Luxury Escapes’ entry in the UK market has exceeded expectations for the Australian founded travel company. “The UK entry has been more exciting than the US,” a candid Adam Schwab, Co-Founder and CEO of Luxury Escapes, told LATTE. “The UK has been really amazing.”“There are many similarities to Australia in terms of the way Brits like to travel,” Schwab said.“We offer such amazing products and deals in the Maldives, Dubai, Thailand, Bali, Vietnam, and now increasingly in Europe, and there is a great synergy of where Australian travellers are heading to.”
Schwab said demand of Luxury Escape’s packages from the UK is booming, with 50% growth year-on-year.While Luxury Escapes hasn’t been an overnight sensation in that market, now with a few years under its belt and increased investment, the business is flourishing, having opened up an office in Barcelona around 18 months ago which has 30-40 staff. The European headquarters services the UK market with English-speaking staff.Schwab said Luxury Escapes’ people on the ground have developed great relationships with hoteliers across Greece, Italy, France, the UK – destinations that Australian traveller also explore.Schwab noted that the US market is “growing nicely” but not at the same pace as the UK, with the American traveller tending to book more from a bed-bank/online travel agent, compared to a retailer or wholesaler.
“We’re still very hopeful for the North American market, with more business coming from Canada and Mexico growing, but they are a couple of years behind Europe.”
Having launched Luxury Escapes’ reward program Sociêté back in May, Schwab says the scheme will be rolled out in overseas markets in the next few months. That will come once Sociêté has secured a lounge operator – as flagged first by LATTE last month – with lounge access one of the key pillars of the program, alongside transfers and room upgrades.Schwab revealed to LATTE that the uptake for Luxury Escapes’ other rewards program, Luxplus+, which has an annual membership fee and different perks, was stronger in markets overseas than it was in Australia.“There’s really good demand for Société, and we are very confident it will be a big success overseas too.”
Schwab lauded other major loyalty programs, including Qantas Frequent Flyer, Velocity, Bonvoy and Accor, saying those successful schemes have provided models for Luxury Escapes to learn from.“I think the difference between us and those established brands, they’ve got great franchises, millions and millions of members and such great brands that they don’t need to continually improve. Whereas we’ll always be trying to improve our offering, and we’ll keep making our offering better and better.”“We’re dynamic, and the stuff we have in the pipeline, it’s super exciting.”“We think we’ve got the most generous program now. But in a year’s time we’ll be WAY more generous. There are things we’ll be able to leverage off our partners to offer even more value to our Société members.”Quizzed by LATTE if Luxury Escapes looks at the Virtuoso hotel program and the consortia’s member upgrade arrangement that offers a room upgrade, early check-in and late check-out, breakfast included, dining credits, etc, Schwab said:“We have huge respect for Virtuoso. Our Luxplus+ program is similar, with a $250 credit, breakfast included – in some instances it’s better than what Virtuoso’s offer.“But we think Virtuoso is an amazing product.”
