Luxury Fixers in Marbella: Helicopter Flights Over Puerto Banús or Yacht Outings

If there's a profession dedicated to detail, it's that of private concierge or luxury fixer, a growing trend in the city of Marbella aimed at high-net-worth individuals who demand completely personalized assistance and experiences.

Summoning a chef in the wee hours, flying over Puerto Banús by helicopter, planting a fir tree overnight to enhance the view from a villa, yacht outings with caviar and lobster, or taking care of children and pets are some of the challenges these professionals face daily.

"I love having few hours and the satisfaction of having achieved the impossible," said Marie Van Der Gucht from Unique Marbella, who provides personalized attention to high-net-worth clients, mainly international ones such as “French, Nordic, Russians, or from the Middle East.”

This Frenchwoman, based in Marbella and with experience in luxury hotels, decided 14 years ago to start her own business, highlighting that “a luxury fixer is a professional who acts as a trusted intermediary for clients seeking personalized, immediate, and high-level solutions in any aspect of their daily or leisure life.”

“It's not just about managing reservations or exclusive access, but about anticipating the client's needs and providing effective, discreet, and tailored responses,” she pointed out, emphasizing that “I am not a concierge of a development."

Culture of private concierge and rising trend

As she commented, this culture of private concierge originated in cities like London, Paris, Dubai, or Singapore, being a service “relatively recent in Spain,” where they are trying to introduce the concept and “getting the national population accustomed to these types of services.” In this regard, she noted that in recent years it has experienced “steady growth” with an upward trend.

For her work, she highlighted the importance of having a “good network of contacts,” underlining that "we don't sell services, we offer solutions, peace of mind, and time." “You ask for something and I achieve the impossible, I have no limits," she emphasized.

Thus, she gave examples like “booking a property and organizing maintenance, staff, suppliers, or cleaning services to arranging unique experiences. Whatever the client desires, like a private jet, VIP access to events, arranging a box at a concert, or managing a client's personal agenda throughout the year.”

Regarding the type of client demanding this personalized assistance, she detailed that “they are high-net-worth individuals with high demands,” mainly foreigners who “are familiar with this type of services," in which aspects such as “discretion,” “immediacy,” “perfection in every detail,” or “anticipation” in the sense of “creating the client's desire before they themselves desire it” are paramount.

Client Demand

Among the most demanded services, she highlighted “high-level rentals of boats, villas, helicopters, or private jets,” Van Der Gucht noted, ensuring that in Marbella they are usually “linked to exclusive leisure and time management,” highlighting “private events and, especially, access to audiences when there is no availability,” in addition to “comprehensive property management.”

As anecdotes, she referred to a client who “wanted to completely transform the view from his bedroom and asked us to procure and install, within days, a large Canadian fir tree on his property, so that it would be the first thing he saw when waking up.” This involved “locating the tree in another country, organizing its transport, and carrying out the planting in record time.”

On another occasion, she recalled that a renowned international artist required “the search for very specific items and a large tower of profiteroles,” later sending his private jet from Rome to receive the same cake. She also highlights the request from “a head of state who wanted to attend a completely sold-out concert on the same day of the event, along with a group of 20 people,” also requesting “the arrangement of an exclusive VIP area for his entire entourage” which involved constructing a box.

“Booking hotels, renting villas, cars, boats, restaurants, beach clubs or nightclubs for the youth” are some of the most usual requests attended to by Caroline Azzy, from Exclusive travel designer, a company that organizes events and experiences aimed at “high-profile economic clients accustomed to luxury services who don't want to complicate their lives or need help because they are not familiar with the city.”

Among them are “soccer players, businessmen or families” with a profile between 35 and 55 years, mainly “quite young people who use social media and seek exceptional experiences,” many of them “foreigners and Spaniards who want to come to Marbella and want recommendations.”

These exclusive experiences range from “organizing outings in luxury cars, which can be rented or those who own one in the area, on the Ronda Road or the Jerez Circuit for racing,” with prices ranging from “400 euros for a couple of hours or 1,000 for a full day in high season,” to flying over Puerto Banús by helicopter for 20 minutes for about another 1,000.

Renting yachts for sea outings with a buffet is another alternative that can be done in the city and ranges between 2,000 and 10,000 euros, “depending on the number of people, the size of the boat, the time” or the luxury or premium catering with seafood, Azzy noted. Also, the rental of “luxury villas for 10,000 or 12,000 euros a week or luxury apartments for 1,000 euros a day with views and terrace.”

Designing a “tailored trip” under private concierge services can cost between “1,500 or 2,000 euros extra for personalized attention” per week, including “airport pickup, villa rental” or planning the stay in the area, as is the case with Azzy, who offers her clients a “complete package” in which she proposes “the design of a city experience,” with which “you have to know the client's profile and understand their needs.”

24-hour personalized attention

Many private concierge companies provide personalized attention 24 hours a day. “We come to the villa every day to talk to the house service, with the chefs to make sure everything is fine and to review the menus,” said Borja Rodríguez, from Tailor made concierge, highlighting that “there are clients who like to feel personally attended to and we usually go every morning to see how everything is going.”

The company is dedicated to organizing all the client's experiences at the destination, such as “searching and hiring the accommodation, transportation throughout their stay or private jets,” as well as "accompanying them 24/7 during the stay for anything they may need at any time.”

As detailed, the luxury fixer is “a person who is available 24 hours a day for the client, who at any moment can ask for anything, like shopping, a reservation, renting a boat, getting an excursion to Ronda with a private guide or a helicopter, butlers, cleaning…”.

The client requesting this type of service is of “high net worth, especially Americans, Canadians, from Northern Europe, and the Middle East,” Rodríguez pointed out, noting that in his case he works a lot with “families” and “corporate events” but also with “businessmen, NBA players, or American football players.”

As one of the most exclusive experiences, he highlighted the visit to a “bull or horse breeding farm” in Seville: “We hire the helicopter, take the client there, show them the farm, hire a tent, make them a meal and show them the life of the horse or bull in their environment.”

Also activities related to “corporate events with a maximum of 40 people, with which we rent the villa and organize all kinds of team building itinerary or training, masseurs or personal trainers.” At this point, he referred to a scheduled visit consisting of hiring “a paddle surf instructor who comes to the villa with the boards and they go to the beach with wetsuits,” "a Hindu guru who brought water from the Ganges" or "flamenco shows at home." “There are a lot of things, there is no no in our sector in response,” Rodríguez pointed out, emphasizing that “no two days are the same” in the world of private concierge.

Day-to-day of luxury professionals

"There are a lot of things, there is no no in our sector in response," Rodríguez pointed out, emphasizing that “no two days are the same” in the world of private concierge, which also depends on the time of year in which the service is requested, charged by the day. Thus, the “check-in” at the accommodation is made, “we write in the morning to the WhatsApp group and we tell them all the activities they have contracted for that day, along with the reservations and the time,” and based on this, the luxury fixer adapts to the requests.

Regarding the day-to-day of these professionals, he referred that for clients who have a second residence here, there is a property management service, with which they operate from the moment the user “is in their home country.” “We manage the house, that is, we keep it clean and do the maintenance. When they arrive, we organize the entire pre-arrival service, do the shopping, buy flower decorations if they want or rent a car for them to get around,” among others.