Recent Developments at BeautifulPlaces

Last updated: 16 May 2006

Veteran Travel Industry PR Pro
Arlene Winnick to Rep BeautifulPlaces

May 2006 – BeautifulPlaces selects Arlene Winnick, a veteran Beverly Hills, Calif.-based hospitality industry public relations professional, to represent the company in its outreach to travel industry and consumer media. “Arlene is a quick study who immediately got the BeautifulPlaces concept,” says Patrick Smith, BeautifulPlaces’ founder and CEO. “She has an amazing grasp of the needs and concerns of the travel media and how to position us with them. She’s the best person we can think of to get out the news about our growth and recent affiliations with such industry powerhouses as Virtuoso and Andrew Harper Travel.”

BeautifulPlaces Names Christian Martin
Director, Internet Strategy & Technology

May 2006 – BeautifulPlaces names Christian Martin as Director, Internet Strategy & Technology. Martin, who has an extensive e-commerce, web site development and travel industry background, will guide the development of the upscale food-and-wine-lifestyle hospitality company’s next-generation website and e-commerce platform. “Because we are a web-based enterprise, Christian’s background and skills are an excellent match for us and will enable us to accelerate the deployment of our e-commerce strategy,” says Patrick Smith, BP president and CEO. Martin most recently was Senior eStrategies Manager for Contiki Holidays, the largest tour operator globally for the 18-35-year-old travel market segment. Prior to that, he served as Head of Internet Strategy for Eurostar, the company that provides the high-speed passenger rail service between England and France through the channel tunnel.

Andrew Harper’s Q Club Adds BeautifulPlaces
To Its New Signature Villas and Yachts Program

May 2006 – Andrew Harper, famed among affluent travelers for his incognito searches for the best accommodations worldwide selects luxury estate properties from BeautifulPlaces to add to the product portfolio of his Q Club’s recently introduced “Harpers Signature Villas and Yachts web site section” (www.andrewharpertravel.com). His company, Andrew Harper Travel, bills itself as “the ultimate authority on luxury travel and hotels.” Harper, who lists only those properties that meet his criteria, boasts a club membership of 30,000 discerning travelers who trust his recommendations implicitly. “Having Andrew Harper place us on his list of recommended places is a tribute to and a recognition of the BeautifulPlaces concept,” says BP CEO Patrick Smith.

Luxury Travel Network Virtuoso
Adds BeautifulPlaces to Its List

May 2006 – Virtuoso, a global network of 6,000 travel consultants who cater to the luxury market, adds BeautifulPlaces to its list of preferred suppliers (www.virtuoso.com). The by-invitation-only luxury travel network is comprised of 600 elite travel agencies and a like number of pretige travel suppliers in 22 countries throughout North and South America, the Caribbean, Australia and New Zealand, and generates more than $3 billion in travel sales annually, The network’s members make it the most powerful agency group in the luxury travel segment. Its relationships with top hotels, resorts, spas, lodges, airlines, cruise lines and tour companies allow it to offer an affluent clientele top values and rare travel experiences.

BeautifulPlaces Partners with Women & Wine
To Present Women-Oriented Travel Packages

January 2006 – BeautifulPlaces enters an Internet marketing partnership with Los Angeles-based Women & Wine. The international women’s wine club agrees to begin featuring BeautifulPlaces’ vacation homes on its web site at www.WomenWine.com. "We were looking for an organization like Women & Wine that could help us spread the word about experiencing daily life in wine country in gracious, private surroundings," says Patrick Smith, founder and CEO of BeautifulPlaces. "We saw a tremendous synergy between our product and Women & Wine’s membership." Founded in early 2005, Women & Wine offers its worldwide roster of members custom itineraries to 23 wine-country destinations, as well as wine-oriented urban hotel packages, trips for solo travelers, a wine club and wine recommendations.

Vine Picks Up Diablo Magazine’s
Major Feature Story on The Aerie

December 2005 – Vine magazine, an upscale semiannual magazine aimed at Bay Area wine aficionados, publishes an excerpt from the four-color, eight-page photo feature on The Aerie that ran in its sister publication, Diablo magazine, in September. The Aerie is a spectacular hilltop mansion that is one of BeautifulPlaces’ top-of-the-line estates. The article also includes photos of Greystone, one of BeautifulPlaces’ newest estates.

TV Star Tyra Banks Picks BeautifulPlaces
To Give Mother of 5 a Vacation Dream Come True

November 2005 – TV show hostess and former supermodel Tyra Banks contracts with BeautifulPlaces to provide a dream week in an elegant Wine Country mansion for a deserving, hardworking Southern California mother of five. BeautifulPlaces pulls out the stops, giving hairdresser Cynthia Villegas a five-day stay at Villa Montagna, a Palladian-style estate on the slopes of the Valley of the Moon in Sonoma County.

Villegas and her husband and children were whisked in a limo from Oakland Airport to the mansion, feted at a first-night dinner cooked by an award-winning chef, and served wine by a professional sommelier. Later they enjoyed the ministrations of a visiting masseur and masseuse while enjoying Villa Montagna’s cabana house, pool, spa, wooded grounds and spectacular valley views.

BeautifulPlaces Names Hospitality Sales Pro
Steven Erler as Its National Sales Director

November 2005 – Veteran luxury market travel agent Steven Erler joins BeautifulPlaces to guide its outside sales efforts in the U.S. and Canadian markets. Prior to joining BeautifulPlaces, Erler had spent 25 years representing such upscale hotel chains as Kempinski and Meridien. More recently he had worked with such purveyors of luxury travel as Elite Resorts & Spas.

Simon & Baker’s Luxury Travel Newsletter Profiles
Villa Montagna, One of BP’s Top Homes

November 2005 – Florida-based Simon and Baker, which publishes a travel newsletter aimed at elite travelers, printed an online profile of Villa Montagna, one of BeautifulPlaces’ top estate properties. The profile, written by an editor who visited the mansion in April 2005, lauded the site for its views, cabana, 40-acre expanse and “abundant and inviting social space.” (www.simonandbaker.com)

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