Success can be measured in many different ways. As it relates to a success travel business, I view success as being the first phone call a client makes whenever they are planning to take a trip, no mother if it’s a quick weekend in Miami, a two week cruise in the Mediterranean or a month long multi-country experience throughout Europe. We are grateful that clients have a fear of booking anything without our involvement and of course our biggest sign of success are repeat trips and many referrals. As it relates to our presence amongst luxury hotel and cruise-line suppliers, it’s always amazing to hear that our host agency SmartFlyer is one of their or if not their biggest producers which give our clients even greater visibility and status.

I started my career in hospitality when I was 19 years old at the front desk working for Hilton properties, eventually graduating from Florida International University (FIU), one of the top schools for hospitality management. In 2019 after 15+ years of working at Luxury Hotels such as The Betsy South Beach and the Forbes 5 Star Faena Miami Beach, I joined SmartFlyer as an independent Travel Advisor and launched my personal brand, Everything Travel Guy. I chose the name ETG as I wanted clients to think of me for Everything Travel related. Since launching I not only book individual trips for clients but have also started to assist many corporate companies with their meetings and incentives. I also have great relationships with executive assistants to support them with their C-level executive requests. Clients that come to me love our white glove experience and our passion to make everything so easy.

In early 2020 when Covid was at its peak, travel came to a grinding halt. As things slowly started to open up, I used my hotel relationships and partnered with a friend who had launched his fashion business and was creating upscale masks for hotels. Through my connections, we were able to generate almost $50,000 in sales in our first two months. Later into 2020 while clients were starting to ease their way back to traveling, in my home city of Miami Beach, I started making connections with top restaurants in the city so that I can provide concierge level support to clients who wanted to dine at top restaurants but couldn’t get a prime table. I was able to charge for the service, keep the restaurant busy and clients happy.

As a Travel Advisor, I have two clients, the traveller and my hotel partners. It’s always important for me to fight for the best upgrades, promotions and services for a client but I always treat my hotel partners like they are gold. Partnerships is a word thrown around a lot but in this business I am only as great as my connections. I actually have rules that my clients have to uphold a certain level of respect for staff whenever traveling and any bad behavior will not be allowed. Our suppliers know whenever I call that I have a well travelled client and that the red carpet needs to be rolled out but that my clients will spend.