Eight Months In:

What I’ve Learned Building Hotel Fam Club

 

If there’s one thing I’ve learned since launching Hotel Fam Club, it’s how quickly the landscape is shifting. Even in the last four months, the AI rhetoric has exploded. Everywhere you look, someone is pushing the idea that the future is automated, the OTAs are unstoppable and human travel advisors are somehow fading away.

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This narrative is driven by the AI and OTA lobbyists.

Not by travellers. Not by hoteliers and definitely not by the people who actually book trips for a living.

 

Travel advisors rarely get the celebration they deserve. You are behind the scenes turning chaos into calm, whether you are booking weekend breaks, bucket-list epics, or ultra-luxury once-in-a-lifetime trips. Yet the spotlight always seems to swing elsewhere.

 

But here’s where the bigger picture comes in…

 

 

The Hotel Fam Club Advantage

 

Travel advisors aren’t just in travel.

You are in hospitality.

And the advisors who lean into that, who stay in the places they sell, who understand them, who can speak about them from lived experience are the ones who breeze past their competition.

 

Creating your own familiarisation stays is still one of the most powerful tools you have. It builds trust, credibility and that “Oh, they really know their stuff” layer that no AI or OTA can replicate.

 

January is a perfect time for this.

While hotels quieten slightly post-Christmas and everyone rushes to book their next trip, you can actually be in hospitality spaces, working from them, building relationships and being visible where it matters.

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This is what hoteliers & holiday homes owners see when we email them HERE. They like it.

 

 

And yes, I’m going to say it… video.

 

I don’t love it either.

But do the videos.

 

I’m not talking about “Why use me?” posts or generic travel tips. They simply don’t get the reach. If yours do and you are booking clients from them, brilliant.. tell me, I’d love to hear it.

 

But if not?

You have got to do something different.

 

And in the UK especially, the home working industry is booming. January will be full of new advisors, many of whom won’t last but they will be competing for attention in the short term. So you have to stand out.

 

 

There’s Money Being Left on the Table

 

I genuinely think travel advisors are missing enormous opportunities with local hotels and holiday homes. Becoming your own mini-DMC, curating stays, partnering with local experiences, building relationships in your city or region is a hugely untapped revenue stream.

 

Some of you are sitting on gold and don’t realise it.

 

And yes, content creators and influencers are still part of the mix. Tech people love to push the “creators are everything” narrative but travel advisors bring something creators never can: actual bookings.

Real commercial return.

 

This is something I hammer home with hotels all the time.

I don’t get bogged down in “metrics” and promises.

 

I simply say:

“These are travel advisors. Selling travel is their livelihood.”

 

Decision-making in hospitality can be painfully slow. Meanwhile, opportunities disappear during the back-and-forth. Hotels and holiday homes need to trust advisors earlier, not later.

 

And that’s part of what Hotel Fam Club exists to do, push travel advisors to the forefront of hospitality and remind hotels that you are, frankly, a massive untapped asset.

 

 

A Final Nudge

 

NoVacancy London at the end of February will be a huge opportunity.

But beyond events, you need to be where your clients are not where other advisors are.

 

Events are lovely for motivation and community, but they are not where your revenue comes from. Mix it up. Be strategic. Get out there. Build relationships. Stand out.

 

You are not just booking travel from a laptop.

You are part of the hospitality ecosystem.

Behave like someone who belongs in it.... because you do.