International companies such as Quintessentially Lifestyle, Les Concierge and One Concierge have all started operations in India to tap into the growing demand in this part of the world
Do you want to be in the front row at the Grammy’s? Or watch a Nadal vs Federer duel one more time at the Wimbledon? In come concierge services to cater to all your whims and fancies and well, fantasies. The bill? If you don’t mind shelling out a crore on that evening, the world is yours.
Concierge services are acquiring a whole new meaning, now stepping beyond the confines of hotels whose guests they so far catered to.
Delhi-based CribLife is an exclusive luxury lifestyle management service with its roots in India that offers solutions for personal and corporate clients, enabling members to enjoy anything that catches their fancy. For instance, when one of CribLife’s clients wanted to have dinner at Richard Branson’s house in London by invitation, they couldn’t say no. “Cannot be done isn’t an option for us. We arrange for anything under the sun as long as it is legal and morally right. The only limit for us is our client’s imagination,” said Vijaya Eastwood, founder and CEO at CribLife.
“The moneyed Indian is crazy about anything bespoke. Lifestyle management is just another way to indulge in opulence where one knows what he wants and can afford it, but doesn’t have the access,” said an expert in the luxury sector. “There are people who want a Birkin bag to be flown down to India in two days, a castle somewhere on some island to be booked so that someone can propose to his girlfriend, there are instances where people have ordered for 500 white butterflies for their wedding. The job of these concierge services is to make anything and everything under the sun available for clients in exchange of hefty membership fees,” he added.
But, who are the clients? “It is mostly children of the business magnates who buy our services. Our clients are mostly from Delhi followed by Mumbai to a certain extent and aged between 32 and 50 years,” added Eastwood.
International companies such as Quintessentially Lifestyle, Les Concierge and One Concierge have all started India operations to tap the growing demand in this part of the world.
While some companies work on a commission-based model, some work on membership programmes. CribLife, for instance, that has 200 private clients and close to 7.5 lakh corporate clients charge anywhere between Rs 3.5 lakh per person per year to almost Rs 20 lakh per person per year. While the smaller value programmes have a call centre help setting like many concierge apps, the high-value programme have a dedicated officer to assist a client around the year.
Membership fees apart, clients don’t shy away from spending hefty sums to have their wish fulfilled. One of the concierge services arranged for a weekend holiday for a group of six HNI friends with a private jet transfer and the party paid upwards of Rs 6 crore for the service.
From travel to dining to personal shopping and styling or getting authentic artwork from auctions to making Britney Spears sing at your wife’s upmarket kitty party, luxury concierge services is playing the genie to the ultra-rich in the country.
