2024 Business NH private company to watch: Posh Travel

Three-year average annual growth: 70%

Founded: 1988

Headquarters: 1 Bayside Road, Greenland

President: Kathy Burns Lamphier

Total number of employees: 5 full-time, 7 part-time

Product/service: Luxury travel coordination

During the pandemic, as other businesses pivoted to chase new opportunities, Kathy Burns Lamphier, owner and president of Posh Travel, issued millions of dollars in refunds. “We were busy as heck that whole year, but all we did was give refunds,” she says. “It was very scary time for us.”

The shutdown in international travel was something Burns Lamphier had never imagined over more than 30 years in business. Since opening in 1988, Posh Travel had weathered many changes to the industry, from the arrival of online booking sites to the Sept. 11 attacks. The business had grown steadily, then really picked up momentum in 2017. By 2019, sales had exceeded $7 million, an amount that was “off the charts,” Burns Lamphier says.

Then Posh Travel did barely any business during 2020 or the first half of 2021. During that time, Burns Lamphier became a consumer advocate—fighting to get her clients the refunds she felt they deserved. “A lot of those customers haven’t forgotten that,” Burns Lamphier says.

As soon as the United States stopped requiring travelers to show a negative COVID test to re-enter the country, demand for travel experiences came back with a vengeance. “The floodgates opened on that day,” Burns Lamphier says. “They call it revenge travel.”

The rapport that Posh Travel created with customers before and during the pandemic led to repeat customers and referrals. By 2023, Posh Travel exceeded its 2019 sales record. This year, the company hit that number in the first eight months.

The growth feels more sustainable than it did in 2019, not just because Burns Lamphier has grown her team. She’s also kept some changes she made during the pandemic, including being officially closed on Fridays (only allowing select appointments). “We’re doing as much work in four days that we used to take five days to do,” she says. 

•••

These articles are being shared by partners in the Granite State News Collaborative. For more information, visit collaborativenh.org.