A travel planner for the ultrawealthy shares what goes into organizing $800,000 trips to exclusive locations

Jules made her first hotel booking at a young age. She and her sister, who was 10 years old at the time, had left boarding school in Britain to go to Switzerland to be with their parents. The father of the girls accidentally booked his flight to arrive the next day and there was no one to greet him.

Maury was not flustered. "My first thought was to get into a taxi and ask to be taken to the Beau Rivage, which was the only five-star hotel I could remember," Maury said. When we got there, I told them that they would pay the bill. Her parents came the next day. Two princesses were safe as houses and sitting upstairs having room service.

Courtesy of Jules Maury

Decades later, Maury remains resourceful, connected, and matter-of-fact as the head of Scott Dunn Private, the London-based ultraexclusive division of the luxury-travel firm Scott Dunn. She handles trips for the world's wealthiest people along with a team of four travel advisors and six booking specialists. It's an invitation-only division.

She said that they are not telling you where to put $2 million in stocks and shares to get the best returns.

She doesn't charge hourly consulting fees for trip planning, as some travel specialists do, but relies on commissions from suppliers, and the industry standard is 10% of spend. She said that she values the trust her clients place in her more than a small amount of money.

Here is a description of her job and how she got into it.

She got her start booking vacations for friends

Courtesy of Jules Maury

Maury was a secret weapon for one-percenters. While living overseas as the wife of an expatriate executive, she booked friends' holidays for fun.

Without a visa, Maury was unable to work in places like Australia, Vietnam, or St. Barts, but her friends came to her for help. She lived in a hotel in Hong Kong for three months as a child.

She said that she had been to many luxury places. I loved sharing it with other people because it was so fascinating to travel and see new cultures.

Maury turned her expertise into a career when she returned to the UK. While working for a different travel company she was headhunted by AndrewDunn for her current role She was asked about experiences she would apply to different destinations for in order to make a trip stand out.

She said that what she had learned from traveling was second to none. I know who a member is because I've been there.

Maury gets a lot of vague requests for trips. I get an email from an existing client that says, "You know what we love, so what do we do now?" She asked, where do we go next?

Her service isn't just about private-jet chartering. Maury's specialty is money-can't- buy experiences, or what she calls "fairy dust": getting a prime dinner reservation at Arzak in San Sebastin next weekend when it's booked solid for months. You need government clearance to access the originals because of their frail state.

There are limits to her relationships. She says her black book, built up over years of traveling and networking, is full of interesting people she thinks would make a good travel story. She failed to get the entire Eiffel Tower privatized. At least at this point.

Planning 6-figure vacations is her specialty

Courtesy of Jules Maury

She's going to take a private sailing trip around the Galpagos Islands and another down the Nile for six women who are leaving their husbands at home. They can be taken into pyramids and archeological sites that are usually off-limits to tourists.

A group of women and their daughters will celebrate their graduation with a trip to France, which will include private after-hours shopping at a department store.

She arranged an $800,000 weeklong superyacht tour for a family over the holidays that included a private villa, beach picnics, and snorkeling.

When the going gets tough, Maury gets going

Courtesy of Jules Maury

Maury has the greatest value to her clients because she can fix problems quickly.

The Amanzoe resort in Greece caught fire this summer due to nearby fires. She was flown on a private jet.

When Mount Agung erupted, another client of hers was about to go to Indonesia. At 6 a.m., she got a call.

I told them to fly to London, and when they landed, I would let them know where they were. She planned to go to Cambodia with a private dinner in an off-limits temple and luxury accommodations at Amansara.

They landed in London and didn't know where they were going, but we sorted it out. They said it was one of the best holidays they've ever had, even though it was a real crisis.

She said that if someone needs to speak with her late at night or on the weekends, she will always use her backup teams to look after the issue.

But even an expert travel planner lacks some knowledge

She spends a lot of the year on the road, going to luxury travel shows like Pure in Marrakech or the International Luxury Travel Market. She flew to Octola in Lapland for a site inspection after her team bought it for a family.

She hasn't yet visitedAntarctica or set foot in Japan, but she has some gaps in her knowledge. She said that she likes the fact that parts of the world are new to her.

When she's on a familiarization trip, her company pays when she's in a hotel or a destination, but the budget can be different. She pays for her trips, which are frequent, because she wants to learn more. She said she doesn't take any flights that are comped.

Maury has traveled to a number of places this year.

She said that someone asked her where her favorite place was and she said it was where she hadn't been yet.