“At that stage, I was doing all this just as a hobby for free, there was no cost. I didn’t charge for the first year-and-a-half, two years. It actually came about from a Facebook post where I said, ‘Thinking of charging €10 a year, I’m going to quit my job, I want to go full time with this – would anyone pay it?’

“I think there were like 50 comments, people being like ‘absolutely’. So, for €500 I quit a really good job and went all in on it and I haven’t looked back.”

Indeed, Mr King has been looking up ever since Rory’s Travel Club became an established brand, his subscriber base continues to grow and at the time of writing, the 33-year-old is closing in on 250,000 paid members, with the initial price point having shifted to €12 per year.

The core concept is simple, inspire people in Ireland to travel more often and save a decent chunk of change along the way. So, what are you getting for your €1 per month?

“We’ve now got two memberships,” Mr King says. “The regular membership, we send two emails a week, and between 20 and 30 offers a week.

“These offers could be hotel stays in Ireland, attractions, cruises, international holidays, family holidays, couples’ holidays. Our goal with every offer we put out is to save the customer much more than €12.

“A recent offer we did with Travel Department, a brilliant brand based here in Ireland, our members were saving upwards of €300 to €500 on a seven-night trip to Sorento per person. So, people pay us €12 and some of the couples save €1,200. It’s a great return.”

Mr King posits that a big part of the appeal of his travel club is the communal aspect, with people from all walks of life getting involved. “Everyone, from really successful business owners to people that are retired, to students,” he says.

He’s quick to point out that he’s no matchmaker, though it’s not unusual for romance to develop on one of his trips. “If you’re bringing like-minded people away to travel and they’re having great fun, the craic is good, they’re in a beautiful place and if there’s people who are attracted to each other and they find a spark? We’re all for it,” he says.

The customers appear to be happy, but what about the man running the show?

Mr King intends to visit every country in the world, and he wants his club to stretch as far as possible, too.

“Our goal is to get a million customers,” he says. “The UK market is 10 times the size of Ireland so I am 100pc sure we will get a million customers. And if we don’t get it in the UK, I’m confident and comfortable enough that I can go to the US, I can go to Australia, I can go to New Zealand.

“So, in terms of that exponential growth, for us to get to 250,000 customers, it’s something I don’t take light-heartedly, I’m extremely grateful and extremely thankful, but as we better our service, and as we give our customers more value, we’re going to get more people signing up.

“And I think that we’ve still a long way to go.”

For the full conversation with Rory King, check out Money Talks wherever you get your podcasts.

The content of this podcast is for information purposes and does not constitute investment advice or recommendation of any investment product.