Austin, Texas-based host agency Departure Lounge (No. 47 on Travel Weekly's Power List) recently wrapped its annual Departure Lounge Exchange (DLX) meeting, where several new things, like a tagline and slogan, were announced. Senior editor Jamie Biesiada spoke with the agency's founder and director, Keith Waldon, about the decision to highlight the experience of his advisors in those initiatives and some trends he's seeing.
Keith Waldon
Q: At DLX, you unveiled a new tagline for your logo, "Experienced Curators of Luxury Travel," and a new marketing slogan, "When Experience Leads the Way, Journeys Become Extraordinary." You've also got a new client-facing video, "Can Anyone Be a Travel Advisor?" Everything emphasizes experience. Why?
A: I'm a branding guy. My past history with Rosewood and Virtuoso is brand awareness and brand building. I just saw an opportunity with what we've accomplished with our advisors, averaging $1.3 million each in annual sales, and we have 360 of them. It just seemed like we should be telling that story.
With the onset of Fora doing a great job at getting exposure through their millions of dollars of marketing that they're doing to help people understand that the profession exists, I think there's also a little bit of a different approach to a travel advisor for us than they have. It was a good opportunity for us to tell our side of the story, because we certainly don't believe that anyone can easily be a top-notch travel advisor.
Q: Who is joining Departure Lounge to produce average sales numbers like that? Are they new to the industry?
A: The last few years, we've averaged around 100 to 110 advisors joining us, with about one-third of those being new-to-industry each year. It's a combination of those that are starting off from scratch and then also [industry] veterans coming in the door. We don't need to grow. My growth objective has been: only with the right people and with the right experience.
If they're new-to-industry or veterans, we look at those who have at least five-star [travel] experience on three continents, if not more, and have the right skill sets. Then we get into, if they're new-to-industry, do they have the connections to the right number of affluent households that they could turn into being client households?
Q: You're seeing a number of teams of advisors affiliate with Departure Lounge. That seems like a newer phenomenon.
A: We've had some teams that have evolved from our original advisors, and then some teams that have just come in the door as a team. That seems to be a growing trend. We've had standalone agencies actually give up their IATA and their Virtuoso membership and come join us directly instead, after doing a financial analysis to realize that they'd make more money and they'd have less headaches because they're not dealing with the back office anymore. That's worked out well. We've got some fantastic teams that are doing extremely well. That smaller subset of team dynamics and mentoring shows that it's really worked well in addition to what we provide, so I think it's been a good thing.
Q: You hear about making the leap from host agency to direct consortium membership from time to time, but I don't really hear a lot of the flip side of that.
A: I think it's kind of new. Houlahan Travel in Chicago is a good example of that. And we've had some teams formed from advisors who left other agencies and then formed the team, but Houlahan was the first. ... We've got some smaller boutique agencies in Europe that we are also in talks with.
Q: How do you define "affluent households"?
A: Our criteria now is that you've got strong connections to households that are going to be booking four-, four-and-a-half-star leisure travel, with the majority of the focus being on five-star. That is our strength. Our preferred agency programs and our Virtuoso connection really is focused on the highest level of luxury product. We do have access to very good quality four-, four-and-a-half-star product within our preferred agency programs that we're a part of, so it's easy for us to add value at that level, but anything below that level is hard for us to add value as far as client upgrades and perks. We try to stay in our lane of leisure luxury.
Q: At DLX, you announced that for the prior 12 months (mid-October 2024 to mid-October 2025) the agency has reported $462 million in sales. It sounds like you're well on your way to surpassing last year's Power List entry.
A: I think so, unless other people are having similar growth. We should do pretty well.
Q: What are you attributing that growth to -- new Departure Lounge affiliates? Existing advisors selling better?
A: It is a combination. We do have veterans joining us with big books of business, but we have seen that the new-to-industry folks are getting fast starts and building their sales much quicker than in years past. Part of that, I think, is all of our technology platforms now are so modern and easy to use. We also have so many more selling advantages because of the preferred agency programs and our own programs, so it helps somebody hit the ground running fast if they want to.
We don't push. We give people a grace period of six months to figure it all out and get their feet under them, but we're saying it's not unusual for a first-year advisor to sell a million dollars or more, which we didn't use to see even just a few years ago.
Q: Are there any other factors there, like education or mentorship?
A: It's an extremely engaged and helpful group of advisors. We're about to roll out some better onboarding training that really goes through making sure that everybody understands the key platforms that we provide. But I have to say, it's really the level of engagement of all our advisors and their willingness to be helpful to each other. We also have some very successful teams that are a part of Departure Lounge, and the new-to-industry advisors that are part of those teams have, historically, done extremely well, so they're getting some nice mentoring from their team leads, as well.
It's pretty remarkable. Part of it is our [affiliation] criteria have gone up. Since we don't have a need to grow, it's by raising the criteria on the level of luxury travel experience and really making sure that they've got those connections -- it just means that these people are really set up for success. Also, we're 12 and a half years down the road since we launched, and I have a much better understanding of what it takes to be successful.
Q: How is the year looking overall? It seems like it was a bit of a roller coaster for many.
A: Our first quarter of the year was superstrong. We got a little bit slower over the summer, and then it's come back superstrong in September and October so far. We're up 60% year over year, and just kind of holding our breath, because with the dollar losing some value and all of the tariff stuff, you just wonder, will this demand stay this high?
But so far, it's been great, and not only the demand but the ADR for the hotel side has stayed very high for us. We haven't seen any downside so far. In talking to some suppliers throughout the year, more at the four-star level, I think it's softened some for the four-star traveler, where it hasn't so much for the five-star traveler. We've been fortunate with that.
Q: Luxury is usually more insulated.
A: It is. Just randomly talking to some of our four-star hotels that we use frequently in Florence, as an example, the word was it's a little softer this year. They're still doing fine, but it's a little softer this year. Typically, it's that four-star level that's the first to back off and pump the brakes a bit when, financially, things start to get a little tighter or worry starts to set in. It's tough. Every day you wake up and you're not sure what you're going to read in the news, but so far, we've been quite fortunate.
Q: Is 2026 holding strong?
A: Future sales for '26, looking at cruise business in particular, are very strong, especially with the new product coming on. We've been encouraged by that. The booking window right now for festive and spring break is very, very strong for us. Our people have been really busy.
Q: Any early standouts destination-wise?
A: Japan is really superhot. It went from hot to superhot. In fact, just looking at some of our surveying that we do of our advisors, Japan outranked Italy for the first time for fam requests. That tells you how much business there is for Japan right now. I think other parts of Asia are coming back stronger, and other parts of South America are coming back stronger. Europe is still extremely strong for us. India is bouncing back a bit more for us. Australia and New Zealand are still popular. It's all been good for us -- no complaints.