Luxury travel expert Tiffany Dowd takes her influencer status seriously. Since breaking into the nascent 2009 Twittersphere as @LuxeTiffany, she has grown a massive, loyal following both on Twitter and on Instagram, all of whom count on her to be a trusted, authentic, and curated resource on luxury hotel stays around the world. From her early days when she wasn’t sure if the term “social media” would stick around to now, Tiffany has come a long way. She is the founder and president of Luxe Social Media ®, pulling the strings behind the luxury travel social media of exclusive boutique hotels worldwide. Speaking with Beau Monde Traveler, she shares the drive and adaptability that mark her success as a luxury travel influencer.

Over thirteen years of work, Tiffany has been a luxury travel expert proving that there is a place for luxury in social media. As someone who began a career in social media when it was still an eye-brow raising new kid on the block in marketing, she has worked with passion and humility to now become one of the most trusted names in the social media marketing of luxury hotels worldwide. She can still remember the first time she dipped her toes into using social media to increase a hotel’s reach. Back then, the infrastructure didn’t exist to create a professional business account and she recalls with laughter how she created a Facebook profile – just as you would for any individual person – to spread the word about a picturesque boutique hotel. When someone reached out and said they discovered the hotel through that very same Facebook profile, Tiffany knew she had tapped into something special.

Growing up, Tiffany learned quickly that luxury hotel stays don’t just mean turning to the all-too-familiar glossy photos of holidays in Hawaii or the Maldives. There are lots more treasures waiting to be found. Tiffany’s childhood chasing scuba diving adventures in Honduras and visiting Turks and Caicos, a destination that was nowhere near as popular as it is today, taught her to dig a little deeper in figuring out what exactly the dream trip is for different people. This learning experience continued over the years as Tiffany took on a role as Director of Sales and Marketing at a family-run boutique hotel in Turks and Caicos and then eventually became a hotel inspector for Condé Nast. Now, as founder of Luxe Social Media ® and a luxury travel influencer in her own right, she is a storyteller who curates stunning photos, videos, and writing that inspires people to chase those dreams and find the fantasy vacation they have always wanted.

In her work at Luxe Social Media ® creating tailored social media marketing strategies for world-class luxury hotels and resorts in over twenty countries and five continents over the past thirteen years,, Tiffany sees her years of working in journalism, public relations, and marketing all come together. To align expectations and feel a productive connection with each of her clients, Tiffany works closely with them to understand their past experiences in building a social media presence, their budget for future marketing, and the work that their existing public relations team may be doing.

In her eyes, a social media account is today’s “calling card” which can, in some ways, level the playing field between small, boutique establishments and larger hotels. Through the eye-catching luxury travel social media that Tiffany orchestrates, her goal is never to show off a lavish lifestyle, but to inspire and uplift others to reach for their travel dreams. She laments that these days, with videos taking over Instagram for example, there is a tendency for all the content to blur together, with one glossy, frantically-paced reel after another.

Just as the height of luxury can mean something different for each traveller, Tiffany knows that there needs to be a tailored approach to highlight the unique elegance and appeal of each luxury hotel stay. This is why, with each client she works with, her social media marketing caters to their target audience, the amenities and experiences they are most proud to offer, and the core reasons why people should dream of such an experience and want to come back to such a hotel. Her keen eye, humility, and ambition in fulfilling these goals for each and every client is what keeps her at the top of her game as a luxury travel expert.

Amongst the day-to-day challenges of living in the pandemic, the fact that her husband works for Moderna was yet another reminder for Tiffany of the pandemic’s impact and the need to adapt with the times. Her philosophy working in travel in this tumultuous period was to “keep people happy and inspired, but also be sensitive to the times.” This meant acknowledging that the usual ease of travel was no longer accessible to many.

As such, while it was crucial to keep the dream of the next holiday alive, Tiffany also supported luxury establishments in bringing that dream closer to home for the time being. For instance, as a luxury travel expert leading Luxe Social Media ®, she recalls working with upscale restaurants and bars to share recipes online. These allowed customers to recreate their favourite cocktails at home and, with it, bring the lively atmosphere of their beloved go-to spots to their doorstep.

Never one to be complacent, Tiffany also kept her ear to the ground in spotting trends in what people wanted the most out of post-pandemic travel. Reflecting on how drastically families were separated at the height of the pandemic, she identified that multigenerational trips are on the rise as families look for holidays that bring together grandparents and grandchildren in an experience that is fun for all.

She also finds that couples are diving into their travel bucket list with renewed vigour after dealing with restricted lifestyles and coming to the realisation that life is too short to put off exploring new adventures together. Finally, she points to the special interest in solo travel that especially makes sense given not only how stuck individuals may have felt in their routine and location for so long, but also how prolonged periods of isolation with the same social circles can prompt a need for change and independence.

Looking ahead in the growth of Luxe Social Media ®, Tiffany maintains that quality must be prioritised over quantity in everything she does. Rather than aiming for the longest list of clients, Tiffany is happy to keep a selective set of clients and focus on building and maintaining strong, trusting relationships with them. While her work at Luxe Social Media ® means putting the spotlight on her clients and letting them shine, she is also dedicated to writing and publishing outward-facing content as @LuxTiffany. This is vital to keeping her edge as an industry thought leader and luxury travel expert whose breadth of experience enriches the services she provides through Luxe Social Media ®.

A proud member of the Forbes Travel Guides Strategy Committee, an active part of the Boston social scene, and an animal rescuer, Tiffany finds ways to integrate all the different hats she wears into the content she shares as @LuxeTiffany. This way, she is able to engage with her audiences on a more human level. In fact, she recalls with delight the times that general managers of hotels and other industry leaders not only strike up business-related conversations, but also ask after her cats, as seen on her Instagram stories. She emphasises time and again that it’s all about forming those warm and trusting person-to person connections.

For all the ways in which social media marketing is evolving today, with trends that come and go and organic reach faltering in the face of paid advertising efforts, its path was all the more unpredictable back in 2009 when @LuxeTiffany emerged onto the scene. With a vision and a mission, Tiffany not only developed a career in social media marketing but played a key hand in defining what that could even mean for luxury service providers. Was social media just a playful interface for kids? Or could it be a powerful tool to inspire travellers like never before? Tiffany knew the answer even back then and has been unrelenting in devising more creative and personalised ways to take the luxury hotel social media game to the next level.