Touching down in a destination via private jet, helicopter
or yacht – or some combination of all three. Sweeping into a five star hotel
via a private entrance – alias ready, entourage in tow. Checking into a
penthouse suite decked out for every desire. Dinner and drinks at the hottest
restaurant in town.
This is how celebrities travel the globe: “Seamlessly,
without a stop, without an issue,” as travel agent to the rich and famous Rob
DelliBovi puts it.
This ease doesn’t happen automatically. It’s DelliBovi’s job
to ensure a “perfect process” – whether he’s coordinating clients’ leisure
travel, orchestrating a global arena concert tour or moving celebrities from
one destination to another as part of a cinema press junket.
DelliBovi manages a small team of 17 expert travel agents at
his company, RDB Hospitality. And he has a network of connections across the
globe who help facilitate his clients’ every need – no matter how outrageous.
“Most things are available for a price,” DelliBovi tells CNN
Travel.
He’s on the go almost 24/7, keeping tabs on his clients’
travels, phoning restaurants and hotels, asking for favors, putting out fires –
or ideally, ensuring there are no fires needing to be put out in the first
place.
DelliBovi’s clients are big names with big demands and big
expectations. And there’s big money involved – so anything going wrong is
unacceptable.
This can be “stressful,” says DelliBovi.
But if you’re thinking coordinating celebrity travel also
sounds fun, glittering, intriguing – DelliBovi says you’re not wrong.
“It’s flashy and it’s glamorous,” DelliBovi says. “It’s a
little cooler to deal with clients that you hear about, and read about, and see
on TV and listen to at a concert or on the radio every day. It’s more
interesting than dealing with lawyers, or bankers.”
And yes, DelliBovi’s non-disclosure-agreement-ridden job
comes with “tons of perks.”
“It’s just fun to be in that world,” DelliBovi says. “You’re
invited to everyone’s concerts. It’s filled with perks and makes your day to
day a little more exciting.”
And even when “clients mistreat us” or the demands seem too
complex, DelliBovi thrives on the thrill of the chase.
“It’s a very, very stressful, high touch, sometimes
thankless job, but at the end of the day, when we do things right, it’s the
best feeling in the world,” he says.
DelliBovi got his start in the hotel business in the early
2000s, working as an entertainment sales manager for a string of high profile
New York City hotels, including the Soho Grand, the Hotel Gansevoort and the
Dream Hotel group.
Entertainment sales manager is a job that “exists at any
high-end lifestyle or luxury hotel company in the world,” DelliBovi explains.
The goal of this role is to attract “celebrities, bands,
musicians, athletes – people from any segment of film, television, music,
sports” to your hotel. Then, when these VIPs check in, entertainment sales
managers are on hand to ensure their hotel experience is top tier.
In return, the hotel reaps the benefits: a famous person
snapped in its lobby can put a hotel on the map, upping booking requests from
fellow VIP guests, fans and everyone else in between. If the hotel’s on
everyone’s lips, that trickles down to those who’re unaware why it even started
being talked about in the first place.
Working as a hotel entertainment sales manager, DelliBovi
also got a peek behind the curtain, learning what’s involved in getting
celebrities from point A to point B. And soon a business idea started to
percolate.
“I’m dealing with these people everyday, face to face at
these hotels, and if I was representing them, and booking the hotels and
flights and restaurants and all that stuff for them, I could do a better job,”
DelliBovi thought.
In 2015, after over a decade of entrenching himself in the
hotel business and the celebrity circuit, DelliBovi started his bespoke travel
agency.
DelliBovi says the business quickly “grew and grew and grew
through word of mouth.”
Today, DelliBovi still has a foot in the hotel business as a
consultant, but his travel agency has almost 1,000 clients. They’re not all
celebrities, but “mostly high net worth” individuals, with “high demands.” And
it’s DelliBovi’s job to make sure these demands are met as his clients travel
across the globe.
Celebrities regularly travel halfway across the world and
back again for awards ceremonies, film premieres, concert tours and personal
vacations.
Much of this travel takes place via private jet – a fact
that’s become a much-discussed topic in recent years, as conversations about
the emissions of fuel-guzzling jets ramp up.
Those who defend celebrity private jet use suggest the VIPs
of the world couldn’t travel commercially for safety reasons.
But it’s absolutely possible for famous people to fly on
commercial planes undercover, says DelliBovi – and many do. Airports have
greeter services, VIP areas and tightly run procedures for handling
celebrities’ transit.
“Celebrities don’t need to be in the regular waiting area,”
says DelliBovi. “Greeters can take them from the lounge or from the VIP area to
the plane.”
Famous faces will usually board long after economy
passengers are seated – in fact, they’re usually not on board until “right
before the plane takes off.” At that
point, the First Class passengers they’ll be sharing a cabin with have also
stopped surveying their fellow travelers. And during the flight itself, VIPs
are unlikely to be noticed – upper class plane cabins, with their secluded
suites, are designed with privacy in mind.
Plus, the celebrity traveling with Singapore Airlines or
British Airways isn’t going to resemble their Instagram posts or red carpet
appearances. DelliBovi insists “you wouldn’t notice them” and says they’ll be
kitted out with “sunglasses, hats and stuff like that.”
But while big names can travel commercially incognito,
DelliBovi says one of the main reasons celebrities fly via private is because
“they don’t want to be seen” – and private travel offers that guarantee.
He says the private jet experience also comes with a certain
hard-to-replicate ease – “you can take off and land whenever you want, there’s
less TSA and there’s no crowds.”
As a result, DelliBovi says “the majority of the big
A-listers are all flying private” – although he notes there are exceptions.
“People you’d expect to definitely use a private jet are
sometimes in economy plus on Delta, whereas others, where you’re like ‘That
person can afford a private jet?’ have to be on a private jet every flight.”
Once the flight lands, DelliBovi’s team will have car
transfers waiting. If needed, police escorts and helicopters can be arranged.
For VIPs, there’s no waiting around for cars stuck in
traffic, or taxis that don’t show.
“The car is out ready on the Tarmac. The talent gets out of
the jet, gets into the car, the car is going to the hotel,” says DelliBovi.
It all depends on the celebrity and their preferences –
DelliBovi has an encyclopedic knowledge of the world’s best hotels and if
clients ask for recommendations, he’ll offer them up – but more often than not,
he simply accommodates their requests.
“We’re 100% reactive,” he says. “People call us and say,
‘This is what we want. And we make it happen.”
Plus, when it comes to booking accommodation, “there’s no
real rhyme and reason as to who wants what, and where everyone goes,” according
to DelliBovi.
“There’s some guests we have that are wildly famous, who are
like, ‘The Hilton is fine.’ And then we have some people that are not that
famous, who are like, ‘if I’m not in the penthouse of the Four Seasons, I’m not
even talking to you.’”
In general, the elite, glitzy hotel brands – think the Four
Seasons, the Ritz, the Mandarin Oriental, the Peninsula – are always on
celebrities’ radars.
But independent, boutique hotels are also appealing – they
often have a more distinctive feel (think local art, striking decor) but
they’re also compact.
“They’re literally smaller, so they are easier to control,”
says DelliBovi. “There’s a new hotel in London called the Broadwick, which is
really good for celebs.”
The Broadwick Soho has just 57 rooms, which is part of the
appeal for famous faces, according to DelliBovi.
“We could buy that whole hotel out,” explains DelliBovi.
“And then we own the hotel, there’s no one else that can come and see us or
anything.”
Regardless of the size and the scale of a hotel, if they’re
a 4 or 5 star establishment DelliBovi says they usually “have infrastructure to
protect their huge name guests.”
Think private entrances, private parking garages and private
elevators that deliver guests straight to their suite. Other hotel guests spend
their whole stay unaware this infrastructure exists.
Hotels also cater for celebrities in other ways. Take movie
press junkets, for example, when actors sit in situ for hours at a time while
journalists rotate in and out of the room to ask questions. These events often
take place in four and five star hotels.
High end hotels want that business, says DelliBovi, and
they’re prepared to accommodate it.
“They build a floor that’s all wired with all the power and
all the lighting and everything that’s needed for press junkets when the hotel
is going up,” he says. “It’s a big asset
to have these big assets.”
And in case you were wondering, celebrities checking into
hotels with aliases isn’t just an urban myth. While some don’t bother (“some
A-listers are like, ‘Put it under my real name and I’ll walk through the lobby,
I don’t care,’” says DelliBovi) fake names are generally common practice for
security reasons.
DelliBovi says if fans know a certain name is in town –
whether it’s to attend an event, to perform a gig, to play a game – they might
ring round hotels weeks in advance, hoping for tidbits of information.
So how does DelliBovi keep track of his clients’ various
aliases? There are internal databases, he explains, and his team communicates
with celebrity management via WhatsApp.
For music tours, confirming aliases is part of the
far-reaching, intricate pre-tour discussion – aliases will likely be used for
cars and jet bookings too.
Once a hotel’s been booked, DelliBovi’s team works with
management to ensure the chosen room’s kitted out with everything the celebrity
needs.
“Everybody has their type of bottle of water, which is
really funny,” says DelliBovi. “To me, there’s no difference between all the
bottles of water, but what do I know?”
Temperature is also often a conversation – from the
temperature of the room, temperature of the bath and shower water.
And sometimes requests verge into more surreal territory.
DelliBovi recently made headlines when he appeared on his friend Joe
Pardavila’s Good Listen podcast and revealed a former client used to request a
“medium-sized dog” be ready and waiting in every hotel room.
This was a “fun, harmless thing – the guy played with a dog
for two hours,” says DelliBovi. Still, it was often complex to orchestrate.
DelliBovi’s team had to find an appropriately sized, appropriately behaved dog
at every destination. They’d usually start with the hotel staff, offering dog
owners payment, or concert tickets, in return.
On the less wholesome end of the spectrum, DelliBovi gets
asked for “a lot of illegal things.”
“I’m just too scared about getting involved in that stuff,”
he says.
But any client request “within the realm of legality”,
DelliBovi will work to make a reality. And after all these years he’s “immune
to the absurdity.”
He’s been told “cheese is my favorite food” and asked to
“create a three foot long cheese board.” He’s separated many packets of
M&Ms by color, a common request from musicians (“That’s one that’s kind of
passed down through many acts,” he says. “Some might argue they do it to mess
with us.”)
One client who “doesn’t like to pack clothing” asks “for new
underwear and socks and shirts and everything” to be waiting for them in each
hotel room.
“New clothes are being bought in every city,” explains
DelliBovi.
DelliBovi also gets clients front row seats at sports games.
He ensnares reservations at restaurants that are booked up weeks in advance –
think the Polo Bar and Carbone in New York City, for example, or Dishoom and
the Chiltern Firehouse in London.
Sometimes celebrities want to go to a restaurant to be seen,
other times they want “a little corner table, so nobody can see them.”
Whatever the request, DelliBovi phones managers, publicists
and local experts, and barters with them, “giving a little to get a little.”
He’ll offer to send clients to a restaurant during a slow period if they can
secure him an impossible-to-book table on a Saturday night.
In some cases, his request is met with an automatic yes.
“We have enormous ‘A-list’ names that if you call and say
who it is, you’re going to get the reservation – they want that person at their
restaurant,” says DelliBovi.
You may assume celebrity meals and drinks will be comped,
but DelliBovi says the belief that famous people “never want to pay and get it
all for free” is a myth.
“These people are spending enormous money,” he says, adding
large tips are often involved too.
But even with big price points on the table, sometimes
ensuring a reservation just isn’t possible – if the restaurant is booked out
for a private event, for example, there’s nothing DelliBovi can do.
That’s where his network of experts across the globe is
essential.
“I don’t know what’s going on in Melbourne, Australia – I’ve
been there, but I don’t know the market. But we have people on the ground
there,” says DelliBovi.
These “people on the ground” will be fellow travel agents,
hotel concierges, celebrity publicists, restaurant managers.
And sometimes these connections help DelliBovi out in a
tit-for-tat kind of way – they know he’ll have their back on another occasion.
Other times he’s offering up concert tickets or movie premiere invites in
return for their assistance.
Other restaurant reservation options secured, DelliBovi
presents the alternatives to his client.
“In most cases people are like, ‘Oh, great – somewhere
equally as cool and as exclusive, let’s do that instead,’” he says.
But some celebrities don’t handle “no” well.
“We do have a few clients that kind of go bananas when
things don’t go their way,” he shrugs. “But, you know, that’s showbiz.”
