Everything, handled.
WHAT THE STUDIO DOES
What we do
Every journey is drawn before it's travelled… an idea, a conversation, a line on paper…
Wherever you've been meaning to go, we make it real: the first step taken with confidence, the rest is arriving with style.
The Studio designs & books
private handcrafted journeys.
Flights, hotels, cruises, transfers, touring, the tables worth booking and every arrangement in between. Built from scratch, matched. Never picked from a page.
The internet will sell anyone the same room. What it will not tell you is which room to ask for, or give you the relationships that turn a booking into a welcome. The knowledge that turns a trip into a memorable journey. Or the reassurance that someone is watching over, ensuring each step is seamless.
The studio's work is everything around the booking. The judgment before it, the relationships behind it, and the company beside it. You keep going. We keep it working.
Behind the studio
R.A.H. Travel Studio works with Savenio Signature Travel Experiences, an Australian-owned agency of more than forty years and an ATAS accredited travel agency.
Through Savenio, the studio works inside Virtuoso, the invitation-only network of the world's leading luxury travel agencies: 1,700 preferred partnerships with hotels, cruise lines, airlines and tour operators across more than fifty countries, and over 230 on-the-ground specialists in more than ninety. Savenio has been a Virtuoso member since 2008.
Alongside it sit the programs that decide what happens once you arrive. Four Seasons Preferred Partner. Hyatt Privé, as a founding Australian member. Marriott STARS and Luminous. Belmond's Bellini Club. The Peninsula's Pen Club. Mandarin Oriental's Fan Club. Leading Hotels of the World VITA. Shangri-La's Luxury Circle. Jumeirah's Passport to Luxury. IHG Luxury and Lifestyle. Couture by Langham.
What that means for you is the part you can feel: the better room at the same rate, breakfast for two that was not in the price, a hotel credit to spend, an early arrival and a late departure, and a booking that reaches the property already introduced.
What that means in practice
The itinerary is built, not chosen. No packages and no templates. A route designed around your dates, your pace, and the people you are travelling with.
The room is asked for by name. Requests arrive from someone the property knows, noted properly and followed up before you land. That is what turns a preference into an upgrade more often than not.
The fine print is read before you sign it. Which fares can be changed, which rates are forfeited, what a cancellation actually costs. Ambiguity removed before you commit rather than explained afterwards.
Everything is checked twice. Names against passports, connections against reality, the transfer that is booked rather than assumed.
One number, always. Before you leave, while you are away, and until you are safely home. Not a call centre and not nine to five.
When it goes wrong, it is our problem. Reroutes, rebookings, refunds chased, suppliers dealt with. You should be somewhere enjoying yourself while that happens.
Frequently Asked Questions
The ones that come up most
Most people arrive with the same handful of questions. These are the answers, set out plainly. Anything not covered here is a good reason to get in touch.
DO YOU CHARGE PROFESSIONAL FEES
Yes — and we publish them. The full schedule lives on the Fees page, every figure in the open, so you'll know the numbers before we've even spoken.
The fees keep the studio working for you, and they cover the whole of it: the planning, the booking, and the watching - until you're safely home.
Most fees are credited in full against your planning fee if we go on to design the journey.
HOW DO WE BEGIN
Start an enquiry — the form or an email, whichever suits. Tell us the occasion and whatever you know so far; a feeling is enough.
Enrique replies within two days to arrange the first conversation, which costs nothing and commits you to nothing — it's where we both find out whether the studio is the right fit. If it is, the first sketch follows.
WHY NOT JUST BOOK MYSELF
You can, of course — the internet will sell anyone the same room. What it won't offer: knowing which room to ask for, the relationships that turn a booking into a welcome, a quiet word when the price is wrong for that week, and someone who answers when the airline rearranges your plans at two in the morning.
The studio's work is everything around the booking — the judgment before it, the relationships behind it, the company beside it. You keep the going. We keep the working.
Booking
Terms
The first conversation is complimentary. Where the studio goes on to make the booking, the planning fee is credited in full against it.
All fees are in Australian dollars and include GST where it applies. Every fee is quoted and agreed before any work begins, so nothing arrives unexpectedly. Work already carried out is not refundable.
HOW THE AGENCY WORKS
R.A.H. Travel Studio is an independent travel design studio operated by Ricky Hamilton, ABN 96 951 579 951, working with Savenio Signature Travel Experiences as its host agency.
Savenio is an Australian-owned travel agency of more than forty years, accredited under ATAS, the Australian Travel Accreditation Scheme administered by the Australian Travel Industry Association, and a participant in the Australian Travel Agents Co-operative Scheme (ACS).
The studio arranges travel with third party suppliers: airlines, hotels, cruise lines, tour operators, transport companies and ground operators. These suppliers are referred to in these terms as the principals.
Your contract for the travel itself is with the principal, not with the studio. The studio acts as your agent in arranging it, and is paid by you for that work and, where applicable, by the principal. Each principal's own terms and conditions apply to your booking alongside these ones, and we will provide a copy of any of them on request.
Where a principal fails to deliver what it agreed to, your remedy lies against that principal. The studio will assist you in pursuing it, and it will not charge you for that assistance where the booking was made through us.
ACCEPTING THESE TERMS
Instructing the studio to make a booking on your behalf, or paying any fee or deposit, means you have accepted these terms on behalf of yourself and everyone travelling with you.
We may update these terms from time to time. The terms that apply to your journey are the ones published when you instructed us.
WHAT WE ASK FOR ON YOUR BEHALF
Room preferences, upgrades, seat and cabin requests, dietary requirements, bedding, adjoining rooms, late checkout, celebration arrangements and similar are requested, not guaranteed. They are granted at the discretion of the principal and remain subject to availability on the day.
The studio's relationships mean these requests are made by someone the property knows, noted on the booking properly, and followed up before you arrive. That is what improves the odds. It is not the same as a guarantee, and anything essential to your travel should be booked and paid for rather than requested.
Where a principal charges for a request, that charge is yours.
HOW A REFUND REACHES YOU
Where a refund is due, it reaches you once the principal has released it to the studio. We cannot pay out money we have not been paid.
Refund timeframes are set by the principal and are frequently slow. Airlines are the slowest, and a refund can take eight weeks or more from the date it is lodged. We will lodge it promptly, tell you when we have, and chase it.
Some fares, rates and deposits are not refundable at all. Where that is the case, we will tell you before you commit, not after you ask.
HOW YOUR MONEY IS HELD & PROTECTED
Payments for your travel are made to the principal, or to Savenio on your behalf, and are handled through Savenio's accredited systems rather than held by the studio.
Card details are taken through a PCI compliant payment gateway. The studio does not store your card number.
Savenio participates in the Australian Travel Agents Co-operative Scheme, which provides protection against credit card chargebacks arising from supplier insolvency. Where a supplier fails after you have paid by card, that protection is one of the routes available to recover your money. It sits alongside, not instead of, your travel insurance and your rights under the Australian Consumer Law.
CHECKING YOUR DOCUMENTS
We check every document before it reaches you. You need to check them too.
When your itinerary, tickets, vouchers and confirmations arrive, read them against your passport and tell us immediately if anything is wrong: the spelling of any traveller's name, dates, times, room or cabin types, or anything else that does not match what you expected. Names on airline tickets must match the traveller's passport exactly.
Corrections made early are usually simple. Corrections made late can be expensive, and some fares cannot be corrected at all and must be rebought. Where a booking travels on incorrect details you did not tell us about, the cost of putting it right is yours.
If you are booking for others, you are responsible for passing their documents on to them and for making sure they check them too.
WHEN AN AIRLINE MOVES YOUR FLIGHT
Airlines change schedules, and they do it without asking anyone. Where we are told, we will tell you and rework what needs reworking. Schedule changes made by the airline are not charged for under our change fees.
Reconfirm your flight times at least 24 hours before each departure. A schedule change advised directly to you by the airline, or made after your documents were issued, is one we may not know about until you tell us.
FORCE MAJEURE
Neither the studio nor any principal is responsible for a failure to perform caused by events beyond reasonable control. These include war, civil unrest, terrorism, epidemic or pandemic, natural disaster, extreme weather, fire, strike or industrial action, airspace or border closure, and the act of any government or authority.
Where such an event affects your travel, we will do what can be done: rebooking, rerouting, recovering what is recoverable, and dealing with the suppliers on your behalf. What can be recovered depends on the principals' own terms and, where you hold it, on your insurance. This is the reason we recommend comprehensive cover on every trip, arranged before the first payment.
Let’s design,
together.
Every journey here begins the same way: a short note, then a good conversation. Leave yours here. A reply lands within two days.
