The questions that stand between you and an enquiry.

From CHF 800 for a trip with one destination and one hotel, up to around CHF 2,000 when several stops come together. I name the exact figure after our first call, before I start, and it does not change afterwards. The first reply to your enquiry and the call itself cost nothing.

Yes, by the amount of the fee. I would rather say that plainly than hide it.

The hotel price is the same: I work with the rates you would get directly, and I add nothing to them. If you book through me, the hotel pays me a commission out of its own margin. That changes nothing about your price.

What you get for the fee is the time you do not spend searching, and a selection made by someone who knows hotels from the inside. On a trip costing CHF 15,000, CHF 800 is about five per cent. Whether that is the right trade is your call. On a trip costing CHF 3,000 I will tell you unprompted that it is not.

Yes, on some bookings. It comes out of the hotel's own margin and is not added to your price.

The larger part of what I earn is the fee, and that is due whether you end up booking or not. So I have no incentive to push you towards a booking that does you no good.

And because the question is a fair one: you can ask me about any house on your shortlist whether it pays commission. I will tell you. Some of the best houses pay nothing at all, and they are on the list regardless.

No. What you are paying for is the planning, and by then you have had it: the shortlist, the reasoning, the questions put to the houses. You keep that, even if you decide against the trip or book elsewhere.

The hotel directly, or the booking platform I reserve through, never me. I reserve in your name. I do not take client money and I do not put your booking on a card of mine.

That keeps the relationships clean: the contract for the stay is between you and the hotel, and your booking does not depend on my balance.

You can, and on many trips you should. Booking yourself is right when you know the destination, know the house, and the trip is straightforward.

It gets expensive when you book the wrong room category because the photographs showed a different one. When two houses look identical and one has not been refurbished in four years. When an order of stops works on paper and costs you three transfer days in practice. That is exactly the work you are paying me for.

For the first reply: where you want to go, or how the trip should feel, and roughly when. Nothing more.

It gets more specific on the call, and the most useful thing there is the one almost nobody volunteers: what you definitely do not want. Knowing what someone does not want rules things out faster than any wish list.

The first reply comes within 48 hours. A shortlist usually takes a few days after that, longer when there are several stops.

The earlier the better, particularly for the few houses that genuinely fit a specific brief. For long-haul travel in high season, four to six months is realistic; for Christmas and New Year, a year is not an exaggeration.

Short notice works too, but then availability decides the selection rather than suitability.

Then I have not solved the problem, and we go another round at no extra cost. That is exactly what the reasoning next to each recommendation is for: you can see which assumption I made and tell me which one was wrong. That is faster than looking at another thirty hotels.

You come to me and I go to the hotel. I made the booking and I have the contact, which is a different starting position from a complaint at the front desk.

I cannot guarantee anything, and I do not promise round-the-clock availability. What I do promise, I keep.

No. I am a sole trader and I arrange individual travel services with the providers themselves. I do not act as a tour operator and I do not assemble package holidays in my own name. The contracts for accommodation and other services are between you and the respective provider.

Few. I am building this alongside my job, and I would rather write that down than explain it later.

What I bring is not a client list but a hospitality background and twenty-four countries travelled. What I do not bring is twenty years of relationships with houses around the world. If that is what you need, you are better served by a large agency, and I will tell you so rather than selling you something else.

I do not issue air tickets. I am glad to advise on the routing, particularly where connection times or arrival times change the trip noticeably. The flight is booked by you or through a specialist.

No, but with houses where the choice makes a difference. That can be a small, very good house with thirty rooms, not only the big names. Below a certain level my work does not pay for itself from your side, and then I say so.

The focus is on trips for two, because that is where the hotel choice matters most. Ask anyway. If I am the right person for it, I will say yes, and if I am not, I will say that too.

That is the normal case. I have been to twenty-four countries, not a hundred and ninety.

Having been there yourself helps with distances and with a feel for a place. I tell you openly when I am missing both. Judging a house is a different matter: there what counts is which questions you ask and whether you can place the answers, and that holds everywhere. If I am still not the right person for a destination, I say so and point you elsewhere.