LUXICO, Australia’s first ‘home hotel’, is giving itself a little pat on the back this morning, after enjoying some impressive revenue growth in 2015/16 – 46 per cent growth to be exact.
And the luxury accommodation service is showing no signs of slowing this impressive growth trend with the announcement of their 2016/17 results.
Husband and wife team, Alex and Thomas Ormerod co-founded Luxico in 2013 and have revealed the company will achieve an impressive 45 per cent revenue growth for the 2016/17 financial year with over 10,000 room nights being booked.
Managing Director Alex Ormerod said, “The results are really pleasing but not totally unexpected due to the share-economy trend providing travellers with the option to enjoy more ‘home-style’ accommodation over hotels.
“Luxico offers the added benefit of exclusive 24-hour concierge service and that along with the standard of luxurious properties we have available, sets us apart and helps to drive bookings.”
Luxico is also the only multi location luxury service operator in Australia with approximately 200 properties in Sydney, Melbourne, Mornington Peninsula and Palm Beach. The company is currently expanding into new markets and by the end of 2017 will have luxury homes available in Byron Bay, Sunshine Coast and Port Douglas to service growing international demand.
Ormerod added, “We are very focused on using technology to overcome logistical issues which allows us to consistently deliver great service in multiple locations and we are really looking forward to offering accommodation in these new markets providing our guests with greater variety.”
Not surprisingly, in 2016, as in 2015, Chinese visitors paid the highest room rates only booking top luxury properties across Australia, spending double the average room rate.
When it comes to domestic versus international bookings, these are on a par with 51 per cent of nights booked by domestic travellers and 49 per cent of room nights booked by international guests.
The UK and US represented 36 per cent of international bookings for the 2016/17 financial year. Results also showed travellers from Germany had the highest nightly room rate indicating guests from this country seek the ultimate in luxury experiences booking only the top tier properties.
Luxico is also the only operator fully integrated with the international travel trade industry with product offered by travel agent partners worldwide as a core distribution channel including Abercrombie &Kent, Quintessentially and American Express Travel.
While it’s less than obvious that the mega trend is towards sharing resources, these are certainly exciting times. The rich get to use the resources of other rich and that’s obvious market segmentation at this stage of evolution. Kudos to Luxico – and there will be ample margins to do so – in keeping the travel trade in the equation. It would be tempting to say that hoteliers need not worry as a ‘new’ breed of accommodation-seeker is courted and the overall pool expands, however it’s always interesting to see what sort of tactical response comes from traditional hospitality.