Hoberman helped found the British internet auction site QXL

Hoberman helped found the British internet auction site QXL. Were they doing their current job just for the money? "I never felt anything for QXL," Hoberman says "I never empathised with it There is a still a glamour about travel. The company was his idea, and together they are pioneering the marketing of a lifestyle that until now has hardly been catered for at all. Hoberman and Lane Fox are sitting in an empty conference room. "I always tell them it's Brent's turn to go on TV and they say, 'No, we'd like you.' It's because I'm blonde," she says, matter-of-factly Hoberman, 31, is equally sexy in a dark, preppy sort of way.

The site has expanded to include everything from Christmas presents to home-delivered food baskets, though the emphasis is still on cut-price travel. Early next year their company, Last Minute Network, is going public and Lane Fox is already a well-known face on television, appearing on Question Time and Newsnight. They have 200 employees in their Mayfair office and have received every kind of young-entrepreneur's award imaginable. While some of the specials look like attempts to offload expensive hotel rooms that would otherwise have been empty in the low season, there are enough bargains there to ensure 500,000 people have joined their weekly e-mail list. "Above all the idea is that people should get excited because they realise they can do things they wouldn't have believed," says Lane Fox. This does not mean it is a replacement of the old bucket shop; a lot of the deals on the website are obviously aimed at a certain sector of the population, offering suites at impossibly grand hotels at reduced, if still enormous, prices. "It's much more exciting saving £300 on a £600 hotel suite than £5 on a £55 air fare," Hoberman says. Some 18 months ago, the two young entrepreneurs launched lastminute , a website aimed at offloading some of the most spectacular special offers from airlines, hotels, theatres and restaurants on a web-friendly populace. The site rapidly grew to become one of the country's best-known travel services, and the pair have now established the brand in France, Germany and Sweden.

"How sweet," she says, picking up a thank-you card from a country-house hotel It is one of a pile of similar cards. "They seem pretty pleased with us," she smiles to no one in particular. Hoberman shakes his head in mock frustration, wanting to resume their conversation. Lane Fox and Hoberman are the new face of the British travel business. Hoberman shakes his head in mock frustration, wanting to resume their conversation.

Martha Lane Fox and Brent Hoberman are standing at a desk in front of a giant map of the world, which is pasted on the wall of their central London office. Beautiful, largely uninhabited and peaceful. Where are the chic doing their shopping? Stockholm is a chic shoppers' paradise, with oodles of choice. The place to be seen shopping or at least carrying the designer bags is still Biblioteksgatan in Stureplan. Edmund Watts lives in Stockholm.. Martha Lane Fox and Brent Hoberman are standing at a desk in front of a giant map of the world, which is pasted on the wall of their central London office. "How sweet," she says, picking up a thank-you card from a country-house hotel It is one of a pile of similar cards.