Luxury travel in 2021, How is it going to evolve?

“We have not got to the end, even to the beginning of the end, but we have got to the end of the beginning”

We are all now immersed in a complex scenario with the danger of becoming chaotic in the medium-short term for luxury travel in 2021. In this scenario, innovation, tactic thinking, and adaptation to change take on greater importance.

The flu pandemic, which killed six times as many Americans and left survivors with an appetite to live the 1920s with a lot of positive vibes. We do hope that spirit will also animate the 2020s, and we are just at the beginning of a great new decade of Jazz Music!  

We must be able to filter all the information and define the key metrics that really talk for themselves on our company. Develop your critical thinking skills to help you decide what information to pay attention to, maintain business continuity, keep conversation with your clients, and protect your team is key. We should identify and maintain critical operations and retain core staff in anticipation of an eventual rebound.

While the current situation has been a killer for low-cost companies in general but especially for the airline industry, it has benefited luxury vacation rental markets, private jets, and first-class concierge services. Even with the promise of COVID vaccines on the horizon, we predict that low-cost air travel and business traveler will not recover in 2021, but the increase for luxury villas rentals in 2021 with 5-star hotel-like services and the use of private jets will thrive instead.

Villa Palo Alto                        Villa White                             Villa Nature

Keys to increasing your revenue if you are in the luxury travel sector and you want to do well in 2021

Knowing your customer segments and when they are likely to return is critical. Keep the conversation with your loyal guest and be ready to welcome them back with added value and special benefits.  There is a huge constraint demand ready to travel again as soon as it is possible. We’ve learned that even in a global pandemic, travel does not stop entirely—it just transforms the way It does. We have to adapt our business model to new consumers’ behaviours constantly, rethink cancellation policies to be more flexible, and provide personalised services.

What we learned this year form the luxury travel hospitality sector so far

Fortunately, Covid-19 has not just brought about the need for change, it also points a new way forward to enjoy a quality and more healthy life.  More demanding clients searching for private & exclusive destinations, offseason with less crowded services.

We are receiving a new kind of guests from Hotels who bring higher expectations of Hospitality, full concierge service, maintenance, and request amenities like a 5-star Hotel. Each of our guests are appointed with a Villa Manager who will greet the guest upon arrival and will be available 24/ during your whole stay. In Marbella Mountain Resort help our families to plan their trips from A to Z, not only organising all the in-house services but also providing 24/7 concierge services outside the Villa including our own transportation services.

We are revolutionising the luxury travel industry by providing our guests with the ultimate experience in Luxury Villas for Rent in Costa del Sol with 5 star hotel-like services. We have direct contact with the owners, managing our properties as a small Hotel Boutique Chain not using any third party in between. Therefore our clients can rest easy knowing you’re enjoying the most competitive nightly rates, and provide an immediate response to any issue.

Our predictions for luxury travel in 2021

Definitely, we will see more interest in a return to exclusivity & excellence.  Unbranded and small independent boutique hotels & Villa resorts will arise again vs global chains and branded hotels.

Multi-generation & multi-family high demanding clients searching for private & exclusive destinations with secondary less crowded airports. Looking for remote but accessible & exclusive destinations, even if there are in front of the beach. Door to door service using private transportation as Private Jets, with little human interactions.

I predict single-family luxury vacation properties will achieve a higher proportion of the overall lodging market next year, while hotels’ market share continues to shrink. Families are looking for more secure environments than the traditional hotels, choosing private villa resorts with 5-star hotel-like services instead.

Many people will want to return to destinations that they know well, trust and feel safe. An increase in the hiring of vacation packages is estimated since some people find it more secure to have everything contracted with a single provider, who can help them with unforeseen events that arise. The demand for travel insurance that covers unforeseen situations generated by pandemics or major natural disasters will increase.

But others, mostly Millennials who take more risk and do not enjoy restrictions and rules, will want to take a trip like that once in a lifetime in case the world is going to end up soon. Another large part of tourists in 2021 will decide to take a trip within their own country, instead of flying to an international destination. It is what in English is called Staycations (stay + vacations).

Many tourists will change the way they travel. Instead of making 3 or 4 short trips throughout the year, they will take a single, longer and more planned trip. We have received more long-term requests than before. We do predict the length of stay continues to climb. 

How remote work and schooling is changing luxury travel bookings

With work and school going more on remote, we have noticed an increase of CEOs & Top executives looking for a safe and comfortable flexible office base for their families, where to work and enjoy quality life at the same time. That is what we called Workcation, a mix of work and vacation! Some of our luxury properties available to rent are located within integrated luxury resorts, with golf, tennis, spa, and horse-riding facilities.

Digital nomads are those people whose work allows them to always live anywhere and spend seasons in different destinations around the world while they carry out their professional activity remotely. Adapting to these changing customer expectations and incorporating value-add technologies and services will be the difference for Luxury Property Rental Management companies who will take advantage of that opportunity.

How airline industry will evolve

In the past, the airline industry has always fully recovered from crises. But this time has been different. The forecast made in May 2020 by the International Air Transport Association (iata) that passenger numbers would return to pre-pandemic levels by 2023 now looks wildly optimistic. But the trade body’s prediction that only 30 of the world’s 700 or so airlines would survive the crisis without government help was spot on. Some Spanish airlines are predicting a 50-60% occupancy this summer, getting back to 2019 levels in 2025.

That covid-19 has exposed the fragility of globalisation is particularly apparent in the case of aviation. The industry can no longer rely on the steady growth of the past, or indeed any growth at all. Boeing cut future production by 50% and cancelled plans to develop two new airliners in the coming decade. Even Airbus, which has enough orders to keep its assembly lines busy for a decade, decided to slow production by 30%.

Private Jets see a rise in demand during the pandemic period many of them first time private fliers. Marbella Mountain Resorts organice all transportation services to the clients with a door to door service. Not only for the obvious benefits, but because the amount of flights offered commercially has been reduced as demand remains low for leisure and other non-essential travel. The flexibility and efficiency of private air travel may again prove decisive for companies as it has in the past.

Online & Smaller meetings

Even firms that are solvent enough to let their employees fly have not been keen to do so. “People are more comfortable with online meetings, and that will never go away. Many corporate events and conferences have gone online permanently. The millennials are more likely to regard business travel as a status symbol than older workers and consider themselves at less risk from covid-19.  Event Management companies are searching now for luxury properties to rent as Marbella Mountain Resort to hold smaller and private meetings with less participants.

Sanitary passport and PCR Test

It is very likely that the idea of ​​creating a health passport will spread to confirm that either the disease has passed, that the traveler has been vaccinated, or that at least they have a negative PCR performed in the last 72 hours. This passport may be required to enter certain destinations and even tourist attractions and resources.