Meet Rebecca Masri MBE, Founder at Private Members Hotel Club: Little Emperors

Little Emperors is a private members hotel club, offering access to preferred rates and guaranteed benefits at over 4,000 of the most exclusive hotels around the globe, handpicked by a team of travel advisors and luxury experts. With both a web and app-based presence, Little Emperors is the essential travel companion for both frequent jet setters and one-o luxury seekers.

With our ‘lowest rate guaranteed’ policy, our members can book easily knowing that we ensure the lowest rates with the best benefits at all our hotel partners, and if there is a lower offer elsewhere, we guarantee to match it and add to it. Value is key to our business as we shift away from the traditional concierge model which is service-driven, and charge a low entry fee (£250 a year) to bring value in luxury to our members.

Technology continues to drive Little Emperors forward and is where I maintain investment to ensure it remains cutting-edge. I feel lucky we got into travel tech as early as we did, and have been able to create some brilliant tech for our members. A sector traditionally characterised by human interactions will now have to provide the same valuable intangible aspects through more touchless methods in a more digitalised world.

The global High Net Worth population is surging and within this audience, the definition of luxury is ever-evolving.
 
 
Little Emperors & Co | LinkedIn
 

How did you come up with the idea for Little Emperors?

 
In 2008, the market took a tumble, and the world headed into a global recession. At this time, I was working at Goldman Sachs in the City, and saw that the approved hotel list from the corporate travel program in turn had also changed significantly, with most luxury hotels being removed.

Coupled with the rise in SMEs who do not have their own volumes for rate negotiation as people were laid o from larger firms, I identified an opportunity, and together with some university friends created Little Emperors. With the collective buying power of our members, we negotiate rates at luxury hotels around the world and using cutting-edge technology, present our 30,000+ strong membership base with an app, MyLE, which completes bookings within 4 clicks. Little Emperors delivers value both in time and money, a value that is inaccessible without us.
 

 

How has the company evolved during the pandemic?

 
The pandemic presented enormous challenges for our industry, along with new trends and opportunities; some changes which were already happening, and some triggered by the pandemic. The good news is, Little Emperors had already invested heavily in technology pre-COVID, giving us access to an enormous amount of data which has helped navigate us through.

I took some risks given the pandemic, but there was a lot of talent available, and as new trends emerged, timing was critical and I needed to act fast. The result? Numbers across the board have grown by 30% YoY (employee numbers as well as revenue).
 

What can we hope to see from Little Emperors in the future?

 
The roadmap for Little Emperors is very much focused on new features to include incredible content, visuals and filters, in addition to an integrated logic to be relevant to our members when they search, delivering value and speed in bookings, as well as accurate advice and recommendations.

I am often considered controversial in the travel industry replacing the ‘human touch’ with tech, due to the industry’s pride in the familiarity and personalisation of customer engagement. However, tech has always sat at the absolute core of everything I do. My goal is for the app to become 100% personalised to each member and 100% tech; to find that perfect balance between integrating tech YET maintaining a luxury feel and a completely personalised experience.