STARTUP STAGE: FreeGuides empowers hotels to accompany their guests beyond the lobby

FreeGuides

With their AI-driven platform, FreeGuides consolidates traditional travel guides into a QR code-driven solution, providing guests with local experiences and hotel information.

Founded in 2021, FreeGuides capitalizes on its foundation of existing relationships with hotel groups like Accor, EVT and IHG.

What is your 30-second pitch to investors?

FreeGuides is transforming the travel landscape by empowering hotels to accompany their guests beyond the lobby and into the city. Our white-labeled, artificial intelligence-driven platform consolidates traditional travel guides into a single QR code-driven solution, providing guests with comprehensive local experiences and essential hotel information.

This seamless integration not only enriches the guest journey but also enhances hotel operations by eliminating the need for multiple apps and paper brochures, making content creation straightforward and efficient. Through FreeGuides, hotels can maintain a consistent presence with their guests, whether they are enjoying the comfort of their room or exploring the city's attractions.

Describe both the business and technology aspects of your startup.

• Business: We partner with hotels to enrich their guest engagement by integrating self-guided local tours, recommendations and hotel services into one platform, increasing their value proposition.
• Technology: Leveraging a web-based platform, we use QR codes to offer scalable and customizable content management to our partners, allowing real-time updates and insights.

Give us your SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis of the company.

• Strengths: Innovative technology, first-mover advantage in QR code integration, strong partnerships in the hospitality industry.
• Weaknesses: High dependency on travel market stability, resource limitations for rapid scaling.
• Opportunities: Expansion into new markets, potential to scale globally, integration with other travel services.
• Threats: Competition from traditional and new tech-based travel guides, economic downturns affecting travel.

What are the travel pain points you are trying to alleviate from both the customer and the industry perspective?

We address the clutter and confusion of managing multiple travel resources by providing a unified platform that enhances the exploration experience for travelers and simplifies content management for hotels.

So you've got the product, now how will you get lots of customers?

To acquire customers, FreeGuides capitalizes on its strong foundation of existing relationships with prestigious hotel groups such as Accor, EVT and IHG, which collectively encompass numerous properties across the Asia-Pacific region. We are actively engaging with these groups at the brand level to facilitate rollouts across their networks, which will significantly scale our reach. Additionally, our presence at major industry expos and targeted digital marketing campaigns help increase our visibility within the hospitality sector. The intuitive and viral nature of our platform also encourages organic growth, as users share their positive experiences, further attracting hotel partners interested in enhancing their guest engagement.

Tell us what process you've gone through to establish a genuine need for your company and the size of the addressable market.

Through market research and pilot programs with key hotel partners in Sydney and across APAC, we’ve validated the demand for streamlined guest services and identified a significant market among urban hotels seeking to upgrade their digital offerings.

How and when will you make money?

We operate on a subscription model charged to hotels for using our platform. Revenue generation started post-pilot phase and continues as we expand our network of hotels.

What are the backgrounds and previous achievements of the founding team?

The founding team comprises individuals with expertise in tech development, digital marketing and the hospitality industry, previously involved in successful startups and professional services.

How have you addressed diversity and inclusion within your business?

We actively recruit talent from diverse backgrounds and implement policies that promote inclusion in all areas of our company, from hiring to decision-making processes.

What's been the most difficult part of founding the business so far?

Navigating the travel industry’s volatility, especially during global events like the pandemic, which drastically affects travel patterns and investment in new technologies.

Generally, travel startups face a fairly tough time making an impact - so why are you going to be one of the lucky ones?

Our unique value proposition, agile adaptation to market needs and the increasing demand for digital integration in travel experiences position us for success.

A year from now, what state do you think your startup will be in?

We expect significant growth in our hotel network globally, expansion into new markets and further development of our platform’s features.

What is your end-game (going public, acquisition, growing and staying private, etc.)?

Our goal is to scale the business globally and remain private in the near term, with potential for an acquisition as we establish ourselves as a leader in digital travel solutions.