Discount five-star hotel packages in Asia the focus of travel platform Hey Travelista

Do you love to travel and stay in luxury hotels, but do not want to fork out top dollar? A new Hong Kong-based platform might be able to help you with that.

Hey Travelista is a flash-sale service dedicated to offering deals on luxury five-star hotel packages so that they are affordable for the masses. It is similar to Cathay Pacific’s weekly “Fanfares”, which does the same for air tickets. Hey Travelista launched last July and so far has members in 53 countries, although the focus is on Asia.

“Hong Kong citizens are the most travelled in the world,” says Tony Low, co-founder of Hey Travelista. “Many people want to take advantage of all the short holidays and get out of the city, which means taking a flight. This year we have eight long weekends because of the way the public holidays fall. They want to have as many experiences as possible, but for the same budget.”

In Europe, Secret Escapes and Voyage Privé offer something similar, and in Australia, Luxury Escapes offers luxury travel offers at reduced rates. But no such service existed in Asia, so Low and his two co-founders – his wife, Alyssa, and her former hospitality industry colleague Brian Koroll – decided to fill the gap in the market.

“Our offering is taking Asia-based travellers to the rest of the world,” says Low, who has a background in IT. “Luxury Escapes tends to focus on what Australians want: Bali, cheap beers. As an Australian I can say that. But it’s different from what Asians want.”

So what do Asians want? For Hongkongers and Singaporeans, saving money is the most important factor when seeking travel recommendations, according to a 2017 report by travel industry IT firm Amadeus called “Journey of Me Insights: What Asia-Pacific travellers want”.