Maison Voyage: The Art of Luxury Travel

In this episode of Maison Voyage: The Art of Luxury Travel, Vanessa sits down with not one but three guests — the founding trio behind Sorority Stays: Charlene Hornor (educator, vacation rental owner, and operations manager), her daughter Caroline Hornor (civil engineer by day, self-taught web developer who built the entire platform in seven months), and Abbi Best (Dallas-based real estate agent and head of marketing). The concept is as clever as it is community-driven: a curated platform connecting travelers with beautifully designed vacation rental homes owned by sorority alumnae across the country — and soon, across the world. What started as a lightbulb moment at a sorority reunion in Northwest Arkansas quickly grew to 75-plus properties across 17 states, with homes in 30A, Nashville, Colorado, Virginia, California, the Carolinas, and European listings quietly in the works. But Sorority Stays is about far more than a booking platform — it's built on the idea that sorority women don't just furnish a home, they set the tone, think about the guest before they ever arrive, and bring an unspoken level of trust, hospitality, and intentional design to every property. Vanessa and the team dig into what makes this concept stand apart from Airbnb and VRBO: every host has been personally vetted, every home is curated for quality and local authenticity, and the sisterhood network creates a layer of care and accountability you simply won't find on a mass-market rental platform. It's a conversation about community, entrepreneurship, the future of luxury home travel — and why this just might be one of the most exciting new brands in the travel space.

Maison Voyage: The Art of Luxury Travel is the official podcast of the Maison Voyage brand, hosted by luxury travel advisor and founder Vanessa Kromer. With more than 16 years specializing in Italy, Europe, and bespoke international journeys, Vanessa sits down with the hoteliers, DMCs, destination experts, and industry insiders who are quietly defining what luxury travel looks like today — beyond the price tag, beyond the postcard, and beyond what you'll find on a typical influencer reel. Whether you're an affluent traveler researching your next unforgettable trip or a travel professional looking to sharpen your craft, each episode is designed to inspire, educate, and reveal the access, relationships, and intentional design that turn a vacation into something truly extraordinary.

Subscribe to Maison Voyage Magazine
 https://maisonvoyagemagazine.com

Follow Vanessa on Instagram to keep the journey going between episodes!
 @vanessakromermmv

Learn more about Sorority Stays:

• Website - https://sororitystays.com/
• Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/sororitystays/
• Substack - https://sororitystays.substack.com/

One Membership. Two Publications.
Your print and digital luxury travel magazine membership now includes:
📖 Quarterly digital editions of Maison Voyage Magazine
✈️ Complimentary access to The Private Edit on Substack
🏨 Luxury hotel insights
🌍 Destination journals
🗺️ Travel resources
🤍 Behind-the-scenes stories from visionary travel advisor Vanessa Kromer, who has 16-plus years in the industry.

And so much more.

Because the best journeys deserve more than a single publication.

Explore membership options today:
www.maisonvoyagemagazine.com
**use code PODCAST at checkout

One membership. Two publications. Endless inspiration.

In this episode of Maison Voyage: The Art of Luxury Travel, Vanessa sits down with Sandy Colling — multilingual travel advisor, author, and group trip curator whose philosophy on travel goes far deeper than five-star hotels and bucket lists. Born in France, raised in Germany, with a father born and raised in Shanghai, Sandy grew up in a family shaped by displacement, resilience, and the healing power of travel — her parents famously turned to travel as a way of grieving after losing a son, and Sandy wrote a memoir about how those early journeys transformed her. Today she channels that same conviction into escorted group experiences for women that are less about checking things off a list and more about genuine personal transformation. Together Vanessa and Sandy unpack some of the most refreshing travel perspectives you'll hear on this podcast: why China is one of the most misunderstood, culturally rich, and surprisingly safe destinations in the world (Sandy is taking a small group to Lanzhou and the oldest stretch of the Great Wall next August), why off-the-beaten-path German Christmas markets beat every cruise ship stop, and why the south of France beyond the Riviera — think Perpignan, Languedoc-Roussillon, and the world Salvador Dalí called the center of the universe — deserves far more attention than it gets. Sandy also shares a deeply moving story of a first-time solo traveler she sent to Heidelberg — a woman who had never left America, who arrived terrified and left forever changed — and the simple but powerful instruction that unlocked it all: put your phone in your pocket and get lost. It's a conversation about what travel actually does to a person when you let it, and why the best itinerary is always the one built around who you are.

Maison Voyage: The Art of Luxury Travel is the official podcast of the Maison Voyage brand, hosted by luxury travel advisor and founder Vanessa Kromer. With more than 16 years specializing in Italy, Europe, and bespoke international journeys, Vanessa sits down with the hoteliers, DMCs, destination experts, and industry insiders who are quietly defining what luxury travel looks like today — beyond the price tag, beyond the postcard, and beyond what you'll find on a typical influencer reel. Whether you're an affluent traveler researching your next unforgettable trip or a travel professional looking to sharpen your craft, each episode is designed to inspire, educate, and reveal the access, relationships, and intentional design that turn a vacation into something truly extraordinary.

Subscribe to Maison Voyage Magazine
 https://maisonvoyagemagazine.com

Follow Vanessa on Instagram to keep the journey going between episodes!
 @vanessakromermmv

Connect with Sandy here: justtravelwithsandy.com

One Membership. Two Publications.
Your print and digital luxury travel magazine membership now includes:
📖 Quarterly digital editions of Maison Voyage Magazine
✈️ Complimentary access to The Private Edit on Substack
🏨 Luxury hotel insights
🌍 Destination journals
🗺️ Travel resources
🤍 Behind-the-scenes stories from visionary travel advisor Vanessa Kromer, who has 16-plus years in the industry.
and so much more.

Because the best journeys deserve more than a single publication.

Explore membership options today:
www.maisonvoyagemagazine.com
**use code PODCAST at checkout

One membership. Two publications. Endless inspiration.

In this solo episode of Maison Voyage: The Art of Luxury Travel, Vanessa picks up where Episode 1 left off — delivering the full debrief on her June research trip to Italy that she's been teasing across social media. She walks listeners through the entire journey: the Delta One experience out of Jacksonville through Atlanta, the private water taxi arrival into Venice that her husband called a "chef's kiss" moment, and a surprisingly candid behind-the-scenes account of their stay at the brand-new Orient Express Venice. The hotel itself? Jaw-dropping — eight years of renovation, frescoes, original stone floors, canal views, auto-closing velvet drapes, and a skylight room she'll never forget. But Vanessa doesn't sugarcoat it: waiting 45 minutes after arriving exhausted from an overnight flight, only to be told the room wasn't ready — at a minimum $2,500-a-night hotel — is a real conversation worth having about what luxury service actually means and where the gap between price and experience can quietly exist. She contrasts that with a flawless early arrival experience at the Mandarin Oriental Milan to make the point: luxury isn't just about the property, it's about how you're treated in the moments that matter most. From there the trip only got better — a rainy, moody arrival at Salt House Hotel in Bolzano that felt like a scene from Twilight, rooftop infinity pool swims in the Dolomite rain, blue skies over Cortina d'Ampezzo, and a final Venice night at the Venice Venice Hotel that she called one of her favorite hotels she's ever stayed at — period. She also teases her new Substack, The Private Edit, where the full unfiltered story lives for subscribers who want to go behind the curtain.

Maison Voyage: The Art of Luxury Travel is the official podcast of the Maison Voyage brand, hosted by luxury travel advisor and founder Vanessa Kromer. With more than 16 years specializing in Italy, Europe, and bespoke international journeys, Vanessa sits down with the hoteliers, DMCs, destination experts, and industry insiders who are quietly defining what luxury travel looks like today — beyond the price tag, beyond the postcard, and beyond what you'll find on a typical influencer reel. Whether you're an affluent traveler researching your next unforgettable trip or a travel professional looking to sharpen your craft, each episode is designed to inspire, educate, and reveal the access, relationships, and intentional design that turn a vacation into something truly extraordinary.

Subscribe to Maison Voyage Magazine
 https://maisonvoyagemagazine.com

Follow Vanessa on Instagram to keep the journey going between episodes!
 @vanessakromermmv

Water taxi: Venice https://www.motoscafivenezia.com/en/

One Membership. Two Publications.
Your print and digital luxury travel magazine membership now includes:
📖 Quarterly digital editions of Maison Voyage Magazine
✈️ Complimentary access to The Private Edit on Substack
🏨 Luxury hotel insights
🌍 Destination journals
🗺️ Travel resources
🤍 Behind-the-scenes stories from visionary travel advisor Vanessa Kromer, who has 16-plus years in the industry.
and so much more.

Because the best journeys deserve more than a single publication.

Explore membership options today:
www.maisonvoyagemagazine.com
**use code PODCAST at checkout

One membership. Two publications. Endless inspiration.

In this episode of Maison Voyage: The Art of Luxury Travel, Vanessa sits down with Siham Lahmine — the first woman in Morocco to build a luxury culinary travel business, founder of her own DMC, and a magazine contributor since the very first issue of Maison Voyage. Siham brings a rare boots-on-the-ground perspective that no algorithm, AI tool, or booking platform can replicate: she knows the drivers, the riad owners, the local farmers, the barbers, the cave dwellers outside Salé — and she knows which Friday your clients will wake up to empty medina streets if you don't plan around it. Together, Vanessa and Siham unpack what makes Morocco one of the most bucket-list yet misunderstood destinations in the world: why the medinas look intimidating from the outside but feel like home once you're in, why Friday logistics can make or break an entire day of sightseeing, how religious holidays on the lunar calendar require local intelligence that Google simply doesn't have, and why June through August demands a very specific strategy if you're going to go at all. Siham also shares some of the most extraordinary curated experiences she has built for clients — a farm-to-table harvest lunch cooked with a local family in a countryside cave village near Salé, a spontaneous barber visit that turned into a World Cup watch party, a perfume workshop she pioneered in Fez that didn't exist before she made it happen — and why Moroccan food, from a flaky bastilla stuffed with spiced chicken and cinnamon to a slow-cooked tagine pulled from clay in the market ashes, is one of the most underrated culinary stories in all of travel. It's an episode that will make Morocco feel less intimidating, far more personal, and absolutely impossible to put off any longer.

Maison Voyage: The Art of Luxury Travel is the official podcast of the Maison Voyage brand, hosted by luxury travel advisor and founder Vanessa Kromer. With more than 16 years specializing in Italy, Europe, and bespoke international journeys, Vanessa sits down with the hoteliers, DMCs, destination experts, and industry insiders who are quietly defining what luxury travel looks like today — beyond the price tag, beyond the postcard, and beyond what you'll find on a typical influencer reel. Whether you're an affluent traveler researching your next unforgettable trip or a travel professional looking to sharpen your craft, each episode is designed to inspire, educate, and reveal the access, relationships, and intentional design that turn a vacation into something truly extraordinary.

Subscribe to Maison Voyage Magazine https://maisonvoyagemagazine.com

Follow Vanessa on Instagram to keep the journey going between episodes! @vanessakromermmv

Learn more about Siham Lahmine and plan your Morocco journey: https://moroccotravelorganizer.com/about-founder-siham-lahmine/

One Membership. Two Publications.
Your print and digital luxury travel magazine membership now includes:
📖 Quarterly digital editions of Maison Voyage Magazine
✈️ Complimentary access to The Private Edit on Substack
🏨 Luxury hotel insights
🌍 Destination journals
🗺️ Travel resources
🤍 Behind-the-scenes stories from visionary travel advisor Vanessa Kromer, who has 16-plus years in the industry.
and so much more.

Because the best journeys deserve more than a single publication.

Explore membership options today:
www.maisonvoyagemagazine.com
**use code PODCAST at checkout

One membership. Two publications. Endless inspiration.

In this episode of Maison Voyage: The Art of Luxury Travel, Vanessa sits down with Josefina Melendez — founder of X-Plora Travel, military spouse turned travel professional, and a specialist in deeply curated wine country experiences in Spain. Josefina brings a uniquely personal lens to luxury travel: born in Chile, shaped by years living in Italy, and now based in St. Augustine where she also leads food and wine walking tours through one of America's oldest cities. Together they dive deep into the world of northern Spain — a region that most travelers completely overlook in favor of Barcelona and Madrid, and one that Josefina believes offers some of the most extraordinary food, wine, and cultural experiences in all of Europe. They explore the wines of Rioja and the rare, ocean-kissed Txakoli grape of Basque Country, the Michelin-starred food scene of San Sebastian, the historic Monday market of Guernica, Jai Alai, the Guggenheim Bilbao, and why tasting a private-cellar bottle of Rioja that never gets exported — opened only because your guide has the relationship — is one of the purest definitions of luxury travel there is. Josefina also gives a behind-the-scenes look at her small-group wine country itinerary (Bilbao to San Sebastian, late October) and her women-only "Women Who Wander" series headed to Bali. It's a rich, warmhearted conversation about why travel should change you — and how the right advisor makes that possible.

Maison Voyage: The Art of Luxury Travel is the official podcast of the Maison Voyage brand, hosted by luxury travel advisor and founder Vanessa Kromer. With more than 16 years specializing in Italy, Europe, and bespoke international journeys, Vanessa sits down with the hoteliers, DMCs, destination experts, and industry insiders who are quietly defining what luxury travel looks like today — beyond the price tag, beyond the postcard, and beyond what you'll find on a typical influencer reel. Whether you're an affluent traveler researching your next unforgettable trip or a travel professional looking to sharpen your craft, each episode is designed to inspire, educate, and reveal the access, relationships, and intentional design that turn a vacation into something truly extraordinary.

Subscribe to Maison Voyage Magazine https://maisonvoyagemagazine.com

Follow Vanessa on Instagram to keep the journey going between episodes! @vanessakromermmv

Learn More About X-Plora Travel: https://x-plora.com

Subscribe to Maison Voyage Magazine https://maisonvoyagemagazine.com

Follow Vanessa on Instagram to keep the journey going between episodes! @vanessakromermmv and the podcast IG www.instagram.com/maisonvoyagemagazine 

One Membership. Two Publications.
Your print and digital luxury travel magazine membership now includes:
📖 Quarterly digital editions of Maison Voyage Magazine
✈️ Complimentary access to The Private Edit on Substack
🏨 Luxury hotel insights
🌍 Destination journals
🗺️ Travel resources
🤍 Behind-the-scenes stories from visionary travel advisor Vanessa Kromer, who has 16-plus years in the industry.
and so much more.

Because the best journeys deserve more than a single publication.

Explore membership options today:
www.maisonvoyagemagazine.com
**use code PODCAST at checkout

One membership. Two publications. Endless inspiration.

In this episode of Maison Voyage: The Art of Luxury Travel, Vanessa sits down with Sequoia Armstrong — founder of Pueblo York and a specialist in immersive, off-the-beaten-path travel to Japan and Mexico. Together they unpack what luxury travel in Japan actually looks like for today's discerning traveler: why Tokyo is just the beginning, which lesser-known regions deserve far more attention (Kanazawa, Kyushu, the Hokuriku region, Gifu Prefecture), and how to build an itinerary that trades crowd-chasing for genuine cultural immersion. They dive deep into the traditional Japanese inn experience, including how to navigate communal onsen bathing as a Western traveler and why a private ryokan with in-room hot springs might be the most unexpectedly intimate luxury in the world. Sequoia also shares her favorite curated experiences — private sake tastings, ceramics workshops, wasabi farm visits, neighborhood walking tours — and gets honest about cherry blossom season hype, Japan's world-class ski scene in Hokkaido, the legendary luggage-forwarding logistics that make multi-city travel seamless, and why the Japanese yen makes now one of the best times in years to book. It's an episode that will make you see Japan in a completely different light — and probably start planning a trip you hadn't considered before.

Maison Voyage: The Art of Luxury Travel is the official podcast of the Maison Voyage brand, hosted by luxury travel advisor and founder Vanessa Kromer. With more than 16 years specializing in Italy, Europe, and bespoke international journeys, Vanessa sits down with the hoteliers, DMCs, destination experts, and industry insiders who are quietly defining what luxury travel looks like today — beyond the price tag, beyond the postcard, and beyond what you'll find on a typical influencer reel. Whether you're an affluent traveler researching your next unforgettable trip or a travel professional looking to sharpen your craft, each episode is designed to inspire, educate, and reveal the access, relationships, and intentional design that turn a vacation into something truly extraordinary.

Subscribe to Maison Voyage Magazine https://maisonvoyagemagazine.com

Follow Vanessa on Instagram to keep the journey going between episodes! @vanessakromermmv and the podcast IG www.instagram.com/maisonvoyagemagazine 

Puebla York: https://www.instagram.com/pueblayorkinc/

One Membership. Two Publications.
Your print and digital luxury travel magazine membership now includes:
📖 Quarterly digital editions of Maison Voyage Magazine
✈️ Complimentary access to The Private Edit on Substack
🏨 Luxury hotel insights
🌍 Destination journals
🗺️ Travel resources
🤍 Behind-the-scenes stories from visionary travel advisor Vanessa Kromer, who has 16-plus years in the industry.
and so much more.

Because the best journeys deserve more than a single publication.

Explore membership options today:
www.maisonvoyagemagazine.com
**use code PODCAST at checkout

One membership. Two publications. Endless inspiration.

In this episode of Maison Voyage: The Art of Luxury Travel, Vanessa sits down with Mary Jennifer Markham — founder of Markham Travel and a boutique luxury travel specialist with a deep and personal passion for France. Together they pull back the curtain on what luxury travel in France actually looks like beyond the iconic postcard moments: the Paris hotels worth every euro (including the Relais Christine and the JK Place), the regions most first-timers don't know to ask about — Provence, Burgundy, the South of France, Bordeaux wine country — and how to know when Paris alone is enough versus when it's time to go deeper. They also tackle some of the most common planning conversations luxury travel advisors have with clients: how to gently steer a first-timer away from a seven-country itinerary, why the London-to-Paris Eurostar combo works so well for families, what a well-curated food tour actually looks like, the honest trade-offs of river cruising in France, and why Paris may actually be more affordable than most Americans assume. It's a rich, insider-level conversation between two advisors who love Europe deeply — and want their clients to feel that same connection.

Maison Voyage: The Art of Luxury Travel is the official podcast of the Maison Voyage brand, hosted by luxury travel advisor and founder Vanessa Kromer. With more than 16 years specializing in Italy, Europe, and bespoke international journeys, Vanessa sits down with the hoteliers, DMCs, destination experts, and industry insiders who are quietly defining what luxury travel looks like today — beyond the price tag, beyond the postcard, and beyond what you'll find on a typical influencer reel. Whether you're an affluent traveler researching your next unforgettable trip or a travel professional looking to sharpen your craft, each episode is designed to inspire, educate, and reveal the access, relationships, and intentional design that turn a vacation into something truly extraordinary.

Subscribe to Maison Voyage Magazine https://maisonvoyagemagazine.com

Check Out M Markham Travel: https://mmarkhamtravel.com

Follow Vanessa on Instagram to keep the journey going between episodes! @vanessakromermmv

One Membership. Two Publications.
Your print and digital luxury travel magazine membership now includes:
📖 Quarterly digital editions of Maison Voyage Magazine
✈️ Complimentary access to The Private Edit on Substack
🏨 Luxury hotel insights
🌍 Destination journals
🗺️ Travel resources
🤍 Behind-the-scenes stories from visionary travel advisor Vanessa Kromer, who has 16-plus years in the industry.
and so much more.

Because the best journeys deserve more than a single publication.

Explore membership options today:
www.maisonvoyagemagazine.com
**use code PODCAST at checkout

One membership. Two publications. Endless inspiration.

In the inaugural episode of Maison Voyage: The Art of Luxury Travel, host Vanessa Kromer pulls back the curtain on what this podcast is really about — and where the conversation is headed. After 16 years curating bespoke international travel, with her heart firmly anchored in Italy, Vanessa shares the vision behind the Maison Voyage brand, from the quarterly print and digital magazine to the upcoming guest lineup featuring hoteliers, DMC partners, yacht company founders, design specialists, and the people quietly shaping the future of luxury travel. She also previews her own upcoming research trip — a Venice round-trip itinerary with the Dolomites in between — including a stay at the brand-new Orient Express Venice, a return to the Venice Venice Hotel, the gold-standard private water taxi transfers, and why summer in the Italian Alps is one of the most under-booked luxury experiences in Europe right now. Along the way, she gets honest about Instagram reels versus reality, the logistics most travelers don't see coming, and the question that will close out every episode of this show: what does luxury travel really feel like?

Maison Voyage: The Art of Luxury Travel is the official podcast of the Maison Voyage brand, hosted by luxury travel advisor and founder Vanessa Kromer. With more than 16 years specializing in Italy, Europe, and bespoke international journeys, Vanessa sits down with the hoteliers, DMCs, destination experts, and industry insiders who are quietly defining what luxury travel looks like today — beyond the price tag, beyond the postcard, and beyond what you'll find on a typical influencer reel. Whether you're an affluent traveler researching your next unforgettable trip or a travel professional looking to sharpen your craft, each episode is designed to inspire, educate, and reveal the access, relationships, and intentional design that turn a vacation into something truly extraordinary.

Subscribe to Maison Voyage Magazine

https://maisonvoyagemagazine.com

Follow Vanessa on Instagram to keep the journey going between episodes!

@vanessakromermmv

One Membership. Two Publications.
Your print and digital luxury travel magazine membership now includes:
📖 Quarterly digital editions of Maison Voyage Magazine
✈️ Complimentary access to The Private Edit on Substack
🏨 Luxury hotel insights
🌍 Destination journals
🗺️ Travel resources
🤍 Behind-the-scenes stories from visionary travel advisor Vanessa Kromer, who has 16-plus years in the industry.
and so much more.

Because the best journeys deserve more than a single publication.

Explore membership options today:
www.maisonvoyagemagazine.com
**use code PODCAST at checkout

One membership. Two publications. Endless inspiration.