Inspirato, the luxury travel subscription company founded by Brent Handler and team, has expanded into multiple dimensions, with more travel experiences and options than ever before.
The Inspirato Pass subscription membership originally launched in 2019, and underwent a major update in late Fall 2021. The newest iteration offers Pass subscribers more than one million trip options – a significant increase compared to 150,000 previously – and still with nightly rates, taxes, and fees all included. One significant change is that subscribers can now have more than one reservation at a time, whereas before they had to wait for one trip to finish before booking a new one.
Inspirato has been growing and became a public company listed on Nasdaq in early 2022. The public filings show record numbers across the board in terms of both number of subscribers and number of vacation options. Total Inspirato “active subscriptions” rose from 12,629 in 2020 to 16,100 by the end of 2022.
An Inspirato Pass Review – How Pass Works
Inspirato offers two membership types. The pay as you go Club option and the everything included Pass membership.
The $2,550 monthly price for Inspirato Pass consists of $2,200 for Pass and preferred pricing of $350 (versus list pricing of $650/month) for all the benefits of an Inspirato Club subscription. The Pass Trip List, with over a million options, includes stays in Inspirato homes and with hotel and resort partners, as well as luxury travel experiences like Inspirato cruises and safaris. Trip lengths range from 2 - 14 days and can be booked anywhere from 2 - 365 days in advance. The included Club membership provides flexibility to book beyond the Pass Trip List, paying nightly rates as you go.
The newly introduced “Pass Days” component is the currency of the Pass program and works this way:
The number of Pass Days required for each trip varies based on the check-in date, length of trip, and type of accommodation. Once a subscriber reserves a trip from the Pass List, their Pass is considered “in use” as they build up that number of Pass Days, and then becomes available for other reservations after the Pass Days have accumulated at one per day. As soon as the specified number of Pass Days for a selected trip is reached, the Pass becomes available for subscribers to make their next reservation (before or after the first reserved trip.)
It seems that the Pass subscriber should, if possible, continually have a live reservation going somewhere, so their Pass days are not idle, but in use. This means, simply, even if the subscriber assumes he or she may not go on a reserved trip, it is best to reserve anyway.
The subscriber can cancel a Pass reservation within 60 days of their check-in date and receive any Pass Days back that have been used to reserve that trip. But, if they cancel between 39-59 days, then, they receive 80% of Pass Days back.
Inspirato says Pass is for the luxury traveler that wants to vacation more than average.
Choose From 5 Luxury Travel Offerings
The expanded Inspirato Pass can be used for five different luxury travel options, creating greater value through more diverse experiences for its subscribers. And in each of the five options, the Pass Days are used to reserve the residence, cruise, event, or travel accoutrement. The options are:
Homes and Hotels - As of this writing, there are 640 luxury vacation residences and hotel suites to choose from in many different parts of the United States, Mexico and beyond.
Experiences - These luxury travel experiences include African Safaris, wine tasting tours, cycling through Tuscany, Sonoma, and Bordeaux, and experiencing Peru, Bhutan, and Sri Lanka, to name just a few.
Cruises - Inspirato partners with Uniworld, Amadeus, Silversea, and others to allow Inspirato subscribers to take exceptional, luxury cruises through Portugal, Egypt, France, Alaska, and of course, the great European Christmas Markets cruises.
Both Beyond Travel and the Tickets platforms allow Pass subscribers to get value from their Pass between trips.
Beyond Travel - All Beyond Travel items, such as luggage and private chefs, are listed at a specific number of Pass Days. Just as subscribers use Pass Days to reserve their vacations, they can use them to reserve Beyond Travel merchandise. On the Beyond Travel lists the bottom right corner of each item shows a number of Pass Days. A subscriber can reserve that item, use the number of Pass Days listed, and once they are complete, they can make their next reservation for a trip, an event, or another Beyond Travel item.
Tickets – Pass subscribers may also use their Pass days on the Tickets platform to reserve suite tickets to music and sporting events at venues in 13 markets across the country. Tickets are reserved just like Beyond Travel items, using a specific number of Pass days.
It is important to remember that multiple reservations can be planned at the same time by placing the Pass in use for the number of Pass Days required to reserve the desired trip. Once the Pass Days are complete, subscribers may reserve their next trip(s) or events. The Inspirato Pass covers the nightly rates, taxes, and fees for Pass trips.
Trip Planning & Destination Concierge Services
Also included with each Inspirato trip is its elite, personalized service, including pre-trip planning, and at the destination, an on-site concierge. All Inspirato on-site concierges are located within the market locale of the home. They can be contacted via phone, text or email throughout the member's stay. All hotel residence concierges are located on property.
There is daily housekeeping included in the residence, both home and hotel, as well. In addition, the Inspirato dedicated Care Team helps subscribers choose trips and connect to local experts. If, by any unfortunate chance, there is a medical emergency during the Inspirato stay, the local teams also know the best local medical facilities nearby and are always available to assist if/when needed.
The subscriber’s stay includes pre-arrival grocery delivery as a standard part of the Inspirato service offering. Private chefs can also be arranged by the Inspirato team for any trip and paid for separately. The private chef offerings on the Beyond Travel platform are meant to be enjoyed in a member's home - not on vacation.
However, the subscriber is responsible for travel costs (e.g., airline tickets, rental cars, etc.) and any incidental charges incurred during the stay (e.g., parking, food and beverage, activities, etc.).
Friends and Family Sharing Option
To share travels with family, friends, and colleagues, the subscriber may add one of the sharing plans to the Club program. The Family Sharing plan is $300/month, or the Premium Sharing plan is $500/month, which allows the subscriber to share all the luxury travel offerings with family and friends, or with anyone of their choice.
Sharing is included in the Pass program so the subscription includes complimentary Premium Sharing, which allows members to share Inspirato travel with anyone of their choosing, inviting them to enjoy trips of their own (i.e., members don’t need to be there). It includes unlimited sharing for Pass bookings as well as up to ten shared Club trips per year.
Is Inspirato Pass Worth It?
The Inspirato Pass requires no long-term commitment, as subscribers may cancel at any time. But the subscription must be active to both reserve and travel with the Pass.
At an annualized price of $30,600, and offering 4-bedroom luxury villas in Tuscany, Aspen, Deer Valley, the Virgin Islands or the Cayman Islands, to name a few, Inspirato Pass is not aimed at travelers on a controlled budget. However, it’s evident through this Inspirato Pass review that Inspirato’s subscription model, with the expanded Pass Days addition and over one million travel experiences, creates new meanings for travel possibilities in 2023-2024.
Editorial update 13th June 2022:
Inspirato recently launched a new Select membership. As we were researching this option on the Inspirato website, we happened to compare a stay available through Inspirato Pass with the same stay direct through the partner resort. The Pass stay for 6 nights, for 6 adults in a 3-bedroom villa in Grenada required 65 Pass Days - see the screenshot below. Each Pass Day can be thought of as having a maximum value of $83 each (dividing $30,000 annually by 365 days, and ascribing zero value to the Club membership portion). So 65 Pass Days would be worth about $5,000 depending how you value the Club membership included in the Pass membership.
The exact same stay, for the same 6 nights, for 6 adults in a 3 bedroom villa would cost $29,937 when booked directly with the Silversands Resort resort. See the screenshot below.
In this example, the one trip provides a $25,000 saving, and you would still have 300 Pass Days available to travel for the rest of the year.
