Pamela Whitby chats to the founder of Edge Retreats, a new online luxury provider focused on the top of the top end

Australian-born Luke McCormick, a travel writer cum tech entrepreneur, thinks he could be on to something. His company, Edge Retreats, which started life as a blog on cool design, boutique and luxury hotels in 2012 and is now positioning itself as the online firm for ‘exceptional villa experiences’, is expected to turnover £1 million this year. Next year he is looking for revenues of between £5-6 million.

Venture capital backed, Edge Retreats launched in January with 800 properties but now has 2,000 listed with an average booking value of £10,000 a week. Globally, McCormick believes there are 50,000 suitable properties, so it seems there could be room for growth. Although Edge Retreats does have some properties in the more accessible weekly price range (£3,500 to £5,000), the focus really is the top end with some customers willing to pay as much as £200,000 for a seven-night stay.

McCormick’s calculations are based on growth forecasts of the wider global travel market, worth £500bn today and still growing. And with online travel sales growing too at 12% annually, the London-based Aussie believes that the luxury travel market could be worth £15bn in 2016, up from £10bn this year.

His customers: Captains of industry, successful entrepreneurs, Russian ballerinas, American authors, oil tycoons, royal families - you name the world’s top end and they are prospective clients. Clients are either looking for a stay, or looking to rent out their high-end property. 

The idea is to work as a bridge between owners and customers, which involves a careful filtering process of personal referrals, reviews, background checks and so on.  

Competitive edge: more than gold taps and excess

It was while blogging on a niche part of the luxury travel sector for a range of publications, as well as his own Edge Retreats’ blog, while working in the travel industry, including a stint managing digital acquisitions in the UK for Secret Escapes, that the idea bedded down.

Luxury…is about far more than “gold taps and excess”

What he gathered while writing was a loyal following of those in search of a luxury experience, and an understanding that this is about far more than just “gold taps and excess”.

Proof, perhaps that in a digital world the ability to build a viable business idea often follows great content.

Having said all that, it’s not as if there isn’t competition in the luxury space. Airbnb, HomeAway, as well as firms like Unique Home Stays, among others, all offer the opportunity to stay in a luxury villa.

But McCormick argues that his company has the edge. For one, it has a “truly global view” with properties in 40 countries and customers from 25. Theirs too, he says, is a highly curated offering of truly exceptional, and carefully vetted properties. 

"The focus for inclusion of property is very much quality, not price, but quite often the two go hand in hand,” McCormick says.

Curated online luxury

The head of a global financial services company probably doesn’t have time to trawl the internet to find a property, private chef or house manager, nor arrange yacht hire, stock the fridge or source childcare.

So one of the gaps that Edge Retreats intends to fill is that of a fully-fledged concierge service, all these services will be bookable online.

However, given the high-value nature of Edge Retreat’s transactions online bookings are going to come overnight. To date just 12% of bookings have been made online, and 2-3% via mobile. But McCormick believes that this changing fast, and will continue to do so. A recent online booking to the tune of £30,000 is, he argues, proof that people are becoming more confident.

A recent online booking to the tune of £30,000 is proof that people are becoming more confident

And they are becoming more confident on their mobile devices. Bookings via mobile devices are forecast to make up around 30% of global online sales by 2017, and with the introduction of Apple Pay, that will only intensify, says McCormick. Mobile is where Edge Retreats has been focusing its energy in the past six months, and a new web and mobile version of the site will be released at the end of this month.

Says McCormick. “We have spent around six months building it and it will offer a really superior user experience - certainly among the best in market.”

However, it’s fair to say that at this high end of the market, there will likely always been a need for a call centre, and a highly curated human touch. Because if your customers are paying anything between £10,000 and £200,000 a week on a luxury villa, then it had better be the best.