Imagine the following hypothetical situation. You are skiing in the French Alps during the Christmas holidays when a call comes in from a friend inviting you to the Maldives. Your flight is on your private jet, but your summer wardrobe is left in your apartment in London, and conventional delivery services are not operating due to the holidays, meaning your items can only be delivered in a week. The solution to such a rather unusual logistical situation is not simple.
This is where a private concierge comes into play – a team or individual who can arrange for someone to pick up your bags in London the same day and personally deliver them to the other side of the world.
What sounds like an isolated anecdote among clients of private concierge services today is part of the usual offering. Private concierges are specialized, highly paid teams of assistants whose task is to resolve various, often very demanding client requests. Their services abroad exceed $50,000 annually and often reach significantly higher amounts, depending on what is requested. For that amount, clients gain access to a network of contacts and solutions for seemingly unsolvable problems, from securing a table at a restaurant where a reservation is formally impossible, to rare birthday gifts, to the aforementioned courier delivery of clothing in the middle of the holidays.
Lauren Wilt, CEO of the American branch of Quintessentially, which also operates in Croatia, states that this category of services no longer needs to be explained to the environment as it has become an accepted norm, and agencies today compete solely in the level of so-called hyper-personalization. Stuart McNeill, founder of London’s Knightsbridge Circle, summarizes his company’s business model in one sentence: ‘We solve problems.’ According to him, the company has doubled its client base in the U.S. over the past year, with plans to open new offices in Dallas, Singapore, and Riyadh.
Time as a New Category of Luxury
Behind the anecdotes of extreme luxury lies an interesting business trend: wealthy clients are increasingly willing to pay not only for products and experiences but also for time savings and simpler organization of daily life. Private concierges build their value precisely on this – they take over logistics, organization, and problem-solving for which the client does not want to spend their own time.
Engaging a private concierge is thus not just about purchasing comfort but also about a service that allows the client to delegate personal and business tasks. The ability to allocate tens of thousands of dollars annually for such support has created a specific market where not only individual services are sold but primarily time, availability, contacts, and discretion.
Invisible Market in Croatia
A similar market exists in Croatia, but it is almost impossible to measure financially with classic business statistics as the service flows through various legal entities and activities. Concierge is not a separate category in official business registers, and companies offering it are often formally registered as travel agencies, consulting firms, property management companies, or other service activities.
Some concierge services are not even reported separately in revenues but are charged as part of a broader package, such as organizing luxury travel or managing a villa or yacht. Therefore, the financial data of individual companies may show the scale of their operations but not the actual size of the Croatian private concierge market as a whole. It is visible through the offerings and clientele to whom the services are provided, but not as a separate item in financial statistics.
The widespread use of the term concierge, however, does not mean an even distribution within the industry. Numerous domestic entities, scattered across various NKD classes for travel agencies and auxiliary service activities, today use the name concierge for marketing purposes, but a large part of this broader circle operates through margins on the sale of publicly available capacities. A more specialized segment of the market consists of a significantly narrower circle of serious operators, who do not sell the service of mere reservations but operate through entirely different, highly profitable business models based on infrastructure control and closed networks of contacts.
One of the largest domestic players, in terms of volume and operational reach, is Dubrovnik’s Adriatic Concierge, which has reported revenues of €2.27 million for 2025, a decrease of 14.3% compared to the previous year, while net profit has increased by almost 173%.
Their model transcends transactional logic and deeply penetrates property management, as the primary revenue generator is not a commission on services but exclusive property management contracts through the sister brand Unique Adriatic Villas. The strategy is simple: controlling a closed, off-market inventory of luxury villas on the Adriatic allows access to clients of exceptionally high net worth and their spending, even when annual turnover temporarily declines.
A completely different approach is represented by the Zagreb branch of the global luxury lifestyle group Quintessentially SEE. The Croatian branch itself, viewed through official financial indicators, is a micro-enterprise with only two employees and revenue of just over €130,000, significantly less than Adriatic Concierge.
Its value is therefore not measured by turnover but by access, as unlike local agencies, it operates on a classic subscription or retainer model, where the core product is an annual membership, either for individuals or large business clients such as banks, which functions as a ticket into a global network. Their main capital in Croatia is not physical property on the coast or turnover on paper, but the infrastructural ability to provide a domestic manager or corporate delegation with access to a closed event in Paris or London within just a few hours.
Boutique Concierge Services
The specialized part of the market is occupied by highly specialized boutique operators, such as the boutique concierge service JO Privé, led by Monika Jurić-Orlić.
Monika Jurić-Orlić built her experience working in Falkensteiner’s private villas and in Zermatt. She says that in this business, people often think they are buying a service, while in fact, they are choosing a person they trust, someone who takes over the organization of things that require time, a network of contacts, and discretion.
– True luxury does not require explanations but brings a sense of peace and control – says Jurić-Orlić.
When asked where exactly the job of a top personal secretary or assistant ends and the job of a concierge begins, Jurić-Orlić clearly explains.
– An internal assistant is focused on internal functioning within given frameworks, while a concierge resolves external situations and functions as a neutral person to whom the client can fully entrust their plans without additional noise. Unlike travel agencies that sell ready-made arrangements, JO Privé does not offer templates or automated solutions but an experience tailored on the go, like demanding tasks in Paris or on the way to California – she says.
Two Models of Cooperation
She adds that the business model combines contracts for ongoing cooperation, which ensure clients priority access, and ad hoc engagements for specific, one-time logistical and lifestyle requests.
According to her experience, the concept is still partially unknown in Croatia. Concierge service in Croatia still sounds like a luxury to many, while in the world it is actually infrastructure for people running companies, and the trigger for engagement occurs when the client realizes that they do not lack time but continuity of focus, as good organization removes that type of burden from daily life. Currently, her clients are predominantly foreign entrepreneurs, although there are a few locals, and as she says, access to closed networks, crucial for reservations in fully booked restaurants or obtaining sold-out items, is built over years.
– True trust and relationships with partners are built in small, everyday things, verified contacts, and fulfilling promises without drama – says Jurić-Orlić, adding that such relationships cannot be skipped but are earned through years of collaboration and experience. The challenges are daily, from urgent organization of private flights to securing meeting spaces at the moment when the client calls in transit, and the boundary is drawn at everything that goes beyond the law and business ethics, as discretion is never a cover for compromises with safety.
Discretion as the Foundation of the Business
In a small community where everyone knows everyone, discretion becomes the essence of the job. A large part of this work remains invisible, and it is precisely that invisibility and strict data protection that define the quality of the entire experience.
– Work is done with a trusted circle of partners with maximum discretion, because when things are important, the question is never what needs to be done but whom to trust with it – she explains.
When asked what the demand for such services says about society and the distribution of capital, Jurić-Orlić responds that time has become the most valuable resource, and reliable operations preserve it. People running companies do not have a problem with time as much as with interruptions of focus, as every small task consumes the same mental energy, so the demand for such a service actually shows that mental peace has become the greatest status symbol.
Neither the accelerated development of AI agents and platforms for automated reservation management, in her opinion, threatens that value. True support is not about organizing something but about ensuring that the client does not have to explain anything twice, as her job ceases to be a task and becomes an extension of the client’s system.
– Algorithms can handle a reservation, but they cannot offer character, intuition, peace, and a person whom the client trusts unreservedly – she says.
Whether such an extremely personalized business can grow without losing quality remains an open question. Jurić-Orlić admits that JO Privé is not a service intended for everyone, but for those who value uncompromised experiences. Growth is possible, but exclusively through a carefully selected team that shares the same standards, while the foundation remains unchanged: it does not sell a template but personalized, impeccable care.
A Market That Is Also Growing in Croatia
Stories about delivering summer wardrobes to the Maldives seem like an extreme example of the possibilities of private concierge services, but behind them lies a pattern that, although on a smaller scale and with a different clientele, is also repeating in Croatia.
While the market continues to hide behind registrations of travel agencies and property management companies, the demand for a service that simplifies daily life for clients is gradually growing here as well, primarily among foreign entrepreneurs who are already accustomed to using such infrastructure elsewhere in the world.
