For Matthieu Schon, Founder of Matt Concierge, luxury travel is no longer defined simply by how much someone is willing to spend. The modern luxury traveller is looking for something considerably harder to purchase: access, time, and experiences that feel genuinely personal.
The shift is changing what affluent travellers expect from concierge services. A luxury hotel, private jet or superyacht may still be part of the equation, but the value increasingly lies in what happens around those headline experiences. The right table, the right timing, the driver waiting before a guest needs to call, or a restaurant knowing a client’s preferred wine can make the difference between an expensive trip and an exceptional one.
“The biggest change is that people are no longer impressed simply because something is expensive,” Schon said. “They want access to something they could not easily arrange themselves.”
That might mean securing a table at a restaurant that has been booked out for weeks, arranging a yacht at short notice, creating a private experience around a major event or building an entire itinerary around a single moment. Increasingly, it also means being able to make those arrangements at speed.
A client might message from Dubai in the morning wanting to be in Saint-Tropez that evening, leaving a concierge team to coordinate flights, transfers, accommodation, restaurants and everything in between.
“Ten years ago, people planned luxury travel much further in advance,” Schon said. “Today, many of the most demanding requests are essentially: ‘I want this, I want it tomorrow, and I don’t want to think about how it happens.'”
From Material Luxury to Effortless Experiences
The definition of luxury has evolved considerably since Schon first entered the industry. Where luxury was once closely associated with visible symbols of wealth, today’s traveller can be just as interested in how seamlessly an experience comes together. “For me, luxury today is effortless,” Schon said. “You should never feel the logistics happening around you.” If plans change, somebody is already dealing with the consequences before the client has to become involved.
The traditional markers of luxury have not disappeared. The most expensive suite, the largest yacht, first class and Michelin-starred restaurants still have their place. But Schon believes the experience surrounding those things matters more than the price tag attached to them.
“You can stay in a €10,000-a-night hotel and still have a terrible luxury experience if nobody understands you,” he said. “Equally, a simple lunch in a tiny restaurant somewhere in Italy can become one of the highlights of your year if everything about it feels authentic and perfectly timed.”
That philosophy is central to Matt Concierge, which Schon created after identifying what he saw as a gap between traditional travel agencies and the way a new generation of affluent clients lives.
People now discover destinations through Instagram, communicate through WhatsApp, and can decide almost spontaneously that they want to travel. A lengthy consultation followed by a PDF itinerary several days later does not necessarily fit that lifestyle. “They want somebody who understands their lifestyle, responds quickly, and can actually execute,” Schon said.
His experience across luxury retail, digital marketing, private aviation, and premium lifestyle businesses has helped shape that approach. Each sector exposed him to a different part of the affluent consumer’s relationship with luxury, from the importance of brand perception to the value of time and the emotional impact of seemingly minor details.
“Working in luxury teaches you that price is rarely the only consideration,” Schon said. “Private aviation teaches you how valuable time is. Digital marketing teaches you how people discover and perceive brands. And hospitality teaches you that the smallest details often create the strongest emotional reaction.”
The common denominator, he argues, is convenience.
A client may be perfectly comfortable spending a significant amount on a hotel or private flight but become disproportionately frustrated if they then have to make five phone calls to organise a restaurant reservation. As people’s professional and personal lives become busier, the value of having someone trusted who can simply make things happen increases.
Why Relationships Still Matter in a Digital World
The growth of online booking platforms has made luxury travel more accessible to organise independently. Yet the very abundance of information available to travellers has created another problem: deciding what is worth their time.
Technology is highly effective at transactions. It can display hotels, restaurants, villas, flights and reviews within seconds. What it cannot easily replicate is judgment.
“You can ask an app to show you the ten highest-rated restaurants in Saint-Tropez,” Schon said. “But it does not necessarily know which one is right for you, which table you should request, what time the atmosphere starts, whether you should go on Thursday rather than Friday, or whether the place you saw all over Instagram is actually worth going to.”
That distinction between information and curation sits at the heart of his approach. A restaurant might technically be the highest rated in a destination but completely unsuitable for a family travelling with young children. A client might want an energetic social atmosphere but have no interest in a nightclub. A beautiful hotel might be exceptional in isolation but poorly located for the rest of the itinerary.
Technology can provide the options. A concierge must make sense of them, which requires relationships as much as it requires money. Schon points out that some of the most difficult bookings involve venues with limited inventory, from restaurants with only a handful of tables to hotels that sell out months ahead and privately owned villas that never appear on public booking platforms. “Money gets you very far in luxury travel, obviously, but it does not solve everything,” he said.
A longstanding relationship with a hotel, restaurant or other supplier can make a significant difference because access depends on trust. A venue needs to know that a concierge understands its rules, communicates properly and sends clients who will respect the experience. “Access is essentially built on trust over time,” Schon said.
Importantly, that relationship does not guarantee a “yes” every time. Schon believes an effective concierge must be willing to tell clients when something cannot realistically be arranged rather than making promises that cannot be fulfilled.
The same principle applies to recommendations. Personalisation is not simply placing a client’s name on a welcome card or remembering their birthday. It means understanding how they travel.
One client may want every minute of a seven-day holiday organised. Another may actively dislike having a schedule and want only two reservations. A family could prioritise connecting rooms, children’s facilities and restaurants that accommodate younger guests, while a group of friends may care far more about nightlife and where their table is positioned. An executive travelling between meetings may have an entirely different priority: efficiency.
“Personalisation is not putting someone’s name on a welcome card,” Schon said. “It is understanding how that person actually travels and what their needs and wants are.” Sometimes, that can even mean advising a client not to make a particular booking. “The best service is saying, ‘I wouldn’t recommend that. Let me show you something better,'” Schon said.
The Problem with the Instagram Itinerary
Schon has another source of insight into changing travel habits: his social media audience, which has grown to more than 136,000 followers through destination guides and travel recommendations.
The audience provides an immediate feedback loop. What people save, share, ask questions about, and ultimately want to book offers a window into how travellers are consuming luxury travel information.
One lesson has been that travellers want considerably more practical information than the industry sometimes assumes. A beautiful hotel photograph may generate interest, but people also want to know whether the location is genuinely convenient, where they should have lunch, when they should arrive and whether a beach club is sophisticated or simply crowded.
“They don’t only want to see a beautiful hotel room,” Schon said. “They want to know: Is the location actually good? Where should I have lunch? What time should I arrive? Is this beach club sophisticated or is it a party?”
The appetite for information, however, has not eliminated the need for curation. If anything, it has made curation more important.
Social media has also created a paradox for luxury travel. Platforms have made previously obscure destinations and venues discoverable to millions of people, but that same visibility can quickly turn a supposedly exclusive experience into a crowded checklist.
“You can go to Mykonos, Saint-Tropez, Ibiza or even Dubai and sometimes feel as though everybody is following the same itinerary they saw online,” Schon said. The irony, he argues, is that genuine luxury should be personal. If thousands of travellers are competing for the same table because they have all seen the same recommendation online, popularity does not necessarily make the experience exceptional.
“Social media is amazing for discovery, but you need to use it as inspiration rather than a checklist,” he said. Some of his favourite recommendations are therefore not necessarily the most photogenic. A destination or restaurant that looks unimpressive online can sometimes deliver a far more memorable experience in person.
The same philosophy informs the destinations he considers worth exploring in 2026. The Mediterranean remains difficult to beat, but Schon believes travellers should look beyond the established circuit. Sardinia offers extraordinary coastline alongside a culture that remains visible away from its luxury hotels. The Greek islands extend well beyond Mykonos, with opportunities to explore by boat, eat at small tavernas, and experience beautiful stretches of coastline without making a beach club the centre of the trip. Türkiye, particularly the coastline around Bodrum and further along the Turkish Riviera, is another destination he believes deserves greater attention at the luxury end of the market.
Increasingly, the hotel itself can also become the reason for a journey. Rather than selecting a fashionable city first and then finding somewhere to stay, travellers are beginning to discover destinations through exceptional properties and build an entire trip around them.
Dubai, Experiential Luxury and What Comes Next
Among established luxury destinations, Dubai occupies a distinctive position because of its ability to combine high-end experiences with infrastructure and efficiency.
“You can land, go through the airport, be driven to one of the best hotels in the world, have lunch at a major international restaurant, spend the afternoon on a yacht and go to another world-class venue that evening, all within a very controlled environment,” Schon said.
That convenience is one of the city’s defining strengths. Dubai can also continually reinvent itself, with new hotels, restaurants, and concepts appearing at a pace that more established destinations struggle to match. The comparison with places such as Saint-Tropez and Monaco is nevertheless revealing. Those destinations possess something Dubai cannot simply create: heritage. Part of the magic of those destinations is their imperfections. Dubai’s strength is different. “What Dubai does perhaps better than anywhere else is combining luxury with efficiency,” he said.
The next stage of luxury travel, however, may involve bringing together efficiency, exclusivity and a stronger sense of cultural or brand identity. Schon expects branded experiences to play an increasingly important role. Luxury fashion houses are moving beyond products and creating entire worlds around their brands, from beach clubs and cafés to hotel partnerships, seasonal pop-ups and destination takeovers.
For consumers who already identify with those brands, the experience becomes an extension of ownership. Rather than simply purchasing a handbag or watch, they can spend an afternoon immersed in the world associated with it. At the same time, Schon believes travellers are becoming more selective about what qualifies as memorable. Exclusivity alone is no longer sufficient. An experience needs to feel relevant to the individual.
The future, in his view, will involve limited-time branded experiences, private access, unusual collaborations and highly personalised itineraries that cannot simply be replicated through an online booking platform.
That brings the conversation back to the fundamental difference between luxury as a price point and luxury as a service. The industry can sometimes become too focused on proving that an experience is luxurious. Yet the most effective service often does the opposite. “Exceptional service should feel natural and curated.”
For the client, the visible trappings may still matter. The marble lobby, expensive car, and spectacular suite can create an immediate impression. But those are the easiest parts of luxury to replicate.
The harder achievement is understanding someone well enough to anticipate what they need before they ask, knowing what to recommend and what to avoid, and making an entire trip feel effortless even when countless moving parts sit behind it. “People remember how easy you made their life and how you made them feel,” Schon said.
That may be the clearest measure of luxury concierge service in an increasingly automated travel industry. The technology can make the booking. The money can pay for the experience. The real value lies in knowing what should happen next, and making it happen without the client ever having to think about it.
