When one of Janine Marshall’s favourite cafés closed down, she jumped at the opportunity to bring her dream of opening a luxury travel boutique to life.
Janine imagined the concept for upmarket agency Agent Nouveau more than two years ago, but her full-time travel business, JLT Group, had kept her too busy to put her dream into reality.
But when the café, in Westbourne, Bournemouth, closed down in November 2025, she grasped the opportunity, and opened her travel boutique two months later.
“I came up with the brand and the name a couple of years ago, but I just didn’t have time to get it off the ground,” Janine told Indulge.
“But as soon as I saw the shop premises had become available, I thought ‘this is the time’, so everything happened really quickly and we were open by mid-January.
“I have always enjoyed going on luxury holidays and staying in beautiful hotels so it made sense for me to pursue my own luxury brand.”
Janine has forged a successful career in travel since she became an agent during the pandemic, after her matcha tea business was forced to close.
She initially became an InteleTravel agent on the recommendation of a friend, then launched her Janine Loves Travel homeworking brand in 2023 under Protective Trust Services (PTS) and now has around 450 franchisees under the JLT Group name.
Nearly three years later, Janine and two members of staff are working in her first shop, featuring comfy sofas, a dining area, a bar – and lots of exciting plans.
“In our first three weeks we’ve already made several bookings while still focusing on getting our name out there and educating members of the public on who we are and what we offer,” she said.
“We mainly make high-value, luxury bookings and in our first couple of weeks we sold a £20,000 multi-itinerary trip to South America, which is a great start.”
‘Hotel lounge’ feel
Janine says she has put a huge emphasis on the customer experience and wants customers to feel totally supported from the first time they come into the agency to discuss a trip, all the way through to coming back from their holiday.
Providing a comfortable space to do that has been key, she said, as well as making them feel special with tailored gifts.
“We’ve designed the shop to feel like a hotel lounge as we want our customers to come in, feel relaxed, have a drink and chat about their holidays.
“It’s so important for us to create relationships with clients in person instead of over the phone or email and we want them to know they can trust us to handle everything and be their first point of call.
“We will also give customers gifts which we have tailored to their personalities and to their holidays to make them feel even more valued.”
Gifts include wellness products such as supplements, facemasks to use on flights and an aromatherapy inhaler for people who get nervous flying, all supplied by a partner she works with. She will also give away Louis Vuitton city guides, which will be tailored to where the customer is going.
Supper clubs
Janine plans to host regular supper clubs and high tea events for small groups of her customers where reps from cruise lines, hotel groups and tour operators can come in and have relaxed conversations about their products.
Her first will be in partnership with Typically Holidays and will feature a three-course Italian meal with a sommelier on hand to share insight on the wine pairings.
“We want to offer some small, intimate gatherings with people who can talk about the industry to groups of around 10 customers,” she said.
“It won’t be a formal presentation with a screen, I just want the evenings to be informal chats with a delicious meal where people can sit in the boutique and have a lovely evening.
“We’ve had loads of interest in the events and lots of customers have asked to have their names added to our waiting list so we know there will be huge demand for them in the future.
“Collaborating with our supplier partners is really important to me and I think it works really well with customers.”
Janine plans to charge for each events, and will set the cost depending on what each event entails.
Clients… and future plans
While Agent Nouveau builds its reputation, Janine said the brand is open to selling ‘pretty much anything’ within the luxury space, but as time goes on, she thinks cruise will be a big opportunity for the agency.
“Cruising is really popular with people living in this area,” she said. “There is a shoe shop next door to us and the staff there regularly tell us they have new clients going in looking for shoes for their next cruise, so we know there’s a huge market here and we want to tap into that.
“Tailor-made multi-centre itineraries are also going to be a big selling point for us as well as general luxury family escapes.
“We have a full portfolio of clients ranging from solo travellers, couples, families and retirees, so we are excited to see what we can offer.”
Janine is planning to expand the concept. She said: “A couple of members of my JLT team are interested in taking on an Agent Nouveau store, one of whom is in Portsmouth and the other is in the Midlands, so there is opportunity for us to grow around the country.”
