Jaclyn Sienna India, the travel guide to presidents

Jaclyn Sienna India, whose clients include former US president George Bush, talks about exclusive holidays, post-pandemic challenges, and why even billionaires can be shown the door

Exclusivity, discretion, and a personal touch are Jaclyn Sienna India’s signatures. From closing down the Sydney Opera House, the Hagia Sophia, the Louvre, the Great Sphinx of Giza, Machu Picchu, and the Taj for an exclusive visit, to working with local partners to build luxury camps for her clients, she is not your average travel agent. For this Beverly Hills-based ‘super travel agent’, catering to presidents, billionaires, studio heads and celebrities such as Mariah Carey is a routine day.

India fell in love with luxury hospitality during her college years. While studying art history at Philadelphia’s Temple University, she worked at the now closed Michelin-starred restaurant, Le Bec Fin. “I got an understanding of the amazing level of knowledge and personal touch that accompanied the service. That was a learning ground,” says India, who established her boutique travel company, Sienna Charles, in 2008. Since then it has transformed into a lifestyle concierge firm, with members from the $100 million club (who, according to reports pay between $75,000 and $150,000 a year).

Having travelled to 90 countries — she’s on the road 200 days a year, personally vetting every location, yacht, villa and restaurant she recommends to her clients — India prides herself in going the extra mile for her clients. “When I take on a new client, I meet them in person,” she says. “I see what they look like, what they like to eat, the way they interact with people [I have no hang-ups turning down people who are rude]… We discuss their passions: do they love wine, pursue history, or are they looking at reconnecting with their life or their family. When I understand what their expectation is, I kind of take out my toolbox and create a new experience for them.”

Like, for example, when former US president George Bush travelled with her to Ethiopia in 2015. She was not satisfied with the accommodation on offer, so her team purchased brand new furniture, bedding and sheets, and built beautiful accommodations from scratch. “I’ll never accept a no if I can do one better. I know what the preferences of my clients are and I fight for them before they even arrive,” she says. “When you are willing to spend, it all gets a little easier to get the things you want.”

Little wonder that she closed down monuments in Egypt for a world leader, or covered the entire floor of a private villa with exotic ‘Cherry Snow’ roses flown in from Ecuador for a client’s wife’s birthday. On another occasion, she arranged a private breakfast on the top of the Arc De Triomphe in Paris, and across the Atlantic Ocean, worked with movie set producers and styling experts to create a cinematic Parisian scene in the heart of Miami, where famed chef Eric Ripert designed a special menu. “Nothing is a weird request anymore.”

India’s journey with her clients (“there is always a waiting list”) never ends with the completion of a tour. “We become family. We have personal-professional relationships spanning a decade or so,” she says. Recently, when she visited a new Indian restaurant in London, she called up one of her clients famous for his love of Indian food and asked him to check out the place for the authentic cuisine it offered.

“It’s a very collaborative relationship that I cultivate,” she says, explaining that her clients usually stay on with her for years. “It naturally gets easier to cater to them after the first trip. If there is a place that we decide on which I haven’t explored earlier, I make it a point to go on a recce. I’ve spent time on the ground hand-picking the hotels, tasting the food at the restaurants, and finding unique personalities to take my clients around on their visits,” she says. “Of course, there have also been times when I’ve come back and said, ‘It’s not a fit, I think we should find somewhere else to go.’ My clients have always trusted my decisions.”