Announcement | new things for ChubbyTravel in 2025

Hi friends!

Thank you to everyone who contributed to our community in 2024, it was a crazy year of growth & luxury travel. We grew from ~1k subs to now over 25,000 - the fastest growing luxury travel sub on reddit. So many of you used our sub to plan your luxury travels and gave back to the sub by writing awesome reviews of your experiences. Some of those top reviews of 2024 include: White Desert, Sri Lanka, Peru via Belmond, Anguilla at Cap Juluca & Malliouhana & many more

With so many newbies joining every day, many don't know our backstory and are confused about what our sub is for. I mentioned some of this in a post last week, but reiterating as I announce some new additions for 2025 and I'm going to pin this to the top for all new folks joining.

ChubbyTravel is a place for folks to discuss luxury travel, across a range of price points - with everyone included and welcome in the conversation. We are a community that values interesting discourse about luxury properties and destinations - while prioritizing kindness and respect to one another. It's a judgement free zone. Sometimes that discourse may be about an ultra luxe property like an Aman and sometimes that may be a boutique 5 star that's much less expensive but entirely lovely and very high touch. We will cover it all in here. If this resonates with you, excited to have you and I hope you enjoy our content and contribute your own.

---

Now on to the new part...

With the growth in the subreddit, it's inevitable that others in the industry (suppliers, operators, etc) are noticing us and the influence groups like ours have. And naturally, they want in on the conversation.

As of now we've just been travelers and TAs, shooting thoughts back and forth. I think there is an opportunity to allow others from the industry in, starting on a limited basis to see how it feels and if it resonates.

As much as us TAs or even fellow travelers like to claim we are experts on everything - we just aren't. There is an opportunity to get more meaningful, granular insights from subject matter experts - whether it be from a GM of a specific hotel, the lead of a brand or an operator who focuses on a very specific part of the globe. I'd like to bring folks across the spectrum in to add to the richness of our discussions.

I'm thinking of starting these as hosted AMAs as we ease into this new chapter of content on Chubby. Some examples would be:

  • hosting an AMA with an amazing Africa safari operator on the pros/cons of gorilla trekking in Rwanda vs Uganda
  • brining on my friend from Aman to talk about their brand positioning, increased focus on city hotels and where the brand is headed with new openings etc
  • AMA with the owner of Dulini, one of my fave safari lodges in the Sabi Sands on their origin story, focus on conservation and new lodge they are building in Botswana
  • Chatting with the GM of one of my fave boutique hotel in Paris (that many of you have now stayed with), Esprit Saint Germain and how they manage to stand out as a 28-room, family owned hotel in such a crowded luxury hotel market

These are just some initial ideas - I appreciate your feedback and thoughts. I really want to continue to make this an amazing corner of the internet to chat luxury travel.