Luxury Dreamliner buses transport celebrities on tour

• Dreamliner Luxury Coaches builds luxury homes on wheels for touring musicians and their crews.
• The company says it rents 190 luxury tour buses to musicians such as Drake, Doja Cat and Olivia Rodrigo.
• Lease on a full-service artist bus — a vehicle worth more than $1.5 million — starts at $50,000 a month.

Chances are, all of your favorite musicians use a company you’ve probably never heard of: Dreamliner Luxury Coaches.

Touring involves more than just transporting a musician from one city to another. This is where the Dreamliner comes into play. The Nashville, Tennessee-based company is not like your typical bus operator The jet plane Or greyhound. Instead, her bread and butter provides touring musicians and their crews with luxury hotel rooms on wheels.

You’ll definitely recognize some of Dreamliner’s customers

The company’s genesis can be traced back to the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020, founder Rich Thompson purchased 12 tour buses from an individual who needed to obtain a personal warranty. Three years later, and after acquiring two additional bus operating companies, the company now operates a fleet of 190 buses and boasts a Rolodex of celebrity clients like Drake, Olivia Rodrigo and SZA.

Country musicians — like Kenny Chesney and Chris Stapleton — rent these coaches annually, Dreamliner CEO Jeremy Moll told Insider. He says he’s also helped out on all of The Weeknd’s tours. According to Maule, even Taylor Swift’s team has requested support from the Dreamliner, although the singer is known to be traveling on it Private planes instead of.

“We’re the bus company you call when you’re successful,” Moll said, adding that about 95% of its clients are musicians. “We work with big bands like Beyoncé and Zach Bryans.”

Besides these celebrities, the company also has corporate clients who will rent for events such as meetings and corporate trips. These luxury hotel rooms on wheels are so popular, Thompson says the Dreamliner fleet is on the road about 300 days a year, and the average tour lasts about 60 days — or longer if it’s a country artist.

What it takes to build a $1.5 million fleet of buses

The 190 Dreamliner buses include various designs such as crew, star and executive. The latter is geared towards corporate clients while “Stars” is designed for musicians. A typical “crew” bus – for passengers supporting the main business – can accommodate up to 12 people.

For an average arena tour, the artist team will rent between 10 and 15 buses. For venues like Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, expect 15 to 20.

To build mobile hotel rooms, Dreamliners typically obtain bus chassis that contain only the dashboard, driver’s seat and steering wheel.

At the company’s facilities in Nashville and Fontana, California, these stripped-down vehicles are then outfitted with plush amenities like 900-thread-count mattresses and bathrooms with showers.

Extras like Nespresso machines, smart TVs and Le Labo candles create a real sense of luxury. Some buses also have a music studio for artists who want to record on the road.

The Dreamliner CEO says these post-conversion buses are worth between $1.5 million and $2 million each. Rent for a full-service Najma bus starts at $50,000 per month, which includes necessities like a driver, gas, cleaning services, and Wi-Fi.

Following the recent acquisition of Hemphill Brothers, Maul says the company’s only competitor is Senator Coaches, which predates the Dreamliner. But he says there’s a key difference between Senator and Dreamliner: The former focuses on huge rock bands like U2 while the latter targets younger artists like Drake and Justin Timberlake.

“We don’t have a lot of young, beginning artists,” Moll said. “Once you become a bigger band and tour more or year-round, then you’ll want to work with us.”