Case Study: Maya Luxe
Maya Luxe is the largest luxury villa rental company in Mexico’s Riviera Maya region. The company’s focus on custom experiential vacations, frictionless property management, and regional sustainability fueled its growth from just one villa in 2009 to over 300 villas in 2023.
What Were the Challenges for Maya Luxe?
While Maya Luxe had an established reputation as a luxury Mexican getaway, the Riviera Maya region was overshadowed by more popular tourist destinations. Mexico’s notorious reputation for drugs and gang violence was also a deterrent to potential tourists, despite the region’s high safety levels.
RLM’s goal was to position Maya Luxe as an underappreciated gem that was not just a breathtaking location but also one filled with cultural and historical significance. Additionally, RLM sought to highlight Maya Luxe’s charitable work with local communities in the region.
Luxury Villa Rental Strategy
To bring Maya Luxe the attention it deserved, RLM spotlighted its lavish villas, along with the beauty, culture, and history of the Riviera Maya region. A key strategy was offering trips to select travel and hospitality reporters, so they could experience this beautiful region for themselves.
RLM also secured profiles of Maya Luxe’s founder and owner, Steph Farr, that emphasized her status as a female leader and pioneer in the luxury villa industry.
RLM seized upon popular travel seasons, such as Spring Break, by offering Farr and her staff as experts on trending travel stories in Mexico and beyond. To address the issue of safety in Mexico, RLM pitched Farr as an expert source to comment on tourist fears of drugs and violence.
Having lived in Mexico for 15 years, Farr provided valuable advice for tourists to avoid crime and stay safe, while emphasizing the high safety level of the Riviera Maya region.
Lastly, RLM highlighted the RISE Relief Fund, Maya Luxe’s social initiative, which provides food, aid, and economic relief to the rural Maya communities impacted by recent natural disasters.
This work included a collaboration with villa owners and local governments to find solutions for seaweed polluting Mexico’s shores, like creating natural barriers to prevent seaweed from entering, as well as using the seaweed to make bricks for sustainable homes.
Real Estate Branding: Results
In just three months, by implementing different travel PR tactics, RLM secured a multitude of high-level press coverage for Maya Luxe, including profiles in Travel + Leisure, MSN, Travel Off Path, Food and Travel, and Cancun Sun.
Commentary from the Maya Luxe staff also appeared in HuffPost, the AP, Yahoo! Lifestyle, Flipboard, Hastings Tribune, Hearld-Press, Telegram-Leader, CTV Morning Live, and Miami Herald.
- 16+ high-level press coverage
- 5+ expert quotes
- 300+ villas
Farr became the media’s go-to expert on safety in Mexico, with her insights featured in Bloomberg, FOX News, Yahoo! News, Travel Pulse, and Consumer Affairs.
RLM also secured the announcement of Maya Luxe’s new Chief Operating Officer in travel industry trades like Travel Daily News and eTurboNews.
Our Expertise
Elevate Your Business
Understand the PR tactics we use!
Our Success Stories
We are all about measurable, tangible results. See what we’ve done for companies you know.
Answers.com
By identifying and owning a specific space in the search industry, Answers.com saw their one million visitors per day double in one month.
Amazon
With some “bad numbers” about to be released, Amazon wanted to create some positive news to prove that its CEO Jeff Bezos is indeed a visionary with a sense of humor.
Pure Crypto
RLM PR's work with financial and crypto/blockchain technology. Clients include Anguilla, Crypterium, ENTX, Hercules Tech and CoinFi.
Wondery: Dirty John
Wondery asked RLM PR to raise their profile to attract content creators, and to publicize individual podcasts with the goal of increasing listeners.
#paid
RLM PR was tasked with taking one of the industry’s most coveted influencer marketing platforms and bringing it to critical mass — while taking risks along the way.
Kid Made Modern
With marketing of the product line, the potential for Kid Made Modern wasn’t fully realized, and in 2016 Oldham & Co. asked RLM PR to be part of the brand’s reintroduction.
Flocabulary
RLM PR launched an aggressive campaign for Flocabulary, focusing on raising awareness of the EdTech platform and driving traffic to their new app.
Gameco
Gameco was challenged to reinvent itself or hit the refresh button to maintain its existence in the ever-shifting gaming industry.
Gupshup
What transformative concept was Beerud Sheth — founder of Elance — going to come up with next to disrupt a category and change technology?
Interxion
To reach American enterprises, RLM PR worked on positioning Interxion as a one-stop shop with the credibility of scaling businesses from country to country for a quarter century.
Fintech
RLM PR's work with financial technology companies E*TRADE, MoneyDesktop, Upromise, and Obopay.
