Encino, CA
In the short span of five years Denise Schaefer has worked at Plaza Travel, she has soared to become one of the agency’s top-producing luxury travel experts with an annual sales volume over the $2 million mark.
“Denise’s increase in sales on multiple luxury travel vendors this year has come about because of all her efforts over the years cultivating new clients, and more trips from her current ones,” says agency President Steve Orens. “Most of Denise’s clients are already working with her to plan their next trip while still on their current trip.”
Schaefer, who has been a travel advisor for 35 years in all, devotes an extreme level of detail to planning trips for her clients. For example, “While booking a Christmas trip for a family of five to Australia, I arranged a Christmas tree—with presents underneath—for when they arrived at the hotel on Christmas Eve,” she says. That trip also happened to coincided with some of the children’s’ birthdays, so again Denise arranged for the hotel to “buy, wrap and put in their room birthday gifts that the kids liked,” based on suggestions from their parents.
When commercial air schedules didn’t work for these clients, Schaefer arranged for charter flights within Australia. Each hotel met them at the charter plane for a private transfer. Over the course of the two-week trip, Schaefer also showered the family with private shopping tours, private surf lessons and a private Sydney Harbor Bridge climb tour.
Shaefer is also active in supporting PATH (People Assisting the Homeless), an organization Plaza Travel also supports as an agency. Schaefer has been involved with PATH for a number of years.