Stephen Petasky: Making the Journey of Travelers Enjoyable.

All human beings are shaped by some striking, formative, and transformative moments in life. These once-in-a-lifetime moments create impressions in our memory, and they play a key role in deciding the trajectory of our lives. The most wonderful experiences helped shape Stephen Petasky as a young boy travelling to Disneyland with his parents and sister, learning many incredible lessons along the way. Following that return from Disneyland, he was incredibly lucky to watch his parents buy a business and witness all of the struggles and successes that come along with entrepreneurship.

That was the year in his life that fostered this passion and ultimately put him on a lifelong path of entrepreneurship, travel and helping people. Fortunately, ‘The Luxus Group’ allows him to do all of these at one time. Stephen is the President at The Luxus Group, which offers a range of tailored lifestyle and real estate investment strategies to help people achieve global diversification. Its unique position allows it to identify, access, develop and manage all aspects of emerging, high-quality opportunities on behalf of its clients.

Making Vacation Experiences Incredibly Memorable

Much of the inspiration for Luxus came from his love of travel and the incredible memorieshe made while travelling with family. Over 15 years ago, Stephen recognized a void in the travel industry and worked hard to develop a concept that would bring these experiences to more people. In 2007, he founded The Luxus Group, creating an experience that combined the consistency of a luxury hotel with the size, comfort, and sense of ownership that a private vacation home offers. This offering grew to over 50 properties worldwide and led to the expansion of new elements of its business, including the launch of Luxus Restoration, restoring ancient Tuscan ruins for discerning buyers.

It now runs a multi-disciplined company with several brands offering management, development and service of lifestyle and real estate assets. The Luxus Developments side of its business focuses on boutique luxury projects in vacation destinations such as Hawaii, Mexico, California, and Las Vegas. Helping more people buy, build, co-own and/or manage their super cool vacation properties around the world is Stephen’s mission. His wife Carrie and their kids have certainly appreciated these services, making their vacation experiences incredibly memorable! Stephen wants more people to experience the power of spending dedicated time away with the ones they love.

Creating Efficiencies at All Levels

With significant investment of both time and capital, Luxus developed custom software ideal for managing shared inventory. After ten years of perfecting its system, it now has a product that best serves both the consumer and the operator, creating efficiencies at all levels of its business. Technology has changed its ability to operate assets remotely, not only from a booking perspective but in the property management aspect of its business. Its system connects remote vendors to its booking system and manages ongoing property-related maintenance, cleaning programs and consumer feedback.

Facilitating Private, Safe, and Secure Vacations

With in-depth knowledge of the vacation home experience, from buying and selling, syndicating usage, ground-up development and restoration, and continuous management of the assets, The Luxus Group has expertise in all aspects of this industry. It provides a different level of service for its consumers because it understands all the pieces and can manage each project more effectively.

The demand for private, safe, and secure vacation homes has increased substantially over the past 14 months due to the pandemic. A trend that was already on the move is accelerating and is likely here to stay. It doesn’t mean that people won’t choose to travel to hotels, but it does mean a more significant market share of people choosing to travel to a private vacation home. Whether someone decides to buy their own home, joins a co-ownership or rents a comparable property, there are many options to explore.

The Luxus Group has been helping its clients buy vacation homes as a safe alternative throughout the pandemic. As a direct result of COVID, it is launching an official advisory service that it sees growing significantly based on people’s desires to travel in safe and responsible ways. It is taking away the barriers to some of the most incredible experiences in life, owning and taking care of a vacation home.

The advisory service will help people through the experience of making a lifestyle investment in vacation real estate. The Luxus Group takes away the fear and uncertainty, making the journey as enjoyable as it should be!

Sharing Experiences, Knowledge, Mistakes and Learnings

A healthy industry is good for everyone! With the launch of The Luxus Group’s new advisory service, it wants to share its experiences and knowledge about the industry to both the consumer and to those wishing to start something of their own. The advisory offering is in its infancy, but Stephen truly believes that knowledge is power, and he wants to get as much content out as possible. He plans to put it out there through various social channels so that people can learn through their experiences- their mistakes, their wins, and their learnings along the way!

Meeting the Changing Travel Demands

Stephen has always had a strong entrepreneurial mindset and passion for creating solutions for travel and real estate investments for clients. Like most entrepreneurial journeys, The Luxus Group has had many ups and downs over its nearly 15-year history.

The learnings are invaluable. It will use them to grow as an organization and best serve its two existing coownership offerings: The Premiere Collection and Ena Lake Lodge Private Fishing Club. The Luxus Group will also launch new product offerings over time to meet the changing travel demands created by COVID-19. Without a doubt, COVID-19 has dramatically accelerated the demand for travel to private vacation properties, and Luxus Group is looking forward to serving this niche for many years to come.

A Precious Note to Aspiring Entrepreneurs

As all entrepreneurs would say, one just has to start! Stephen advises budding entrepreneurs not to let perfection paralyze them. A small business is versatile and will eventually require more complex processes as it grows. Overcomplicating one’s business will make it confusing for the end-user, hard to implement and execute. He advises them to keep it simple and don’t let perfection stand in their way – just start!