A honeymoon planner for billionaires says he's built a private beach, booked first-class flights for birds, and sourced 16 types of condoms
- Billionaire honeymoons are out of this world - especially when it comes to their requests.
- Writer Brandon Presser recently spent time with luxury travel consultancy Ovation Vacations, according to an article he wrote for Bloomberg, and it was an eye-opening peek at the whims of rich people.
- Some of the wildest requests involve stocking a minibar with 16 different condoms and recarpeting a 210-foot yacht for $80,000.
If you think planning the logistics for your honeymoon is a nightmare, then you need to spend some time with Ovation Vacations, a luxury travel consultancy for billionaires.
That's exactly what writer Brandon Presser did for an article for Bloomberg, in which he gained firsthand experience in arranging honeymoons for rich people - for better or for worse.
As the mastermind behind honeymoon planning for the world's richest people, Ovation Vacations charges a minimum of $20,000 to plan a honeymoon, but it doesn't take long for the bill to increase - especially when a private flight is involved, writes Pressler. On the average trip of 2.78 weeks, accommodation typically runs for $1,950 a night, he says.
"We'll do anything for our clients as long as it's legal in the country they're visiting," Ovation Vacations president Jack Ezon told Presser.
Presser does the math: With more than 200 honeymoons a year at an average of $20,000 a trip, Ovation Vacations plans almost $1 million worth of honeymoon travel every month.
But some trips alone exceed that - like a monthlong $1.85 million yacht trip in the Indian Ocean and a $1.62 million 45-day tour from Oceania to the Mediterranean for a royal couple.
But planning such luxurious honeymoons also means earning generous tips. Ezon told Presser that such tips have come in the form of $100,000 checks and Hermès cuffs, to name a few.
If there's one thing Presser learned during his brief experiences arranging a meeting between a Jew and the pope and coordinating an international flight for a sheikh's bird, it's that billionaires have some one-of-a-kind requests for post-nuptial perfection - requests that involve jumping through a lot of hoops to meet.
Ezon and the Ovation Vacations team shared countless stories with Presser - here are some of the wildest requests they've made happen:
- Stocking a minibar with 16 different types of condoms for a new husband
- Providing a bride with Elchim hairdryers in every honeymoon spot, from Sri Lanka to Laos
- Remodeling a hotel bathroom's granite sink by raising it by seven inches for $40,000, so a TV actress wouldn't have to bend over to wash her face during a five-night stay
- Recarpeting a 210-foot yacht for $80,000, so a husband's wife could wear heels on board
- Rebuilding a Caribbean beach in front of a couple's villa after it was destroyed by a storm for $50,000
- Coordinating an overnight stay in King Louis XIV's bed in Versailles
- Hiring German clinicians to supply intravenous vitamin B-12 solutions for Champagne hangovers at the cost of $2,250 a day
- Booking $21,055 first-class suites on transatlantic Emirates and Etihad flights for Falcons (the birds)
- Arranging a meet-and-greet with Vladimir Putin
- Delivering feminine hygiene products hidden inside baguettes to an embarrassed wife
- Flying a husband from the Maldives to Bangkok and arranging a "nightlife escort" after his wife left him 36 hours into the honeymoon