Advisor Insights: Trevello’s Kim Hartlen’s Winning Strategy

Last month, we did a quick trip to the beautiful island of Saint Lucia for the Global Piton Awards which recognize the top sellers of the island around the globe.  It was a lively, lavish affair, attended by Saint Lucia dignitaries like Tourism CEO Louis Lewis and Parliamentary Secretary Guibion Ferdinand.

But if you could win an award for the best stroll on the red carpet, that might have to go to Trevello Advisor, Kim Hartlen.

“I like to think I do bring some fun to my groups,” she told Travel Market Report Canada with a laugh when we commented on her strut. “You know, after 34 years, I do have some energy. I have a little bit of spunk still within me, which is good.”

Trevello travel advisor Kim Hartlen has won the Saint Lucia Tourism Authority’s CEO Award for Canada not once, but twice in a row. It’s a mean feat; Hartlen sold the highest number of room nights in Canada for the island and was one of only five advisors recognized for their contributions to Saint Lucia.

She’s been with Trevello for only 9 years, before that in a storefront agency, though she’s worked in the travel industry since she was just out of high school.

“When people ask me how I began, it’s a story special to my heart when I share it,” she tells us. “My mom was a teacher, and she went to Australia after I graduated high school and I really didn’t know what I was going to do, so I took a gap year.

I decided to fly to see her and as I was on the journey by myself, I thought “I think I really want to work in travel”. We’d travelled as a family growing up, but it wasn’t a focus so to speak. When I got back, I enrolled in community college in New Brunswick and even before I graduated, I got a job with the airlines where I worked for five years. So, my career path of being a social worker totally changed the moment I got on that plane and flew that far away, and I never looked back.”

For 17 years, Hartlen has hosted a group trip to Sandals Resorts every year, which has helped to maintain and build her clientele. She chooses a destination and everyone is invited to join and throughout the week, organizes little add ons for the group such as a cocktail or dinner party exclusive to the group.

“I think since COVID, people have realized clients want to have that reassurance and they want to travel, but they do want to have someone with them, so group travel, hosted travel, is huge,” Hartlen says.

“I love taking groups away, surprising them with things, adding extra value to things that they don’t even know they’re going to get, things like maybe a private transfer, or fast track through security. I love all the extra little touches that come with my group that surprise the client.

The biggest compliment I could get, I think, from my clients that go on my groups, is that they always say it’s quite consistent. They don’t have to think about anything, when they travel with Kim. They just want to have it all done for them.”

We touch a bit on AI which Hartlen says she uses to help her social marketing strategy since she’s a one-woman show. We joke about the early days of hand-written tickets and the changes that someone in the industry for 34 years has seen.

But the most touching part perhaps is her admiration for her clients, her relationships with partners and with Trevello, specifically President & CEO Zeina Gedeon.

“None of this would be possible without the amazing clients that I’ve had over my 34 year career. Honestly, I could not do this without them or my biggest supporters the Saint Lucia Tourism Authority and Sandals Resorts. I couldn’t do this alone without great partners to be there for me through the whole process. Trevello has been a perfect fit for me.

This industry, it absolutely is in my DNA, it’s been my career.  I literally sit at my desk every day, feeling like I’m just new in the industry. That’s how excited I still am today after 34 years.”