Meet Marchay

Jet Linx is pleased to introduce Marchay as one of our partners in Elevated Lifestyle, an exclusive member benefit program for our private jet clients. Take a look inside Marchay with this excerpt from the Spring 2015 issue of SOAR, available online now.

Community-driven access to the best in hotels, worldwide.

Marchay is an innovative travel service and community for business leaders and creatives. The company leverages the collective power of its members to provide unrivaled access to global travel partners worldwide, incomparable service and exceptional value. By connecting like-minded individuals through a private travel collective, the group creates significant value while enriching its members’ lives. The company negotiates highly discounted private member-only rates with select world-class hotels, and provides access to value added amenity packages at luxury properties across the globe. Members receive curated travel intelligence for each location, access to select private clubs and a dedicated in-house team who act as a fiduciary for, and in the exclusive interest of, each member.

Marchay and Jet Linx share the view that exceptional service and incredible value are not mutually exclusive. We talked to Jon Ein, an investor and passionate traveler who founded Marchay, about the genesis of the company and the values the brand represents.

What did you see in the market that made you feel there was an opportunity for Marchay?

Marchay was derived from my personal needs as a frequent executive traveler and revolved around two basic things. First, I used to work for a big company, and that company was able to leverage their volume in the travel market to secure better than market rates from key vendors, especially hotels. I noticed that my friends and colleagues who were becoming entrepreneurs or running their own firms were now paying retail, like I was. There were some who missed those rates so much, they pretended they still worked for their old firms to secure them.

The second realization was that work travel can be tough. I spend months of the year traveling for work. Even if I am traveling somewhere for just a couple of nights, I want to make that time count and add an element of fun into work travel.

Those two things came together when a close friend of mine came to Paris for a board meeting, and asked if I could recommend a hotel, and if I had a rate. I thought about how common that need is among my peers. I created Marchay initially so I could say “yes” to those two questions.

How do you create value for the members?

Marchay is a both a members’ community and a travel solution, and we create value in many ways. First, we select and negotiate proprietary hotel rates that are significantly better, on average 30-40% less, than what you find in any public venue. This alone saves our members thousands of dollars a year. We have amazing rates at places like the Mark (shown at right) and Park Hyatt in New York, Four Seasons in Washington, St. Regis in San Francisco, the new Langham in Chicago and many other top places.

Second, we aggregate a complete set of travel resources that are relevant for our group and package them into a full solution. For example, we have benefit packages like upgrades, food credits and breakfast at over 1,000 hotels and preferred partnerships with most of the leading brands, so we can always provide value to the member whether we have a contract with a hotel or not. We also have net rate airline contracts and an airline desk that can find the best fares on first and business class tickets. We deliver all of these things as a fiduciary to the member, always working to create value.

Third, our mission is to make work travel more fun. We pride ourselves on finding interesting places for our group to go, and negotiating access when necessary. If you come to Paris, for example, not only do you get a great rate at our hotel, you get highly curated recommendations on where to eat and what to do near the hotel. Our members can go to David Lynch’s club Silencio for a drink, for example, and you have our key contacts in the city and much more. We are not a concierge and do not execute lifestyle requests, but we do leverage the fact that we have a large group of interesting, successful members that quality partners want to attract.

As our group grows, we’re going to do much more on the community side as our members are looking for connectivity within the group. This will create massive value for our members beyond travel.

Why do you think community is important to people joining a travel program?

There are so many reasons that we see every day, from what we can do in terms of leveraging our group to what people contribute. We ask our members to think of something they can provide; from a club they are on a board of, a partner that adds value, or a hotel with whom they are close. If everyone adds one thing, they get a thousand things back from the other members. There is true power in community, and that is the most powerful opportunity for Marchay.