The Belmond Bellini Club

Belmond owns a particular kind of place: the Cipriani in Venice, the Splendido above Portofino, the Mount Nelson in Cape Town, the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express, the Royal Scotsman, safari lodges in the Okavango. Hotels you book for the building and the setting as much as the bed. The Belmond Bellini Club is the programme that makes those stays better at no extra cost, and it is one of the partnerships our clients ask about most. This guide covers what the Bellini Club is, exactly what it adds, how it works on the trains, and how Berkeley Travel books it.

The Bellini Club is Belmond’s invitation-only recognition programme for travel agencies, named after the cocktail invented at Harry’s Bar in Venice, a few doors from the Cipriani. Belmond selects a limited number of agencies worldwide; guests cannot join directly. When a stay is booked through a Bellini Club agency, Belmond attaches a set of benefits to the reservation at the same rate you would pay booking direct.

Like the Four Seasons Preferred Partner programme, it is not a loyalty scheme: there are no points, no tiers and nothing to earn. The benefits follow the booking, so a first-time Belmond guest receives the same recognition as a regular. Berkeley Travel is a Bellini Club member, and since Belmond became part of LVMH its properties have been among the most requested in our portfolio.

At Belmond hotels and resorts, a Bellini Club booking includes:

1. Daily breakfast for two, in the restaurant or in your room
2. A property credit per stay, typically US$100 for rooms and US$200 for suites, with some properties offering more; the exact amount is confirmed in writing at booking
3. A room upgrade on arrival, subject to availability
4. Early check-in and late check-out, subject to availability
5. VIP recognition: the hotel knows a Bellini Club guest is arriving, which shapes the room you are given and the welcome you receive

The benefits apply across the collection, from the Cipriani and Splendido in Italy to Cap Juluca in Anguilla, Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons in Oxfordshire and the Mount Nelson in Cape Town. Over a week in a Cipriani suite, breakfast and credit alone add up to a significant sum before the upgrade is counted.

This is where the Bellini Club differs from every other hotel programme, and where most guides go wrong. Belmond’s trains are part of the programme, but the benefits take a different form: there is no daily breakfast perk, because every meal on board is already included. Instead, Bellini Club bookings on the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express, Royal Scotsman, Britannic Explorer and Andean Explorer carry an onboard credit per person, usable against the bar, spa treatments where the train has a spa, and excursions. Just as valuable, in our experience, is the access: Bellini Club agencies can secure cabins on new routes and peak dates that are not visible to the public, which on a train of 40 to 100 guests is often the difference between going and not going. Our guide to luxury train journeys covers which cabin to book and why.

I travelled on the Britannic Explorer recently, on its three-night journey through Wales, and it is one of the most distinctive ways I know to see Britain. In three days you see more of Wales than most visitors manage in a fortnight, from the valleys and the coast to places few travellers would find on their own, and every evening you return to a calm, beautifully finished cabin. Dinner is overseen by Simon Rogan, the three-Michelin-starred chef behind L’Enclume, with menus built around British farms and producers, and the Wellness Suite, run with the British skincare brand Wildsmith, is a first for a sleeper train in Britain. What surprised me most was the company. With only 36 guests on board, you share the journey with a small group of like-minded people, and by the second evening the dining car felt more like a house party than a train.

Belmond’s safari lodges in Botswana, Eagle Island and Savute Elephant Lodge, are fully inclusive, so the benefits there again take the form of recognition and credit rather than breakfast. Our bespoke safari guide explains how we build a Botswana itinerary around them.

There is no online button, and no public list of participating agencies. You book through a Bellini Club member, who places the reservation with Belmond and attaches the benefits. With Berkeley Travel it is a conversation: tell your Travel Designer the property or train, the dates and the occasion, and you receive the public rate with the benefits itemised, followed by Belmond’s confirmation showing them. Bellini Club benefits can usually be combined with Belmond’s own published offers; where an offer excludes them, we tell you which is worth more.

The Belmond collection rewards planning: the Cipriani in June, the Orient-Express in autumn and Cap Juluca at Christmas are among the hardest bookings we make each year, and Bellini Club access is often what secures them. Berkeley Travel’s Travel Designers book Belmond’s hotels, trains and lodges regularly. Contact our team with the property and dates you have in mind.