A LUXURY travel concierge has lifted the lid on the outrageous holidays of the super-rich – including a client who blew more than £850,000 in ONE WEEK.
Matthieu Schon arranges jaw-dropping trips for wealthy travellers, sports stars and VIPs across some of the world’s most exclusive destinations.
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The 29-year-old’s requests can range from £100,000 private jets and £40,000 yacht days to securing impossible restaurant tables in the middle of the night.
Matthieu, founder of Matt Concierge, said: “For the VIP, we can easily reach spending of half a million.
“Then the wife does some shopping; they will buy some jewellery.
“£500,000, as crazy as it sounds, is just like a standard VIP trip nowadays.
“That is what the luxury market has become recently.
“It’s mostly not the big VIPs or celebrities that everyone thinks will book the expensive villas or expensive experiences.
“It can be a guy you just pass by in the street.
“You would never think that guy is going to spend £100,000 or £150,000 on a holiday, but normal looking people have the money and are happy to spend it on luxury.”
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One client working in pharmaceuticals recently spent close to £857,000 during a single week-long trip around Europe.
Matthieu said: “He spent around £214,000 on a yacht rental, then a single afternoon of partying on the boat cost more than £51,000.
“And then it just kept going like this. In the end, nearly £850,000 was gone.
“That’s the crazy reality of the luxury world nowadays.”
Originally from Luxembourg, Matthieu moved to Dubai in 2018 before launching his own concierge company, which now has five employees.
His job sees him arranging accommodation, private transport, restaurants and other requests for clients travelling to luxury hotspots around the world.
While Matthieu sees a lot of ordinary people spending vast sums, he recently arranged a four-day Mykonos trip for a major NBA player.
Despite travelling with just his partner, the sports star booked the biggest villa available at the Santa Marina hotel.
The six-bedroom property cost around £45,000 for four days.
Matthieu said: “Even though he came as a couple, he booked a six-bedroom villa.
“NBA players have a lot of funds, so they like to spoil themselves.
“They might not go on holiday often because they have to train a lot.
“So when they do, they really do it properly.”
And while most of the luxuries become second nature to Matthieu, he still finds himself getting surprised by certain requests.
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Perhaps the most bizarre glimpse into the world of VIP travel came when one client suddenly decided they wanted a giant croissant on their private jet.
Matthieu had to urgently track one down from a bakery before getting it to the airport and through security.
And he revealed the biggest difference between ordinary holidaymakers and his richest clients is often their attitude towards time.
He said: “VIPs are not trying to negotiate prices that much.
“They are trying to get peace of mind.
“For them, 20 minutes of negotiation with a driver would equal in their business world maybe $5,000.”
But the biggest expectation is being on the clock 24/7.
Matthieu says clients regularly contact him at midnight or 1am after suddenly deciding they want to continue partying.
He said: “People like to go to a nice restaurant, then at the last minute they say, ‘OK, I want to go to the club now.’
“They don’t have a table, of course, so I have to quickly get that arranged.
“So I need to wake up, and it might be midnight or 1am, and get organised quickly.
“I need to call the club manager and arrange the table and make sure everything is in place for the client.”
And there is one luxury accommodation option Matthieu says he is reluctant to recommend to his VIPs – standalone villas.
Despite their popularity, he prefers villas located within hotel grounds because of the additional security.
Matthieu said: “I never recommend villas to my VIP clients, celebrities, to anyone.
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“When the NBA player came to me, I told him from the beginning, take a villa inside of a hotel.
“Hotels are usually less of a target because there are so many people around, so many cameras.”