You need to enable JavaScript to run this app.
New trip
ft

A ten-day trip is thirty or forty bookings. The difference is who you can call.

Anyone can find a hotel online. Your specialist is choosing from a list we built over nineteen years — hotels we've slept in, museums that let us book what the public can't, drivers we've used for a decade — and every name on it got there the same way: it earned it, and it keeps earning it.
3hotel collections, criteria published below
228museums
113rail carriers
442transfer providers
Where would you like to go?

Hotels: three collections, and what each one actually means

We have most of the world's hotels in our system. We show you almost none of them, because more hotels isn't more help. Most trips are built from two collections, Premium and Luxury. Value exists for travelers who'd rather spend on the days than the nights. Here is what each one has to pass — and notice that the floor on room size doesn't drop between Value and Premium.

Collection
Stars (official)
Smallest room type
Location
Round the clock
Value
3 or 4
18 m²
Within 2 km of the centre
a walk, or a couple of stops — we say which
—
Premium
4 or 5
18 m²
16 in Paris and Venice
Central, or on a direct line to it
—
Luxury
5
25 m²
Central
Reception and room service, 24 h

The three collections, in plain terms

Central, well rated, and honest about room sizes

Four- and five-star hotels, official classification, in the centre of the city or on a direct line to it. At least one room type of 18 square metres — 16 in Paris and Venice, where we'd rather tell you the truth about room sizes than pretend. Consistently strong guest ratings, checked against what our own travelers tell us after every stay.

The ones we'd choose for ourselves

The five-star hotels we'd choose for ourselves, official classification, in the centre of the city. At least one room type of 25 square metres. Reception and room service around the clock. The highest guest ratings in their city, checked against what our own travelers tell us after every stay. Where we know the hotel well, that relationship works for you: we tell them who's arriving and what matters to you before you get there.

What you get, not what you pay

Three- and four-star hotels, official classification, chosen for what you get rather than what you pay. The room-size floor is the same as Premium — at least one room type of 18 square metres — so what you give up is a star and a little distance, not space. Every Value hotel is within two kilometres of the centre: a walk or a couple of stops, and we tell you which. Solid guest ratings, checked against what our own travelers tell us after every stay.

How many make it, and which ones we've slept in

Choice is only useful up to a point. Past it, choice is work we should be doing for you. This is the whole list, and how it narrows.

~100,000
Hotels in our system
Most of the world's. We can price and book nearly any of them, and we recommend almost none. That's the point.
~18,000
Meet a collection's criteria
Across all three collections, in every destination we serve. Most of these we will still never book. They're on the list so that when you ask for a particular hotel, we can tell you in a minute whether it clears the bar.
250
Hotels we put in an itinerary by default
In the cities where our trips stay overnight. When your itinerary arrives with a hotel already chosen, it's one of these.
50
Visited and vetted by our team members as preferred
In the cities we send the most travelers to. Someone from Firebird slept in the bed, ate the breakfast, checked the bathroom, walked to the sights so the minutes we quote are minutes we've timed, and talked to the manager. What they found is on file for every specialist who books it after that.
200
The rest, vetted by the people who stayed
Chosen on the criteria, then kept on the list by what our own travelers tell us after their stay. A default that starts drawing complaints stops being a default.

Your itinerary says which kind your hotel is. If you'd rather stay somewhere else on the list, same rule: we tell you plainly whether we've been.

And then the specific

Beyond the three collections, lists we keep because customers keep asking. Small numbers, on purpose.

Swipe for more →

245
Japanese ryokans
with the ones that take first-timers gently marked
85
Moroccan riads
39
Castles you can sleep in
18
Arctic igloos & glass cabins
for the lights
228
Alpine hotels
113
National-park lodges
360
Accessible hotels
step-free, roll-in showers, checked not assumed
Family hotels
connecting rooms, real kids' menus
625
Spa & wellness
236
Design hotels

Accessible deserves its own sentence. Three hundred and sixty hotels where someone from Firebird has confirmed the step-free route, the door widths and the bathroom — not read it on the website. Nobody in our category publishes this list. Ask us for it.

Museums, rail, transfers, restaurants, theaters, venues

Same shape for each: how one gets on the list, what takes it off, and where the guide app feeds in.

Museum gallery interior
228 museums

Authorized-agency status — access, timed entry, and slots a public visitor can't get.

Train on elevated rail line
113 rail carriers

Booked direct or through our partner, with live seat maps so your specialist sees changes the moment they happen.

Woman checking phone
442 providers, and app that keep you connected

The moment every traveler dreads is the one outside arrivals, looking for a name on a card. Since this year your driver's app and yours share location, walk to the car rather than wait for it to find you.

Restaurant table setting with theater lighting
340 restaurants, theaters & venues

Group tables, sold-out seats, and experiences — kept on the list only as long as travelers keep saying yes.

What this means for your trip

Your specialist doesn't search. They pick — from a list where every hotel had to pass the same test, and in the cities we know best, from hotels they've stayed in themselves.

See our trips