than that, at least that’s the goal. A honeymoon becomes a babymoon becomes a family trip becomes an anniversary becomes a milestone birthday somewhere neither of you have been. The value is in the relationship. We spend many trips together so that when you call me in twenty years I say "you're ready for that empty-nest getaway, aren't you?" That's what I'm building toward. A single transaction is for the birds and influencer advisors that don’t have the time to actually make this their full time job.

Y’all know I operate from a spirit of transparency, so it would be a miss for me to not acknowledge that the retention economics line up with that. Burning a client for an extra $400 on a property I know isn't right for them costs me a twenty-year relationship. But the reason I don't do it isn't the math. It's that I actually like this work, and I actually like my clients, and that's not something you can fake into a business model.

So, yes, the mechanics the Reddit post identified are real; however, the conclusion drawn from them is wrong.

Why advisors gravitate to 4- and 5-star brands

Which brings us to the second question the post raises: why the same handful of luxury brands keep showing up on some advisor recommendations.

The answer is not because we're brand shills; some people are, let’s be fair, but for the majority of us, it’s because that's where the leverage lives.

A Park Hyatt and a Best Western are very different products, obviously, but more importantly, they're different systems. Park Hyatt has a preferred partner program that gives advisors real teeth: priority room upgrades, breakfast, resort credits, early check-in, late check-out, sometimes a fourth and/or seventh night free, etc. And on top of that, when something goes wrong, there's a chain of accountability that leads to a human who cares about the advisor relationship. Best Western? Yea… they have none of that. If your reservation gets fumbled, you're on your own with a call center and a “sorry, you’re SOL”.

I recommend luxury brands not because I'm told to. Because that's where I can actually deliver something on top of what you'd book yourself. Take that leverage away and I'm charging you a planning fee for the privilege of typing your name into Priceline.

When brands fail and what an advisor is actually for

That leverage cuts both ways, and this is the part the Reddit post misses entirely. It is my responsibility as an advisor to hold brands accountable to the standard of service they claim to deliver. I didn't have clients booked at Amanvari this week; however, in the specific situation of Ryan Walker, I honestly would have pulled my clients or at least recommend they reconsider. We still don’t know exactly what happened and that’s part of the problem. The fact that Aman would call the police on a paying client in a foreign country as a resolution strategy is unacceptable. Not calling the client to give notice of a last-minute cancellation is disrespectful. And the silence they’re currently sitting in is problematic. I would NOT feel comfortable sending my clients there.

These moments are exactly what an advisor is for, and I take them into consideration for every single recommendation. For example, Bora Bora is one of my top booked locations. And Four Seasons Bora Bora is one of the last resorts I recommend. Why? Last time we stayed there we had a bug infestation in our overwater bungalow. Not a spider. An infestation. Their response was, “unfortunately, we do live in a tropical climate” and then they proceeded to try and move us to a lower-tier room. We declined as we had paid extra for the room we were staying in and were forced to stay out of our room for a few hours while they bombed the bungalow. No comp, no upgrade, no meaningful recovery. Of course we understood that we were in Bora Bora and bugs exist, but these were what appeared to be flying termites. That’s not a tropical bug problem. Additionally, some of the planks on the boardwalk would pop up when stepped on, which was a hazard, especially at night. The washer and dryer on property smelled like mold. We weren’t welcomed White Lotus style upon arrival, not even a drink in hand. All of this may sound like first world problems, because it is, but they’re still problems. Especially when you’re paying over $1500/night.

Four Seasons is still on my host agencies preferred partner list. They are not on my Bora Bora shortlist for clients. Will that change? Possibly. Management changes, team members rotate, service changes. The property itself is also fantastic. But until I make it back or receive an update from a trusted source, they’re on my “DNU” (do not use) list unless the property as a whole really makes sense for a couple and they’re okay with running the risk of poor service and product.

This is what advisor curation is supposed to look like. Not "which brands pay the most," but "which brands actually deliver when it counts." A brand that flops on recovery gets moved off the shortlist regardless of commission potential. The advisors who don't do this, who keep sending clients to properties that failed them personally because the commissions are good, are the advisors the Reddit post is describing. They exist but they're not all of us. And the way you tell the difference is by asking your advisor which brands they've moved off their shortlist, and why.

If they can't answer then that's your answer.

Your job in this

The critique gets one more thing right, indirectly: the client has more power than the discourse acknowledges.

If you're working with an advisor and they can't clearly articulate why a specific property is right for you, beyond "it's beautiful" or "I have preferred partner status there", push back! Ask about their recovery track record with that brand. Ask what they'd recommend if the commission structure disappeared tomorrow. A good advisor will give you a real answer and not get defensive.

I have pre-requisites I run every property through before it makes a client shortlist: 4.5+ across Google reviews and my agencies internal portal. Verified operational status. Recent site inspection or firsthand reporting from someone I trust. If a property doesn't clear those, it doesn't go at the top of my list. The Amanvari incident is a live example of why the "recent operational status" check matters. A property in its opening weeks carries real risk, and a good advisor should be flagging that risk to clients, not glossing over it because it's the shiny new opening everyone's chasing.

If your advisor isn't running some version of this check, that's solid information. I’m always team ‘advocate for yourself’. If advocating is difficult with the advisor you have, find a different one.

What I actually do here

Noir & Ivory is built on repeat business, and repeat business is built on trust, and trust is built on being honest about what an advisor can and can't do. That's what I'm optimizing for. Everything else follows from it.

Which means, honestly, the tier of the property isn't the point. It's the lift and the fit. Some clients want a two-week Bora Bora honeymoon with every preferred partner amenity I can layer on. Some clients want a two-night road trip stopover booked without fuss at the nearest Best Western. Both are actual examples of what I’ve booked and both are MORE than welcome

Likewise, if all you want is someone to handle a booking and you don't need perks or curation or a real advisor relationship, tell me. I'll book it. What I won't do is pretend the relationship is something it isn't, on either end.

The Reddit post asks whether or not you want to be a fool. I don't think that's the right question. The right one is whether you want an advisor who gives you honest recommendations and values the long-term relationship or one whose interest ends when the confirmation email sends.

I’ve said this many times before and I’ll keep saying it until the cows come home: the same way doctors, lawyers, teachers, and dentists aren’t all the same, travel advisors aren’t either. Be mindful and intentional about who you partner with and your trips will be handled accordingly.