Autumn in Europe Used to Be the Discount Season. Luxury Travelers Just Ended That

Fall bookings across Virtuoso's luxury travel network are up 59% year over year and sales are up 69% — and rates rose alongside them rather than softening. Bookings to Europe this autumn climbed 49% even as rates went up more than 7%, the clearest sign yet that shoulder season has lost its bargain reputation among high-end travelers.

Virtuoso, which books roughly $35 billion a year through about 20,000 advisors, released the figures at its annual Travel Week in Las Vegas this month. The network is pacing toward a 21% increase in year-over-year sales, with hotels the fastest-growing partner category at 25%.

Growth is concentrated at the very top of the market. Bookings at hotels charging $1,500 or more a night rose 37%, more than double the rate of lower-priced properties. Average nightly rates at luxury international hotels now sit at $1,653, and at $1,445 for luxury U.S. hotels, up from $985 and $790 respectively in 2019.

Rate growth was steepest in a handful of European destinations: the French Riviera up 179%, the Greek Islands up more than 130% and Puglia up 78%. September is now pacing to outsell August in Europe, a reversal of the traditional luxury calendar.

The multicity effect

Virtuoso also flagged a change in the shape of trips. Luxury travelers are stringing several cities together instead of settling in one, and roughly half of those trips cross an international border. France and Italy is the most common pairing, followed by France and the U.K. Italy appears in two of every five multicity routings, anchoring corridors such as Florence, Rome and Venice. Private aviation does much of the connecting, and advisors report millennials leading those requests.

Underneath it is a wealth base that keeps widening. Knight Frank counts 713,626 people worth $30 million or more worldwide, up 29% since 2021, with 89 more crossing that threshold every day.