A new company has started offering concierge services to help expats in Korea with their daily lives.

LuxElite offers help with restaurant recommendations, after school programs, family outings, Korean culture and etiquette, personal training, banking and medical treatment, among others.

The service is mainly subscription, with three tiers of membership ranging from 250,000-500,000 won per month depending on the times covered. However, the company provides quotations for other needs and one-off services.

The service is open to Koreans, but targets mainly expats.

“Living in a foreign country which has a strong cultural identity like Korea is not always easy, especially when you don’t speak the local language,” said Yoojin Lee, CEO of LuxElite. “Expatriates need information on every aspect of daily life and seek help to ease their integration into the culture. Even though some companies offer basic assistances to their foreign employees, many services are still lacking.”

Jean Rica, managing partner of LuxElite, said they had a varied client base. They include people based in Korea who travel a lot, especially to Singapore. LuxElite has overseas partners who can then provide the services in those countries.

“Some of our members travel a lot but also for pink membership (medium membership level) we have a lot of spouses of expats who are willing to subscribe to our membership so that they can have weekend activities and to facilitate their lives in Korea,” he said.

“Because sometimes it’s quite hard for foreigners to adapt, find friends and share special moments.”

Rica said many of their clients were people relocating to Korea or tourists using the service on a one-off basis. This is also how many people living here come to be regular clients.

“It’s kind of a test for us to know if we are able to meet their expectations,” said Rica.

“Most of the time when they start using the services the next step is for them to take a membership.”

They are also targeting foreign entrepreneurs who do not have the time to research everything and are unsure about what their legal rights and obligations are.

For now the company is not looking to expand too quickly, because their personal relationship with clients is an important part of their strategy. Rica explained that some people who contact them turn out to also need help with other things.

“Our policy is to contact our clients regularly to check that they don’t have any problems, because we have noticed that many people don’t know how to use the services, so we have to anticipate their needs.”

For more information visit www.luxelitegroup.com.

(paulkerry@heraldcorp.com)