Chad Allan, 29, from Hadston, near Ashington, Northumberland, moved to Dubai in 2017 after a sales job in London fell through and he returned home with nothing to show for it. He came across an opportunity on social media for a two-week job trial at a wealth management firm in Dubai. He spent the little money he had on a one-way flight to the UAE, with just enough left for a month's worth of food.
The job was not salaried, so he relied solely on commission. After six months, he had run out of money. He asked his father for help and was given £100, with the message that it was the last he would get. A few weeks later, he made his first deal of £7,000 and was able to rent his own apartment.
From maid's room to luxury concierge
Chad's first place in Dubai was a maid's room so small he could touch both walls at once. It had no windows, and the shower had no door, so every morning the water soaked his bed and his clothes. He said: "I was eating plain pasta out of a carrier bag. There was a point where I was ready to give up and come home."
He rang his father to borrow money for a flight back to the UK but was sent just £100. "He said, 'you've managed to get all the way to Dubai and find a job at your age, so go and work harder and make some money,'" Chad said. "'Either you get your head down, or you earn the money for the flight and come back to people here who'll laugh that you've failed again.'"
Chad knuckled down and worked overtime. He said: "Every single day, I was the first one in the office and the last one to leave. I actually loved my job and, at the time, there was one Friday afternoon I was running a team of 10 and I made about £2,000 that day from renting yachts. I thought, 'if I can make £2,000 in a day whilst I'm at work, what could this actually be worth if you put your all into it?'"
Spotting a gap in the market
After three years at the wealth management firm, Chad rented a jet ski but, after experiencing bad customer service, he noticed a gap in the market. He said: "I thought, 'how can I be the middle man?' So I started renting jet skis and then my friend said to me, 'Why wouldn't you do yachts?' Then we spiralled onto every other service, finding out what people need, where the service was terrible - and being the middle man so the service was slick."
Three years into his time in Dubai, he quit his job to run his jet ski and yacht business full-time. It took off within the first year and, after a lull during Covid, his business became more profitable than ever. Six years later, Chad is a luxury concierge to some of the wealthiest people on the planet, with clients whose daily spend runs from around £500 at the lower end to £100,000 at the top. He has built enough of a brand and reputation that clients now approach him.
Chad also handles bookings on behalf of 10 to 15 other concierges, who come to him because of the contacts he has built. His commission varies from deal to deal, typically between 10 and 20 per cent. On some bookings, clients are also asked to commit to a guaranteed minimum spend before a table is confirmed, sometimes around £1,000.
Extraordinary requests and star clients
His biggest single booking was a return private jet from Dubai to Ibiza costing £300,000, alongside a villa at £10,000 a night for 10 nights, plus security, drivers, transfers, and tables at the island's most exclusive venues for the week. He once arranged a table costing 500,000 AED, around £105,000, with three hours' notice, for a client in his 20s who wanted to be seated next to Grammy-winning DJ Black Coffee at Ushuaïa Dubai Harbour, on a night when almost nothing was available.
But the request he remembers most involved a bottle of wine worth less than a cup of coffee. "The client's wife wanted a particular wine, and the only place you could get it was a supermarket in Europe," he said. "It was about four euros a bottle. We flew a member of staff out, they collected it and flew back, all within 24 hours."
On another occasion, a VVIP client was turned away at the door of one of Dubai's busiest venues while out with his wife and her friend. Chad rang the venue's director on the spot and secured a table on the terrace. When the client was unhappy with it, he personally paid the bill of a table beside the DJ booth to move him. "Money is no object for these clients," he said. "Around the Grand Prix especially, there's no number and no negotiation. My job is to make it happen by any means."
He has looked after celebrities and sports stars, including an American footballer whose week-long trip ran into six figures, and whom Chad did not recognise until the pair met in person. He once had a well-known artist removed from a yacht before it left the marina after he refused to take his shoes off. The client was given a full refund.
Giving back and looking ahead
Despite the budgets he now handles, Chad says the bookings he enjoys most are often the smallest. "Planning proposals is still my favourite part of the job, no matter the budget," he said. "I'd rather take less of a fee and make it perfect."
Chad says he now doesn't "tend to blink an eye when I pay for cars" for himself to use. "I have a 4x4 for the month and then when it comes to the weekend I'll take a Lamborghini or something," he said. A couple of years ago, he flew his mum out to Dubai for her 50th birthday and covered everything for 10 days. "I never had the money to do anything like that before," he said. "Being able to give something back was a good feeling."
