Meet the Entrepreneur Behind These Hotel-Level Luxury Home Linens
L'Officiel ◆ January 18, 2022There are few things more luxurious than the plushness of a hotel bed. It’s a luxury we’ve missed over the last two years — ever since the pandemic began, we’ve mostly been confined to our own homes, and in that time, we’ve tried to make our individual spaces as comfortable as possible.
This is where Diana Fung, founder and CEO of Home de Luxe, comes in. Realizing a there was a gap in the market for high-quality bedding products, especially in the online marketplace, Fung, a graduate of the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania and formerly a management consultant at Bain & Company, saw an opportunity to bring the same five-star hotel feel straight to our doorsteps. Partnering with Globalinens, a major supplier of linens to over 2000 five-star hotels in Asia, Diana was inspired to start Home de Luxe and deliver the checked-in experience to every Filipino home.
It started with a common question: “How can I bring the hotel experience into my own home?” Established to solve all our qualms with our house beds, Home de Luxe has gifted hotel-quality, trusted bedding products at reasonable prices to Filipinos, from Filipinos. With each product expertly and sustainably handcrafted in the Philippines, the brand offers premium items that allow homebodies to mimic the comfort of a top-tier hotel stay, from crisp sheets, fluffed pillows, to tightly-tucked comforters.
Here, L’Officiel Philippines pauses for a chat with Fung on Home de Luxe’s goals, growth, and commitment to excellence.
What is the gap you’re aiming to fill with Home de Luxe? What do you feel the market is looking for?
Diana: Home de Luxe’s mission is to offer stylish, high-quality home products at a reasonable price point. When I moved into a new condo in Manila, I spent a week running around trying to buy things for my home. I tried to look for items online, but quickly realized that the options were very limited…there was already online shopping in the Philippines, of course, but the available designs and quality did not look promising. I wanted to provide an alternative solution where customers can shop in the comfort of their own homes, to disrupt the otherwise traditional brick-and-mortar business.
What made you realize that there’s an existing demand for hotel-quality bedding in the Philippines? Was there a proverbial lightbulb moment for you?
Diana: Some of my friends asked me where they should buy their linens – they would buy them from the US or Europe and bring them over to Asia, despite how heavy they are, because they simply didn’t know where to get quality beddings here. That’s when I realized there is a demand and gap in the market.
What experience is Home de Luxe aiming to recreate? What do you want your customer to be envisioning?
Diana: We all work hard; at the end of a tiring day, we all deserve a nice sleep. That’s the experience we want to recreate — the comfort and luxury of lying in a five-star hotel bed at home. This became especially important when the pandemic started, because everyone was home 24/7.
It’s so true that hotel beds are, for some reason, always so much more comfortable than our beds at home. So what is the difference between a hotel bed and a home bed? Is it the materials? How does Home de Luxe bridge that gap?
Diana: Five-star hotels always have quality standards that must be met. For example, they usually use no less than 500-thread-count sheets. Thread count refers to the number of threads used per square meter inch of fabric — generally, the higher it is, the softer the resulting linen. Materials also matter: five-star hotels usually go for 100% cotton bed sheets, because they are hypoallergenic and breathable.
Apart from sheets, hotel beds usually come with the full assortment of accessories: fluffy pillows and duvets, high quality mattresses and toppers…combined, these make up the full package to maximize your comfort level. At Home de Luxe, we carry all of these products to give our customers the full-on luxe experience.
How did the pandemic and the sudden influx of people staying at home affect your business? We imagine it boomed as people began to want more comfortable home spaces, but what was it really like? What were the adjustments you had to make?
Diana: We were hit by the worldwide pandemic within half a year of launching Home de Luxe. Our operations and deliveries came to a standstill because of the ECQ. There was a lot of anxiety going around, and no one knew how long it would last. Nevertheless, we were confident in our products, our brand story, and the power of e-commerce—we stayed positive and motivated despite the uncertainty.
When we were not able to send out orders, we adapted by launching home-themed livestreams tackling topics of concern, like how to keep your bed clean, or how to wash and disinfect your sheets. When we relaunched post-ECQ, we were surprised by the overwhelming sales and support. There were times when we received so many incoming orders that our logistics team could not keep up. The uplift came from people wanting to beautify their living spaces, and the pandemic-induced boom of online shopping.
What sets Home de Luxe apart from other Asian linens brands?
Diana: While we constantly strive for innovation in our products and marketing, we also embody the heritage that our sister company, Globalinens, represents. Globalinens has been a trusted manufacturer of linens to 2000+ five-star hotels for the last few decades. At Home de Luxe, we hold ourselves to the same top-quality standards, with over 1000+ in-house craftsmen who hand-stitch and quality-check our linens. Customers can rest assured they’ll get beautiful, ethically-made, five-star quality linens from us.
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