For Ultrawealthy Travelers, Privateness Is the Final Luxurious

Classic markers of luxurious journey, like five-star accommodations and hard-to-get dinner reservations, are not sufficient for some ultrawealthy vacationers. Instead, they’re more and more in search of a subtler standing image: privateness.

“The privacy factor is higher than it’s ever been. In fact, we have some clients who are ‘no more hotels,'” Rob DelliBovi, a luxurious journey planner whose shoppers embrace celebrities and high-net-worth people, mentioned. “Even the five-star hotel experience is too crowded.”

As worldwide journey has grown and locations have change into more and more crowded, luxurious journey planners say their shoppers’ prime precedence is to get away from everybody else.

The ultrawealthy are more and more skipping luxurious accommodations and turning as an alternative to non-public villas, personal jets, and personal cooks. A pattern report from Capital One Travel final month discovered that 86% of luxurious vacationers mentioned privateness and seclusion had been prime concerns when selecting the place to remain, and 83% mentioned exclusivity of entry.

“The true value of luxury lies in the guarantee of an exclusive experience that cannot be accessed by the general public,” the report mentioned.

DelliBovi mentioned this sort of journey was at all times well-liked together with his movie star shoppers, “who have a problem being seen literally anywhere.” However, for the reason that pandemic, and particularly as we head into 2026, demand has skyrocketed amongst his high-net-worth shoppers.

“Now it’s some more of our investment banker types,” he mentioned. “People who would rent out a penthouse at a Four Seasons are like, ‘What are my private home options?’ Because even walking through the Four Seasons now can be a bit of a to-do.”

Off-the-market rental houses and privacy-friendly accommodations

Seeking out personal houses and villas that meet ultrawealthy requirements could be difficult. DelliBovi mentioned his group works with worldwide actual property consultants and luxurious providers networks to search out properties that are not truly listed for lease.

“We have to literally source these private homes and villas from locals. We have to know somebody in-market who’s in the know,” he mentioned, including they’re renting from house owners who do not usually lease their house or house. When his group calls and presents $50,000 for per week, he says house owners usually settle for.

Those houses then have to be outfitted with hotel-level providers and extra, together with each day cleansing, Michelin-trained personal cooks, high-end safety, and lodging for pets. After reserving the house, DelliBovi’s group will set all that up individually.

For the Super Bowl final yr, he mentioned one consumer spent a complete of round $1.35 million on a home in New Orleans for six days. The house itself value roughly $1 million, with the remainder going towards the planning payment and providers.

The inaccessibility of those houses is a part of their attraction. DelliBovi mentioned that some luxurious accommodations really feel much less unique as a result of they’re a part of giant manufacturers with loyalty applications, permitting much less rich vacationers to remain there by accumulating factors.

“That mix kind of irks some people,” he mentioned, including it could actually really feel like a much less luxurious expertise even when the resort itself is nice.

When his shoppers do go for accommodations, DelliBovi mentioned they prioritize properties constructed for discretion, just like the Hotel Café Royal in London or the Rosewood Villa Magna in Madrid, which has an underground storage with an elevator that takes friends on to their suites, bypassing public areas altogether.

“That type of thing is priceless,” he mentioned.

NDAs and full island buy-outs

Non-disclosure agreements are an ordinary a part of journey for the ultrawealthy, whether or not they’re staying at personal houses or luxurious accommodations. Daria Guristrimba, founder and CEO of Globe7, an ultra-luxury journey company, mentioned confidentiality is not a choice however a baseline expectation.

“The more private it is, the better,” she mentioned.

Guristrimba mentioned NDAs are sometimes signed at each stage of a visit, together with with workers, distributors, and accommodations. Her agency even avoids storing shoppers’ names in inner techniques, as an alternative utilizing coded identifiers, and typically dealing with funds to accommodations or different providers on behalf of shoppers so their journey does not depart a monetary paper path.

She mentioned she routinely asks accommodations to not preserve any report of her shoppers, together with deleting their info from inner techniques. If a resort requires a consumer’s final identify to verify a reserving and the consumer does not need it disclosed, they merely will not keep there.

Because of the excessive demand for privateness, Guristrimba mentioned increasingly more of her shoppers are selecting totally personal islands, the place they will guarantee there will probably be no different members of the general public — past workers who’ve signed NDAs.

Thanda Island in Tanzania, which could be rented by a single group, accommodates 18 friends who’re solely served by about 35 workers. Meals are served in numerous areas across the island, and no outdoors friends are allowed. The value is about $33,000 per evening, and Guristrimba mentioned she’s had shoppers lease out all the island simply as a pair.

Traditional upscale aesthetics and locales are actually taking a again seat to the highest precedence of privateness and never being seen.

“It’s not about marbles anymore. It’s not about the Loro Piana textile walls anymore,” she mentioned, including, “They don’t want anyone to know where they are going or what they are doing.”