Travel Feature
Beyond The Black Card?
Afsun Smith

Corrado Riccio, a Monaco-based fund manager and self-confessed basketball nut, is on the road over 150 nights a year and claims he won't risk traveling without his personal concierge company. "It's the most cost-effective personal assistant money can buy," he says. "If I'm in Los Angeles on business and I ask my secretary in Monaco to arrange Lakers tickets, I'd get a blank stare--she's never been out of Europe and wouldn't know who the Lakers are. I contacted Preferred Circle and they got me courtside tickets for the finals in two days notice. They even know what seats I like the best." Preferred Circle is one of a new breed of businesses--along with such competitors as Quintessentially, TenUK and My Moneypenny--that call themselves "lifestyle management" companies. The idea behind them is that high-net-worth individuals and time-stretched executives--even those who may already employ personal assistants--still often require more help to run their demanding business and personal lives.

Part concierge, part gal Friday and part savvy social director, these services claim to be able to juggle everything from obtaining hard-to-get dinner and theater reservations to renting a villa in St. Tropez, arranging for a personal Pilates session in your hotel suite and having your dog walked.

If one of the main attractions of wealth is that it allows the rich to not overly concern themselves with the petty details that beset the less well off, then it is easy to see the appeal of having someone to charter a helicopter or pick up your dry-cleaning--whether in Houston or Hong Kong-- just a cell phone call away.

Most of the people who need, and can afford, this type of service are likely to already be holders of the Centurion card from American Express (NYSE: AXP - news - people). Also known as the "black card," this wallet-sized status symbol is available to people who charge upwards of $150,000 per year and are willing to pay an annual membership fee of $1,000 for the privilege. For their money, cardholders get a raft of concierge-type services--as well as astronomical spending limits.

But it still means talking with a service representative from Amex, a process that can deflate even the most pumped-up ego. Centurion client Sassan Baghai, chief executive of Micronage Limited, a privately held software development firm, in Manchester, England, says that the card has failed to live up to its hype.

"The Centurion card is for people with more money than sense. Centurion claims to be the best in the world for what they do--but could not find me a proper place to eat when I was on business in Ottawa. Plus, every time I call, I get diverted to a call center. I'm looking around for another concierge company, and the only reason I keep the card in the meantime is because I can put it on the table at a business dinner--and it makes the point. Unfortunately, the card is still a status symbol."

Therein lies the opportunity. As Preferred Circle's founder, Emad Ghobrial, a long-time concierge at Los Angeles's Peninsula Hotel, says: "We are very personal, we know everything about our clients, from their favorite flower to what kind of wine they like best--and, as long as it's legal, we will do it for you."

The service that has received the most media attention so far is London-based Quintessentially, largely because one of its founders is movie star-handsome Ben Elliot, whose aunt just happens to be Camilla Parker-Bowles, Prince Charles's companion. Having recently expanded its services to New York, Elliot is confident that there is a real demand from the ranks of underserved millionaires in the New World.

"Yes, we can charter yachts and jets, but we can also find you the best tea in town for ten bucks. We do not try to offer the most expensive, but the very best." Elliot counts not only corporate CEOs, but also independent businessmen, film producers, architects, hedge-fund managers, VCs and even housewives as clients. He also says that his service, which begins at $1,000 a year, offers more of an esoteric offering, like art talks and wine tasting, rather than the "predictable golf tours that Centurion provides."

The question is how Quintessentially and its peers plan to survive. The services offer either flat rates or tailored packages but the smart strategy seems to move beyond individual to corporate accounts. Quintessentially, for example, has already signed deals to provide concierge services to VIP clients of companies like Sony (NYSE: SNE - news - people), luxury goods group Richemont, Volkswagen and Nokia's (NYSE: NOK - news - people) new high-end mobile phone service, Vertu.

Martine Schaeffer of TenUK, a London-based company that counts companies like Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT - news - people) and J.P. Morgan Chase (NYSE: JPM - news - people) as clients, adds: "These days, five managing directors at an investment bank will share one assistant--there is no way this one person can do everything these busy executives need. For anywhere from $80 to $250 a month, we are more cost effective than hiring another assistant for a 40K salary --it just makes practical sense."

Large corporations such as Microsoft also use lifestyle management services as a way of hiring and keeping talent. Says Schaeffer: "The idea behind it is that if an employee is not spending time on the phone, say, arranging for a babysitter, a vacation, a night out or the fridge repairman to come in, their productivity will increase. And it is a great perk to offer a potential employee."

Despite the fact that Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS - news - people) has just let go of their concierge company, most of these companies claim that business has never been better. Ghobrial says after three years his business is already cash flow positive. Although he charges individual clients between $250 and $1,000 a month, his most promising opportunity is in working directly with luxury real estate developers, like Manhattan's Gotham Construction, to provide concierge services for its tenants.

And, after four years in business, TenUK's Schaffer says that with combined revenue streams of membership fees and commissions they receive from "plumbers, hotels, building companies, etc., we will hit the breakeven point in the next couple of months." And, despite a "slow January," Kinue, the founder of New York-based My Moneypenny, whose fees start at $2,500 a year, claims business is good and getting better. Her turnover comes from two steady revenue streams: membership fees and commissions received from hotels and restaurants where she books her clients.

These virtual concierges make perfect sense to Riccio, who uses both Quintessentially and Preferred Circle, in addition to his secretary, to sort out his life:

"For me, outsourcing these services makes a lot of economic sense. Why do you need to hire specific people at a salary for these tasks when you can use these firms at a fraction of the cost? They are irreplaceable--it is like having your own hotel concierge tucked into your back pocket, but better."