Red Savannah sets sights on doubling villa sales through trade

Ian Mackinnon has joined Red Savannah at a record time for the brand

Red Savannah first approached Ian Mackinnon to join the brand last summer, aware of his significant track record in the travel industry, including senior roles at A&K, Scott Dunn and Explora.

“It was a pretty unique opportunity to join a business which has an extremely strong brand and strong leadership,” Mackinnon told TTG Luxury. “The business is growing very quickly – we had record years in 2022 and 2023 – so it’s an exciting time for me to be joining.”

Sales last year grew to more than £16 million – a 41% increase on 2019, and Mackinnon said he hopes to continue this upward trajectory. Among the business’ three verticals of tailor-made holidays, gulet and yacht cruises, and villa rentals, it’s the latter that’s seen the most sales from the trade so far.

“Sales via the trade grew by 29% from 2022 to 2023, and now represent 12% of our overall turnover,” Mackinnon said. “And the majority of that is coming in via our luxury villa rental service, which includes properties in Italy, France, Spain, Greece and the Caribbean. Trade sales for villas grew 41% from 2022 to 2023 and represent 28% of the company’s villa sales overall. We continue to be very interested in courting the trade around our villa portfolio.” 

As such, Red Savannah’s managing director for villas, Nick Westwood, has been working on evolving the relationship with the trade as a fundamental part of the company’s growth strategy with the aim of doubling the level of business via agents over the next three years. Increased trade engagement, agent fam trips and an incentive scheme all form part of the strategy.