on November 15, 2016 / by Downtown Dallas Inc. / in Blog Posts, DDI News, Things To Do
This blog is part of a special series featuring winners of Downtown Dallas Inc.’s Live Like a Local contest, which asked for locals to submit mobile friendly, self-guiding local experiences on the Guidrr iPhone app that showcase their #mydtd journeys. Christine Saba and Alison Rae, the team behind @theluxebaes, are featured today, along with a link to download their free, winning staycation experience: The Ultimate Girlfriend’s Getaway Day.
Christine Saba and Alison Rae have been besties for nine years and it’s been quite a journey including multiple cities, college campuses, employers, and joint entrepreneurial pursuits. Their story began when they become friends as undergrads in Virginia, (they both grew up in Northern Virginia suburbs, just 20 minutes apart, but only met as college students). Later, they both found work in Baltimore and spent time there but would visit Dallas frequently to spend time with Christine’s parents.
Their path to become millennial entrepreneurs and Dallas locals began when Christine decided to relocate full time to the city to work with a startup, moving into her parents’ home in Oak Cliff. It didn’t take long for Alison to follow suit, leaving a full time corporate career in hospitality.
They were inspired by female entrepreneur role models to launch their own vacation-rental business focused on luxury trips to Costa Rica. “While our business, LuxeBae, is focused on international luxury vacation planning and hosting, we always designed it to be home-based in Dallas. Over time, we decided to also focus on planning and hosting local Dallas events for people like us,” says Alison.
Together, the duo curated an event called the Girlfriends Getaway Day – pouring their energy and experience into planning a perfect way for young women, seeking authentic friendships and great local experiences, to spend time together.
Christine and Alison are the duo behind @theluxebaes, a brand focused on experiences for millennial women. Photo: Beckley & Co
It was natural for them to enter & share the experience in the DDI Live Like a Local contest, and broadcast their skill for planning and curating amazing experience to a broader audience.
“It takes a lot of work to plan and research an authentic experience. Our aspiration with our brand and with the Getaway Day, was to take the stress out of planning a group girlfriends’ experience and instead just go do it and enjoy it.”
Like many other millennials, the duo say they have turned away from sources like Yelp and instead use authentic sources to find local experiences worth having. “We love to use D Magazine to find authentic ideas, and we also enjoying finding curated local experiences on Guidrr,” they say. “Yelp or Googling just isn’t the right way to have a great Dallas experience. We want people to go out and do all the amazing things the city has to offer. Since we can’t have events year-round, we wanted to make our experiences already curated and shared on social media, more broadly accessible.”
Now that Christine’s parents have moved to Houston, she and Alison rent their Oak Cliff home, and also sublet a guesthouse portion to short-term visitors. By day, Christine focuses on her role at startup NoiseAware, a local home-rental noise monitoring system. Meanwhile, Alison has found a new role helping to expand the U.S. startup business of Workplace Arcade, run by an international entrepreneur who had spend time in Dallas at their short-term Oak Cliff space. “We love living in Oak Cliff. When you walk out on the street, the city skyline is right in front of you. It’s a cute neighborhood that is safe and quaint and it takes us just 5 minutes to get to work downtown.”
Say Christine & Alison of @theluxebaes:
“Don’t get too caught up in planning and researching, just find authentic sources to help.
The fun is in actually taking on the experience – doing it and then thinking about it and re-living it later.
Stop swiping right, just go do it!”
When they aren’t busy being entrepreneurs or key employees to their teams, they both love to eat good food and travel. “I think my personal Dallas experience is so food-focused. There is so much great food here; the quality of the actual meals is amazing and so is the wonderful atmosphere created by local restaurateurs,” says Alison. Jokes Christine: “The only side issue with my move to Dallas is keeping the pounds off from all those great meals!”
Their advice to other young millennials like them? “Don’t get too caught up in planning and researching, just find authentic sources to help. The fun is in actually taking on the experience – doing it and then thinking about it and re-living it later. Stop swiping right, just go do it!”
Both also reflected that while they only moved to Dallas full-time in 2015, they already feel they are true Dallasites. “We love this city and the #mydtd community. There’s nothing to not like about it. It’s got all the ingredients we were looking for to launch our business, @LuxeBae, and to live a life filled with awesome food and great experiences through our personal brand as longtime friends and business partners, @theluxebaes.”
Download Alison and Christine’s guide here (inside the Guidrr iPhone app) to explore their #mydtd
Thanks for being #mydtd ambassadors Christine and Alison and we can’t wait to see more of your curated downtown Dallas experiences hit the Guidrr app!
tags: See More Posts
