Penny Spencer dreamed of working in travel as an eight-year-old and she now owns one of Australia’s leading luxury travel companies. Here, she gives some invaluable insights into those wanting to step into the luxury space.
Passenger to ‘pilot’
Penny Spencer was just eight years old when she fell in love with travel, and a decade later she turned her dream to work in travel into a reality.
“It was on my first plane flight from Christchurch to Auckland when I was eight years old that I fell in love with travel, and I knew I wanted to work in the industry, but I just didn’t know what direction to take, so when I left school I moved to Australia and went around to agencies asking what I could do.”
Prepared to work for free to gain experience, Penny started her career at Adventure World and then worked her way up through the ranks of the industry.
“I did all sorts of jobs from the runner to reception and then consultant and manager. Then in 1998, I started my own company, and 26 years later we’re still here.”
A rocky road
There’s no denying the industry has had some big hits and Penny says no one was immune from COVID, which has by far been the hardest thing to survive in her almost three decades in the industry.
“It was a shutdown, and that was tough, but we made it out the other side, although finding staff post-COVID was a challenge.”
She says it meant completely changing her staffing model.
“We had to look outside the square, so we have 12 staff interstate and had to bring in a flexible model of working from home and adjust the culture.”
She says the hardest part has been that travel is so collaborative, and when you’re hybrid you can’t just lean over and ask a colleague about a property they have experienced.
She says the other COVID fallout has been dealing with margins.
“In our corporate travel division, the margins are slim due to being mainly air and hotels, whereas with leisure you can increase margins by doing cruising and land. So coping with the margins getting thinner is a challenge and certainly post-COVID we’ve felt that.”
Advice for stepping into the luxury space
Spencer says if you want to get into the luxury space, you need to understand luxury and have experienced it yourself.
“There’s no point talking about Ritz Paris if you haven’t stayed there, so you need a passion and to walk the talk.”
She says joining Virtuoso is also a must.
“If you are serious about luxury, you need to be part of Virtuoso so you have a network and contacts in luxury. You then get to meet the right contacts so you can really VIP your clients. This means if they want a private tour of the Sistine Chapel before it opens, we can do that. It’s about providing those exceptional experiences.”
Spencer has also joined The Luxury Network, a private membership club, where companies work together for mutual business development.
“It’s about networking with other luxury brands and building your database based on their database. This is a way to discover new clients and demographics.”
But above all else, she says you can’t just love to travel.
“It’s not just about loving to travel yourself. You also need to have a sense of excitement around travel and planning travel for others. That’s when you’ll find real success.”
For more information, visit Spencer Travel.
