Meet Lauren Cardinale of Travel Design

Today we’d like to introduce you to Lauren Cardinale.

Hi Lauren, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today.
Growing up in New Orleans, 80% of our local economy is travel, tourism, and hospitality. I knew I loved the atmosphere of hotels – whether staying there or just having drinks in the lobby – so I decided to start my post-college career there, never intending to make a life out of it. I started in Revenue Management in 2007 at the W New Orleans and W French Quarter. This is where I was introduced to travel agents and luxury travel consortia such as Signature Travel Network and Virtuoso.

Over the next few years, I worked in other departments – Reservations, Sales, and Banquets – and enjoyed every part of running a hotel. There was just such good energy there at any given time. Once I had my first child, I knew I could no longer sustain the long hours required on-site (often upwards of 60+) so I left the hotel and decided to open up my own Wedding and Event Planning company. What I realized while working on this side of the business is my favorite part was the creative side of researching and planning the event, as well as selecting and contracting hotel room blocks. I had an ah-ha moment when I remembered working with Signature agents and thought that would be a great next step.

Because my boys were little, ages 3 and 4, I naturally fell into a Disney-focused travel agency that was also affiliated with Signature Travel Network. This was the perfect combination of my professional experience and current life stage so I started as an IC for this agency in 2013, part-time. Over the next few years, my agency grew to where it was a full-time endeavor, where my expertise has expanded to custom Europe itineraries, luxury cruises, and group travel. I opened my luxury-focused travel agency, Travel Design Co. in 2017, and have since expanded into a small boutique agency with 5 agents from around the US working on our team.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Owning a travel agency, and being a travel agent in general, is more of a challenge than I think most people realize. It is a small service-based business so all of the usual small business struggles are present. On top of that, our business is affected by so many external factors outside of our control – COVID being the largest and biggest hurdle we had to overcome, but so many day-to-day issues that can appear out of nowhere such as airline operations, war, terrorism, strikes, over-tourism, weather, the economy, a bad news story. All of these global events affect our ability to service our clients and execute our carefully crafted itineraries as planned.

One national news event can turn our business on its’ head. As the agency has grown, I have struggled with managing my schedule and sticking to acceptable turnaround times when these scenarios happen. Without warning, it becomes a time-sensitive, urgent issue to fix for affected clients so unfortunately, scheduled client tasks get pushed back, sometimes longer than I feel is acceptable. I have learned to give myself grace but I am always looking for better ways to manage this – by bringing on additional team members dedicated to client support and by constantly revising our systems to make sure communication remains open.

We’ve been impressed with Travel Design Co, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Travel Design Co. is a concierge-style, full-service, boutique travel agency. What does that mean? I offer personalized travel itinerary design and planning from start to finish and am with my clients every step of the way. Many travel agents and online travel agencies are simply booking agents – clients come with a hotel and travel dates and the agent books for them through the agents’ preferred booking platform.

At Travel Design Co., we do it differently. I travel often and attend several invitation-only conferences where I meet with and network with tour operators and destination management companies around the globe. This puts my clients at an advantage when they are traveling because these partnerships allow me to connect my clients with in-destination specialists who can tailor their experiences to my client’s individual needs as well as offer on-the-ground support during their travel. This is invaluable in today’s landscape and is the difference between being just a number at a call center to being a whole person with individual travel styles, personal interests, and goals for this travel experience.

Because of these extensive connections, I can design an itinerary for anywhere in the world. I do have a few specialties that have earned me recognition from some pretty big names in the industry. Custom European itineraries, romance travel, and groups (weddings, leisure, and corporate) are my top specialties and I have been awarded the prestigious Top Travel Specialist in the US by Conde Nast for 2021, 2022, and 2023. I am not sure I will ever get over being invited to the Conde Nast offices in New York City as a guest of the editor. This was such an honor and incredible moment in my career!

Have you learned any interesting or important lessons due to the COVID-19 crisis?
Oh my goodness – COVID-19. Being in the travel industry, the bottom dropped out from us. 2019 was one of the strongest years in history for travel and 2020 was expected to top those stats. As a European specialist, I watched it unfold through my connections in Italy – even while everyone in the US was still in the dark or in denial of how serious COVID-19 was.

I think the biggest lesson learned is to prepare for the unexpected and stay flexible. We can have an ironclad plan in place but that doesn’t mean it will go as planned, or go at all. Allow space for a change in plans and remember that we’ve gotten through harder things and survived. COVID put everything into perspective personally and professionally.

Contact Info:

• Website: traveldesignco.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/traveldesignco_
• Facebook: facebook.com/traveldesignco
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauren-cardinale-cta-44ab1070/
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@traveldesignco