As Australia slowly awakens, so is Luxury Escapes, the company that grew out of packaging luxury hotel experiences for Australian customers and, in the last seven years, has cast its net wider to Asia.
Like other travel companies, it too had to deal with a crisis of cancellations and change requests but its ability to move quickly to a self-service model with its “My Escape” feature helped cushion it from a worse impact, and its roots in the “Buy Now, Book Later” product line has also meant that even in the depths of the crisis, it was able to get bookings and payments with its built-in flexibility.
Some key takeaways:
“Buy Now, Book Later” feature comes to the rescue
“When we launched, it was part of a broader deals business. The voucher was really the only way we could offer it, there was no confirmed dates, system availability – that’s how we’ve been operating this business for the last three to five years. Obviously, it’s increased in significant popularity in the last couple of months. So it was very easy for us to pivot the business to that model and find that extra flexibility during this period when people needed it.”
Weaknesses exposed in travel eco-system as well as within companies
“Businesses that do practice solid, risk management processes have definitely fared better, so those are able to pivot quickly. Companies that have very high fixed overheads are always going to struggle.”
Wide array of travel conditions confusing for the consumer and a challenge for OTAs
“Travellers are going to expect more flexibility. What this crisis has shown is that flexibility means very different things to different people. There’s quite a varied array of travel conditions today – conditions of products sold, often for the same trip. That has caused quite a lot of confusion for customers, but also for intermediaries like OTAs – to be able to deal with customers and suppliers and be the middleman in those conversations … has been really, really quite, quite difficult.”
Big domestic push in Australia, India, Thailand, Singapore
“We’re seeing increased traffic searches for domestic deals in Australia, but also in other markets, where we operate – India, Thailand, Singapore. And we are starting to see those bookings come back now. As the borders get opened up, and we start to see that travel actually occurs, people will be more confident about booking and travelling when they want to.”
Safe flight protocol – a harmonised model will emerge
“I think everyone’s finding their own model – what works best for them, both from a safety perspective, but also from the business continuity perspective. What normally happens in these circumstances if the models do start to harmonize over time, people beg borrow and steal from great ideas. And the best path ends up being found somewhere in the middle and we may see them being implemented within the airline groups.”
How will the luxury hotel experience change? Open minibars? Room service breakfast?
“We’re trying to find ways where we still include (food & beverage) features, and working with the hotel to do it in a different way. So for breakfast, maybe, room delivery service. And for drinks experience, we might find different ways to service that – whether it’s at the pool bar or something a little bit more secure. Or club lounge access and social distancing – we’re trying to find ways around that and how we work with each property. A lot of hotels were offering open minibars, so we might see that as an emerging feature in many hotels.”
Cruises (domestic) may come back sooner than people think
“People who cruise are very passionate customers and they just love it. The jury’s still out really, how soon cruising will bounce back, obviously international will be difficult. But a lot of cruise companies are pivoting to more domestic point to point cruising options. The cruising (companies) are working very hard to work out their health and safety protocols. So we might actually see a surge increasing sooner than people think. I think for international cruising, it will obviously be quite a bit longer.”
Road trips, camper vans, glamping – isolating-type trips to gain popularity
“Promoting (driving holidays) will be a big part of our future in the next six months. We’ve had some great stories about suppliers like, Britz Motorhomes & Campervans, so we’re selling quite a lot of their camper van product. Adventure holidays, where you drive around, and maybe even glamping as well, where you can actually get a car and go to a natural spot around the bush, will become very popular. Because will be that extra layer of safety by being distant from other people.”
Why we need the Aussie traveller back in Asia
“Australians travel longer, book in advance, spend more on f&b in hotels, like to try new things …
“Australians are very frequent travellers, and they love to get overseas as frequent as they can. And that definitely includes Asia, and I’m sure that most operators in Asia will love to see them come back as soon as possible.”
And what about that four-day work week, as proposed by New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern?
“I think that’s a great idea. I think if everyone had more holidays, it means people can travel more.”
