This Travel Subscription Service Gets You Unlimited Access to Some of the World's Best Hotels

Editor’s Note: Travel might be complicated right now, but use our inspirational trip ideas to plan ahead for your next bucket list adventure.

As more travelers embrace escapes that offer built-in social distancing, private vacation rentals are in high demand. Searches for “vacation rentals” surged more than sevenfold between March and their peak in June, according to Google Trends. Now travel club Inspirato wants to make finding the perfect stay even easier. Adding to an idea it pioneered in 2019, the company has announced a new version of the Inspirato Pass (memberships from $2,500 a month), which gives travelers unlimited access to a portfolio of villas and rooms at luxury hotels, plus entrée to private events like a weekend at the C Lazy U Ranch (a T+L reader favorite in Colorado) or a safari at some of the top camps in Botswana (including and Beyond Sandibe Okavango Safari Lodge and Belmond Savute Elephant Lodge), which typically sell out as much as two years in advance.

“If you’re familiar with how Rent the Runway works or the original Netflix subscription, the Inspirato Pass is the same,” says Brent Handler, the company’s founder and CEO.

Similar to those services, Inspirato serves up a list of vacation themes such as “rejuvenate on the beach in Mexico.” Travelers then choose from a network of 350 or so residences, like the ocean-view estates on Costa Rica’s Cacique Peninsula or slopeside condos in Deer Valley, Utah, that aren’t available on any other platform. Inspirato also has access to off-the-market hotel rooms at well-known resorts like Conrad Fort Lauderdale Beach; Dorado Beach, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve; and Viceroy Los Cabos. And, once coronavirus restrictions loosen, Inspirato plans to run cruise charters and other more organized tours with partners like Lindblad Expeditions and Silversea Cruises.

A single membership covers the full cost of each stay, and pass holders can make bookings for immediate family members — and invite guests along. (An important caveat: the pass doesn’t cover airfare.) Though members can only book one trip at a time, there’s a work-around that “hundreds” of users have found, Handler says: “Buy more than one pass.”

A version of this story first appeared in the December 2020 issue of Travel + Leisure under the headline The Netflix for Vacations Is Finally Here.