Deal site turned travel brand Luxury Escapes has touched down in Queensland, opening a boutique at Westfield Chermside in Brisbane's north on 12 November 2026. It's the company's third Australian store, after Westfield Bondi Junction in Sydney and Chadstone in Melbourne, and its first physical presence in the Sunshine State.
The opening drew genuine crowds: queues formed before the doors opened, with chair Andrew McEvoy and brand ambassador Natalie Bassingthwaighte on hand and $100,000 in giveaways for early arrivals. For a company that started life online, that kind of foot traffic is the point. McEvoy says the brand has big customer databases across Brisbane, the Gold Coast and the Sunshine Coast, so a bricks-and-mortar presence in the state was a logical next step.
The in-store experience leans premium without being stuffy. Travellers get concierge services, private consultation booths and, if they book a package, a glass of Champagne. The numbers explain why the store matters: roughly 60% of bookings come through the website and about 30% by phone, with in-store clients accounting for only five or six percent — but they spend more, often adding airfares, transfers and ground extras to their package.
Founded in 2013 by Adam Schwab and now valued at AUD$525 million with about $1.4 billion in annual transactions, Luxury Escapes has grown well beyond discounted hotel deals into flights, cruises and experiences, working with airlines like Qantas, Singapore Airlines and Emirates and hotel groups including Accor, Hyatt and Shangri-La. Its classic sellers remain Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean — Bali, Vietnam, Thailand and the Maldives, where the company launched charter flights from Melbourne this year.
Interestingly, the customer base has shifted. What began as a product for affluent over-55s now pulls strongly among Millennials, and McEvoy frames the brand as an accessible challenger rather than an elite agency. The physical stores are also a deliberate counterweight to the rise of AI-driven booking: he argues people still want human engagement when planning trips, and the company will assess the Brisbane store's performance over six to 12 months before deciding whether to open more.
For travellers, the practical upshot is simple: if you're in Brisbane and weighing up a Bali or Maldives package, you can now sit down with a consultant face-to-face, bundle in flights and extras, and compare deals in person rather than scrolling solo. It won't replace the website, but it's a useful option for bigger, more complicated trips.
