Business ideas are created as solutions to very specific problems, and it was out of a particular conundrum that the idea of LuxTravelEx was born. As is the case with many luxury travel properties, including the most recent property I managed, it was whilst facing the challenge of high marketing costs that this unique luxury travel exchange was created. Working for a number of years with marketing efforts focused on establishing an independent luxury boutique hotel in the high-end luxury travel trade, the costs that were needed to allow us to reach our potential were never really justified by the low room inventory that the property features. To explain this situation to a very bottom-line driven board of directors turns out to be an additional challenge. It then came down to considering a scenario of no marketing investment at all and assessing how this would affect our bottom line in the long run. Due to the property in question being a destination in itself, with a wide range of product and unique experiential offerings, we felt that it would do the property a huge disservice to not invest in marketing. Instead, we explored creative ways to leverage our marketing costs.

In my years in the trade I have found that more and more properties are facing similar challenges and deal with these by either cutting down their marketing exposure to a minimum, or focus only on a small selection of markets. As a result, lovely small and independent luxury niche products do not get the necessary exposure their property requires to be sustainable in the long run.

Finding value in the the old adage ‘Strength in numbers’, the objective of LuxTravelEx is to achieve economies of scale by providing a luxury travel exchange – a network of international sales and marketing representations to a number of like-minded properties. Our focus is on building a collaborative travel alliance that solves the issue of high marketing costs, ensures maximum exposure and delivers a realistic and tangible return on investment for small and independent luxury properties.

The strength of LuxTravelEx is based on our collaboration with the best international marketing representations in key markets. Having worked with us before, our affiliates are extremely passionate about our unique alliance and dynamic concept. It is this passion for our model that keeps them focused on ensuring that the LuxTravelEx partner properties’ expectations are met and that they are growing their bottom lines.

I will use this blog as a platform for exploring and sharing key insights on relevant marketing services in the Luxury travel and hospitality industry. My aim is to direct you to valuable content that will give us ways to strengthen our network, enlarge our alliance footprint and allow us to create successful campaigns and partnerships that increase your market opportunities and the chance to grow your business.

Yours in luxury travel exchange,
Gaby Gramm