Scott Wiseman has led a charmed life. He’s one of those people who knew what he wanted to do from an early age, and his career path, though varied, has remained consistent with his early aspirations.
After a career that has included top positions at Accor; Abercrombie & Kent; Cox & Kings, The Americas; Travel Impressions and Apple Leisure Group, Wiseman is now chief executive officer of Nocturne Luxury Villas, a position he took in March 2023.
Choosing a Career
His career path became clear to him when his parents took him on a vacation to Mexico when he was 15. The family hadn’t done a lot of family vacations, only one to Orlando. Suddenly here he was in an exotic setting in a foreign country, and he was ecstatic.
“I was 15 and it was in Acapulco at the Princess Resort,” he told me.
“I was just blown away with the entire concept of how the resort operated.”
He discovered that he could sign his father’s name at the pool bar and get whatever he wanted. He felt generous and bought drinks for some of the people he met there.
“How else was I to make instant friends if I didn’t offer to buy them drinks?” he said.
His father was furious when he saw the bill, and he argued with the people at checkout, insisting he certainly had not bought all those drinks. The truth of the matter remained a secret for a while. “I finally confessed at my graduation dinner from Penn State,” he said.
When the trip to Acapulco was over, young Scott told his parents he wanted to go into the hotel industry as a career.
“I was fortunate that Penn State had one of the top-ranked programs in the country.”
After graduating, he had good luck, some good mentoring, and he was able to land good positions right away. He soon found himself positioned as a general manager of Sofitel US. He helped open hotels in Philadelphia, Chicago, Washington DC, and Montreal.
Joining Nocturne
By the time he joined NLV, he had a broad span of experience, including four years as general manager of Sofitel Philadelphia; nearly seven years at Accor, where he rose to vice president of marketing; six years as president of Abercrombie & Kent USA; four years as president of Cox & Kings; nearly four years as president of Travel Impressions; and more than three years as senior vice president and general manager of Apple Leisure Group. He had focused primarily on luxury product with some of the top luxury brands in the world. His broad experience in luxury travel and his long-cultivated relationships with the travel advisor community made him a perfect choice to head NLV and lead it through its next phase of growth.
“We recognize that the travel advisor community will play a major role in the growth and success of NLV,” Wiseman said at the time of joining NLV. “And we will work to strengthen and grow mutually beneficial partnerships with advisors as we prepare to launch new initiatives, from education to incentives, in the coming months.”
To take the role of leading Nocturne, Wiseman had to leave his position at Apple Leisure Group, where he had been senior vice president and general manager. It was a tough choice. He enjoyed working with the team at ALG. He had joined as president of Travel Impressions in 2016, soon after the vacation packager had been acquired by Apple Leisure Group, but before ALG merged with Mark Travel.
During the reshuffling that took place after that merger, Wiseman moved from president of Travel Impressions to senior vice president and general manager of ALG. ALG at that time included several of what had historically been the top brands in wholesale vacation packaging, including Apple Vacations, Funjet Vacations, Travel Impressions, Blue Sky Tours, Cheap Caribbean, United Vacations, and Southwest Vacations.
Though he had mixed feelings about leaving ALG, he enjoyed being in the top position again at Nocturne, as he had been previously at Travel Impressions, Abercrombie & Kent, and Cox & Kings.
Nocturne’s Value Proposition
Nocturne is a young company, started in 2019. The company specializes in renting luxurious homes and villas. It defines its mission as “to curate and deliver unparalleled luxury vacations tailored to each guest’s unique desires and preferences.”
It started by purchasing six legacy companies that had been in business for 20 or 30 years, including Exceptional Stays, St. Barth Properties, WIMCO Villas, Cabo Villas and Paradise Retreats. NLV had properties in five destinations: St. Barth’s, Los Cabos, Telluride, Santa Barbara, and South Walton, Fla.
“Nocturne brought these smaller companies together to create a culture and synergies,” said Wiseman. The plan was to keep each company’s management staff intact, but bring them into a larger association and strengthen them with synergies and sharing of best practices. In spite of the COVID shutdown and its after-effects, the strategy has worked. The companies that were purchased have doubled in size since 2019.
Nocturne serves three groups: the homeowners, the guests and the travel advisors. For travel advisors, Nocturne brings several advantages. First, private villa rental is a growing market. According to Grand View Research, the global vacation rental market size was estimated at USD 82.63 billion in 2022 and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.7 percent from 2023 to 2030.
Furthermore, luxury villa rental is a high-ticket item, commissions are at least 10 percent, sometimes 15 percent. And the satisfaction rate is high, leading to a high rate of return business.
Seventy percent of bookings attach services. The company doubles as a destination management company and can provide practically anything requested by clients, including transportation, attractions and activities. Services can be provided in the villas, including private chefs, massage, wellness, tastings, weddings, synchronized swimming, and you name it. The company is seeing a rising demand for wellness services. Milestone birthdays are also increasing in popularity in the private villa market.
In a growing but fragmented market, Nocturne stands out, in part by consolidating its constituent companies and building a large presence, and also by specializing in luxury.
“We seem to be the only one truly dedicated to luxury, as well as to multiple destinations,” said Wiseman.
And by consolidating a number of the leading villa rental groups; keeping their management teams intact; joining them together to explore possible synergies; providing backing for growth initiatives; and sharing of best practices, the company has created a niche for itself at the top of an emerging market.
For more information on Nocturne Luxury Villas, visit www.nocturneluxuryvillas.com/travel-advisors.
David Cogswell is a freelance writer working remotely, from wherever he is at the moment. Born at the dead center of the United States during the last century, he has been incessantly moving and exploring for decades. His articles have appeared in the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, Fortune, Fox News, Luxury Travel Magazine, Travel Weekly, Travel Market Report, Travel Agent Magazine, TravelPulse.com, Quirkycruise.com, and other publications. He is the author of four books and a contributor to several others. He was last seen somewhere in the Northeast US.