From luxe villa bookings to property management

If Stephanie Chai looks familiar to you, it is no surprise as she was previously a TV personality and a model in Malaysia. However, Chai found her true calling as an entrepreneur. Five years ago, after a dare from a friend, she formed The Luxe Nomad, a luxury villa-booking portal featuring more than 1,800 property listings from all over the world.

In 2016, Luxe Nomad ventured into the property management sector. This means that customers can now check into properties that are managed by The Luxe Nomad. Currently, the group is managing 37 villas in Bali and six in Tokyo.

“Naturally, the next step of expansion would be to go into management. You can book with us and check into a Luxe Nomad property. For us, we are building a brand and we are stamping that brand on different villas and apartments. We also list them on other platforms such as Airbnb as our goal ultimately is to maximise bookings,” Chai tells EdgeProp.my following her earlier appearance at TheEdgeProperty.com’s (now known as EdgeProp.my) FB live showcase on July 22 held in conjunction with the launch of Malaysia’s first virtual property expo VPEX 2017.

Listening to her calling

Chai shares that it was a friend who suggested the business idea behind Luxe Nomad to her, knowing that “I like staying in nice places but not pay a lot for them”.

“My friend sent me a link to this website based in the States called Jetsetters.com and after five minutes, I emailed him back and said I am doing it. I just somehow knew that I should do it but I had no idea it would be so much work. I went from working one to two days a week to almost six to seven days while earning a lot less.

“If someone says being an entrepreneur and running a business is easy, then they haven’t done it yet. It is a 24/7 job and very difficult to switch off,” Chai says with a laugh.

“Having said that, it is amazing to be in a position where I can create, dictate and basically form something out of nothing.

“When we started The Luxe Nomad, there were already many travel accommodation booking sites but nothing in the luxury segment and nothing inspirational. And for me who loves to travel, travelling should be like dreaming,” she says.

“Let’s be fair. Who does not like staying in a five-star hotel? I like staying in nice places and one of our promises is to provide affordable luxury to our customers. For example, a five-bedroom villa in Phuket with a chef and a butler will cost less than a five-star hotel.

“I always like aiming for the middle to the upper-middle income groups. If you want to compete with the likes of Expedia and Bookings.com, you will need millions of dollars to do so. Niche spaces are something that giants overlook, but it gives opportunities to entrepreneurs such as myself,” she shares.

Currently, The Luxe Nomad has more than 123,000 followers on Instagram but where do the bookings usually come from?

“Our customers come from Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia and Malaysia. When I first started out, because I am from Malaysia, so naturally, our customers were also from Malaysia. But unfortunately, for us, the Ringgit has taken a hit in recent years. Travellers are very sensitive to currency movements, so Malaysians went from No. 1 to No. 4.”

For Singaporeans who are earning S$5,000 (RM15,400) a month, they can spend S$200 to S$300 per night in Bali. The most popular places among The Luxe Nomad’s customers are Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong.

“As most of our bookings come from the Asia-Pacific region, they [the customers] only have that much of leave to take and so lack the time to travel further to the US and Europe,” Chai elaborates.

Different set of challenges

Chai’s days in the media industry have not gone to waste as she puts her experience to good use in her current business.

“For instance, when I was in the TV and modelling industry, I learnt a lot from a couple of my agents who taught me about negotiation skills. I also picked up some tips from my father who ran his own business. When you are in the TV industry, you are constantly travelling and you have to be adaptable and work with people of different cultures. Similarly, when you are an entrepreneur, you cannot be rigid. For example in Asia, you have developed countries like Singapore and then you go to Indonesia where things are not as black and white,” Chai explains.

The Luxe Nomad initially started out as a flash sale site but Chai decided to turn it into a full-fledged luxury villa online booking platform following the good response.

“At a certain point, people become immune to sales. It is like going to a departmental store that is constantly having a sale, and people don’t get excited anymore.

“We saw the numbers piling in for the villa market, hence the full pivot. That was when we also saw our revenue double. That move really paid off, but then again, not every pivot in the start-up industry works,” says Chai.

As the CEO and founder of the company, Chai oversees marketing, IT, customer service and overall strategy.

“I am looking at potential acquisitions and speaking to different potential partners. Interestingly, I have never done mergers and acquisitions before but it is integral to our future,” she stresses.

“It is vital to find investors who share the same vision as you.”

What it takes to make it

One of the practices that Chai adopts at work is that she always looks for someone with a better skill set than herself in the areas which she is not familiar with.

“Having said that, I also need to understand and learn what it is all about. I may not ace in that area but I can play around with it. How can I manage people if I don’t know what they are doing?” Chai notes.

“Don’t simply take money from anyone. You don’t want to fight with your investors down the line in the future. There will be differences in opinions but it should be with investors that share the same value and vision as you.

“Secondly, do not fudge the numbers. It is always better to under promise and over deliver. Always be realistic with how big your market is and how much you can grow. Even after being in this business for five years, I don’t sit back and assume it will always be a bed of roses. You constantly need to be on your toes,” Chai concludes.

This story first appeared in EdgeProp.my pullout on Nov 17, 2017. Download EdgeProp.my pullout here for free.