Luxury Travel Review  

Frequently Asked Questions

Before you email us a question, please read the following list of frequently asked questions and answers.

What is Simon & Baker Travel Review and Luxury Travel Review?

Simon and Baker Travel Review (SBTR) and Luxury Travel Review (LTR), the companion newsletter with email subscription, offer first hand information and exceptional photography of some of the most comfortable and luxurious destinations, accommodations, voyages, products, restaurants, spas and attractions for the discriminating traveler in the top ten percentile. Featuring extensive and detailed coverage of luxury and game viewing Africa, gourmet restaurants, spa facilities and much more. Now with audio and video content! Sign up for a complimentary subscription to our weekly newsletter at LuxuryTravelReview.com (http://luxurytravelreview.com/)

Who is your audience?

Our readers are savvy business and vacation world travelers in the top ten percentile looking for unique, comfort and luxury oriented travel opportunities. Increasingly we have visitors from across the globe. Most SBTR readers are located in North America and Europe although we regularly have visitors from many other places including Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, and Latin America to name a few.

What makes SBTR special?

Everything we share with our readers is editorial and based on the first hand experiences of our teams when they travel, visit a destination, stay at a luxury property, try a product, dine at a restaurant, have a spa treatment (someone has to do it!), etc. Our articles are based on actual experiences. Our teams do not write based on site inspections and third party photos as many articles you find elsewhere. Most people we have asked prefer to read about luxury travel places and voyages based on the real experiences of our team members including what they did, ate, saw and liked.

All our content is editorial except for ads which are clearly marked and distinctive.

All our articles include the date of the review so you know when we were there or tried it. Our teams of writers and photographers are passionate about travel. They love the travel experiences and want to share them with you, our readers.

The majority of the photos on the website were taken by our photographers when they visited the destination. Look for the SBTR watermarks on the photos. Although we try to showcase what makes a property special, we do our best to show you places as they were when we visited them, without adjusting furniture, fixtures or embellishing the photos. We crop and size photos to fit our publication style and sometimes lighten or darken them as traditional photographers used to do in the dark room. We never colorize or modify them in an artificial way.

We cover what we think is outstanding and worth noting. We emphasize the qualities and describe the overall experience to allow our readers to decide for themselves if its a fit for them.

Although properties sometimes host our representatives and offer products and services on a complimentary basis so that we may sample them, this is not a guarantee of a feature or mention. Nor does it guarantee positive coverage if we publish an article. Our editorial content is editorial only. We never feature pay for placement content in our editorial pages.

Although we include destination information, most of our articles are dedicated features with lots of details about the property, attraction, restaurant, product, voyage and spa. This is different from what the majority of travel publications do. They usually publish one big destination article with few details about the things we think matter the most when you are planning the details of your trip, picking places to stay, eat, attractions to visit, etc.

What topics does SBTR cover?

Luxury travel is our bread and butter. That includes destinations, accommodations including hotels (big and little) and rental homes, spa facilities, gourmet news and restaurants, books and travel products and attractions.

How much time do you spend at a destination?

Usually our teams stay anywhere from a long weekend to a week or longer at a destination. Dedicated city hotel features are at least one night and almost always two or more nights long. Our teams usually spend a week at rental homes, including villas, and destination resorts. Our teams usually stay three nights at safari properties and list details including amenities, facilities, meals and the game they see during their time there. Each article lists the length of stay as well as the month and year of the visit. Voyages are generally the length of the actual voyage.

How can I propose a topic for inclusion?

If you know of a wonderful place, property, restaurant, spa, attraction we should consider, feel free to leave a comment or email your suggestion. If you own or represent a destination, property, restaurant, spa, attraction, or travel product and want to be featured on our pages, tell us which category you think it fits and why by emailing info@simonandbaker.com

How can I place an ad?

We offer banner and tower ads, eblasts to our subscriber list and more. To find the the combination that meets your needs, contact sales @simonandbaker.com

How does the SBTR select destinations, properties, restaurants, travel products and attractions for review?

We focus on a geographic area and identify potential candidates. We gather information on destinations, properties, attractions or products to decide if they are of interest to our readers. We look for distinctive, comfort and luxury oriented, customer centered candidates who excel at what they do and are friendly to online media and our online audience.

How often do you update the articles?

As often as possible. Look for the freshness date (date of most recent visit) on every article. We rely on our travel writing and photography teams to visit and share their impressions with you.

Visiting the destinations is costly and time consuming. We do our best to keep you informed of changes and closures as soon as we become aware. If you know of news relating to a destination, property or feature or want to share updates, photos, etc. feel free to email us at info@simonandbaker.com. You are also welcome to leave a comment in the newsletter section at http://luxurytravelreview.com

Photos

We often receive compliments on our photography, especially our animal photos. Kudos go to our gifted and dedicated photographers who carry cameras and equipment across land, sea, small airplanes, boats and infinite airport and border security check points and an infinite number of bumpy safari roads to take the photos you see. Almost all the photos on the website were taken by our own photographers. You can identify them easily by the Simon & Baker Travel Review watermarked logo. Whenever you see the logo, it means we were there and took the photos on the date listed on the article.

How soon after a visit or trip are articles published?

Most articles are published 4 to 6 months after the end of the trip or receipt of the item. Sometimes they are published early. To find out more, contact our editor or visit the website and look in the destination pages.

Sometimes lighting, weather, safety or the privacy of guests prevent us from taking photos and we rely on third party photos if we consider they illustrate the feature accurately.

Will an article drive sales to my property, hotel, restaurant, spa, product pages?

Although we appreciate and welcome hostings, product samples and loaner units, we never promise in any way shape or form to deliver sales, customers, bookings, traffic to your website or business. Our job is to experience the destination, restaurant, property, spa, or product and decide objectively whether we like it and why, then share our findings and photos with our audience. If, whether and when they choose to follow up with a booking, purchase, visit is entirely up to them and we have no control over that so we never, ever, ever promise referrals.

Do you stay in every luxury hotel in each destination?

No, we select a few attractions, restaurants, and accommodations and share our findings with you. Some destinations offer limited options while others offer many choices. We strive for a high comfort level as defined by our demanding audience. This includes clean, aesthetically pleasing and comfortable surroundings with good to excellent food and outstanding customer service or a combination of these relative to what is available in that area.

Do you include properties that are not traditionally considered luxury accommodations?

Yes. We define luxury depending on the location and the standards available at the time we visit. There is no hard and fast rule. We base our selection on the options available and the features offered at a particular destination. There are magical places worth sleeping outdoors.

If the best or only way to enjoy a remote location with limited accommodations is by staying in relatively modest accommodation like a tent and we find it worthwhile, we will include it. Some tents we have stayed in would rival urban hotels in the service and quality of the accommodations and surpass them in many other respects.

What happens when a SBTR representative does not like something?

We focus on places and things worth mentioning in a positive light. We research topics and destinations in advance to ensure our teams have a safe and fun trips that result in great articles we can share with you. On the odd occasion, we discover a well-known voyage, property or restaurant that disappoints us. When that happens we tell you. Our goal is to provide you accurate, objective, first hand information from our experiences to entertain and help you make optimum choices for your life and travel style.

What about food and restaurants?

We provide information and descriptions of meals in hotels, attractions and during voyages. Restaurant selections focus on gourmet experiences. Whenever possible, we include photos of the dishes we are served, information on the service, wine, decor, chef and specialized staff.

Who writes the articles?

SBTR representatives are people like you from North America and Europe who are passionate about luxury travel. Many are experienced travelers who have visited dozens of countries. Among our contributors, we have artists, photographers, engineers, techies, gourmets, published authors, amateur cooks and travel writers, several of whom are multilingual. Over the years, they have visited most of the United States, more than 50 countries, many islands, and more than 40 game viewing properties; and had the pleasure of dining at some of the best restaurants and meeting some of the world’s top chefs. They work full time and travel on their time off, like you our readers.

We coordinate visits with public relations staff and destination representatives and also visit incognito. Although we welcome complimentary hostings and media rates when appropriate and a fit for our editorial requirements, we also may visit on our own at a date and time of our team’s convenience without notifying the staff on site.

Are incognito visits better than visits coordinated with the property?

We find that properties that strive for excellence do well overall and lesser properties do less well. That is to say it usually will not make a huge difference if the property knows our team is coming. They can only be as good as they are capable of being and if their facilities, room, service and attitude, and meals are less than stellar that is what our team will discover no matter how much advance notice and coordination they receive. Our teams are discreet and tend to blend in within the regular environment to seek out the most natural experience possible.

At the same time, we try to replicate a guest experience by having them stay, sleep, dine, explore the actual property, restaurant, spa, attraction and destination. After all guests don’t only walk around and look at the property, meals, services and facilities they stay and experience them. Our audience doesn’t want to read a promotional brochure or about what a travel agent or writer saw when they did a site inspection; they prefer to read and see photos of what our team experienced first hand during a real stay, meal, etc.

Most properties, successful ones especially, set aside marketing funds for promotional efforts including ads, familiarization media and travel agent trips, and VIP hostings. Hosting a team for a real experience is part of the funding and provides prospective guests an opportunity to know what real travelers (rather than industry people or promoters) think. Complimentary hostings and media rates facilitate team visits, provide real information for readers and exposure opportunities for those we cover. It’s a win win situation for everyone.

While we focus on the positive aspects of a property if there is a salient feature we make note of it. That is to say if we think the view is good we will mention it, if there is poor sound insulation that affected the quality of our team’s stay we will share that. On the other hand, if we don’t say the service was good don’t assume it was. A property, product, service, meal is seldom perfect in every way. We look for balance and an overall experience that is worth repeating and recommending to like minded people.

How can travel writers submit stories to your site?

We are always interested in fun-to-read, well-written luxury and comfort oriented travel stories based on first hand experiences. Desirable topics include: Ecotourism, voyages/tours, gourmet foods and restaurants, top hotels, luxury villas, new and interesting attractions or interesting perspectives on existing attractions, and exceptional travel products experienced within the last six months. If you would like to submit a story, please see our submission guidelines.

Are you hiring?

We have no full-time openings at present. To be a volunteer (nonpaying) intern please send us your contact information, your dates of availability, amount of hours available per week, time of day you are available, and describe your interests, experience and skills (e.g. Word, Excel, PowerPoint, multilingual) by email at info@simonandbaker.com .

What are your submission guidelines?

First and foremost, you must love to travel. All SBTR articles are based on a recent first hand experience. Likewise for photos. If you are a professional travel writer and photographer who needs to pay the bills from your submissions, please note we do not pay for article submissions or photos.

Please make sure:

• Your submission is about luxury and comfort oriented travel topics
• Based on your personal experience within the last six months.
• Well written
• Submitted for first time publication anywhere in the world
• You include photos and photo captions

To submit articles follow these instructions:

• Email us to share your article idea.
• Email articles only after discussing the idea with us by emailing us at info@simonandbaker.com
• On the subject line of the email, write “article submission” and the topic.
• In the body of the email, indicate where on our website you think it fits.
• Include your travel, travel writing and/or photography experience or share a bio.
• Write any comments regarding the article in the body of the email.
• Include your complete name and contact information.
• The Word document should begin with the title and subtitle followed by your name.
• Spell and grammar check. Double check names of cities, proper names, address and contact information.
• Identify photo contents for each photo submission. For example, say “XYZ Restaurant” rather than restaurant.
• Identify whether you took the photos or if someone else provided them.
• If provided by someone else, indicate the source and any necessary credential requirements.
• Images should be in jpg format and ready for publication with the article.
• If you have slides, photos or other materials there are many places that will scan them for you. If you are unable to scan them, let us know.
• When we approve your article for publication, we will notify you and provide you with a WFH agreement for your review.

Will you accept articles resulting from a fam trip?

Although we seldom participate in familiarization trips, occasionally we find one that’s a fit. Yes, we accept articles resulting from familiarization trips sponsored by a third party provided the article is the result of your personal impressions and you have not received payment for the article from the sponsor or organizer of the trip; or are in no way affiliated with nor receiving compensation from their company.

Article criteria:

• Follow submission guidelines
• Your article is well written.
• The submission was written by you and has not been published anywhere before
• You visited the destination or attraction, stayed at the hotel (a minimum of two nights) and/or ate at the restaurant within a year of the time you wrote about it/them.
• You are not an employee of or received payment from the organization or company featured in your article or from anyone who benefits directly from the story you submit.

I’m planning a fam trip and would like to invite an SBTR writer to join us. What should I do?

Please send us details on the fam trip, how it fits our content, number of people invited, and a detailed itinerary. Due to our editorial requirements our teams seldom participate in organized group fam trips although we do make exceptions. Please note: participation in a fam trip never guarantees publication of an article or a positive review.

I have been invited on a fam trip. How can I obtain an assignment letter?

To be eligible for an assignment letter, you must have four articles published in the Simon & Baker Travel Review. If that is the case, send us a note with information on the trip and the resulting luxury and comfort oriented travel article(s) you anticipate writing.

We will issue one assignment letter at a time. Once we have accepted one of your submissions for publication, you will become eligible for another assignment letter.

Still have a question we haven’t answered or want to share feedback?

Email us at info @ simonandbaker.com