This Startup Makes Travel Planning Easy With AI – Holiwise Startup Review

Travel planning can feel like piecing together a complex puzzle. You’re excited about your next adventure but overwhelmed by the endless choices. Hours spent searching for the perfect destination or coordinating group trips often lead to frustration. For young professionals aged 22 to 35, balancing a job with limited time for research adds to this challenge. It’s a common scenario: knowing you want to travel but not having a clue where to go.

Enter Holiwise, an AI-powered travel planning tool designed to streamline this process. With just a few clicks, you can receive tailored destination and itinerary suggestions based on your preferences. Created by a dedicated founding team who understand the struggles of today’s travellers, Holiwise eliminates the need to sift through endless sources. Instead, it empowers users to quickly find inspiration for their next adventure.

We spoke with Kristian Lexeklint, one of Holiwise’s co-founders, to uncover how this innovative platform is reshaping trip planning for those constantly on the go.

What is Holiwise?

Holiwise is an artificial intelligence-based travel planning tool specifically aimed at young professionals aged 22 to 35 who are navigating busy work schedules. With many in this group earning decent incomes but lacking the time or energy for extensive travel research, the challenge often becomes knowing where to go and how to organise a trip efficiently. Holiwise addresses this common problem by simplifying the entire travel planning process, which often feels overwhelming for those juggling demanding jobs and social lives.

You can simply input your preferences through the Holiwise platform, and in moments, it analyses vast amounts of data to suggest ideal destinations and tailored itineraries. For instance, if you desire a winter beach holiday outside Europe, Holiwise swiftly presents several great options, eliminating hours of research and uncertainty.

What sets Holiwise apart is its focus on streamlining group trips, a significant pain point for many travellers. This includes recommendations for activities, finding affordable flights, and booking hotels that cater to various tastes and budgets while ensuring everything fits seamlessly together. Holiwise combines user-friendly technology with comprehensive travel choices, freeing users to enjoy the journey ahead.

Holiwise Founders

Kristian Lexeklint is one of the driving forces behind Holiwise, where he serves as the CFO. His analytical approach and problem-solving capabilities stem from a strong background in finance, having spent four years at Barclays Investment Bank as both a salesperson and interest rates derivatives trader.

With a First-Class BSc Degree in Accounting and finance from Warwick Business School, he brings a wealth of experience and training that supports the startup’s mission to simplify travel planning for busy professionals.

Alongside Kristian are his co-founders, Albin Eriksson Lippe and Apurva Amin. Albin, who holds the position of CEO, thrives on the human connection intrinsic to business management, drawing on his experiences at Goldman Sachs, where he spent five years serving hedge funds. His academic pedigree includes a First Class BSc Degree in Economics from the University of Warwick.

On the other hand, Apurva, as CTO, has a distinguished career that includes a stint at Microsoft and a recent role as Head of Engineering at Xapien. With awards from top tech companies and a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science from the University of Nottingham, his capabilities in artificial intelligence and engineering form the backbone of Holiwise’s technology.

The early days of Holiwise were defined by a shared frustration over the complexities of travel planning. Kristian and Albin had travelled extensively, puzzled over where to go when seeking a winter beach escape outside Europe. They recognised a significant gap in the travel industry: while many platforms assist once a destination is chosen, none address the initial search phase. This shared challenge led the trio to a common goal—the creation of a platform that could analyse vast amounts of data, suggesting destinations based on a few user inputs.

Holiwise was born from a longstanding friendship between its founders, who met in high school and studied together at the University of Warwick. Their combined expertise in finance and technology uniquely prepared them to tackle a common travel planning challenge. They focused on developing a sophisticated AI model for dynamic destination recommendations, aiming to simplify group trip planning – a problem they and their peers often encountered. Through persistent effort, Holiwise emerged as a tool to revolutionize travel planning.

Interview with Kristian Lexeklint, Co-founder of Holiwise

We had the opportunity to sit down with Kristian Lexeklint, co-founder and CFO of Holiwise, to discuss the origins, challenges, and vision for this innovative travel planning startup. Here’s what he had to share.

Q: What inspired you to venture into this particular industry?
A: Albin and I have been travelling extensively over the past two years and consistently faced the dilemma of deciding where to go next. It struck us that while the travel industry has excellent resources for booking flights, hotels, and activities, there was nothing that helped with the very first step – choosing a destination based on specific preferences. We saw a significant gap and decided to create a solution that addresses this very problem. Given our entrepreneurial backgrounds and the severity of the issue, we felt we needed to tackle it head-on.

Q: Can you share some details about the early days of Holiwise?
A: Building an AI model that can recommend travel destinations based on minimal user inputs was challenging and required thorough validation. We didn’t want to rely solely on AI; extensive due diligence from our side was crucial, something ingrained from our previous banking careers. Our aim was to ensure the recommendations were both accurate and genuinely helpful to users.

Q: How do you differentiate Holiwise from its competitors?
A: Our flagship product – helping travellers find the perfect destination based on their preferences – is unique and doesn’t exist in the current market. We aim to streamline the entire trip-planning process, especially for group travel, making it as seamless as possible.

Q: Has your startup received external funding?
A: Yes, we have. We’re currently in the middle of a funding round and prefer to keep the specifics confidential at this moment. However, our passion and commitment to the project, demonstrated by leaving promising banking careers to start this venture, have been key in gaining investor confidence.

Q: What are Holiwise’s plans for the future?
A: Our goal is to streamline the entire travel planning process. From finding the perfect destination to booking flights, choosing a personalised hotel, and scheduling activities at the destination, we want to cover every aspect.

Q: Let’s talk numbers. How much revenue does Holiwise generate per month?
A: For now, our focus is firmly on growing our user base. Holiwise is a free product, and we are seeing around 5000 users per month, even with minimal marketing efforts. Since our official incorporation on November 22, 2023, we are aiming for 7-10% weekly growth.

Q: What advice do you have for aspiring entrepreneurs looking to start their own business?
A: Hard work and due diligence are crucial. Spend a significant amount of time on partnerships and hiring, as these can be the most important aspects of a startup in its early stages.

Q: Any interesting statistics about the travel industry you’d like to share?
A: Absolutely. UK travellers spend over five hours on average researching trips. The path to purchase for a trip often extends over two months, with 59% of travellers not having a specific destination in mind when they first decide to travel. Additionally, mobile bookings are growing, with nearly 50% of all digital travel sales happening on mobile devices.

Feedough’s Take on Holiwise

Holiwise emerges as a promising startup, uniquely positioned to disrupt the travel planning sector. By using AI to tailor travel plans for busy young professionals, they directly tackle the pain points of time and decision fatigue. The integration of group preferences streamlines the process, making it not just faster but more inclusive and enjoyable.

Moving forward, the challenge will be to maintain its innovative edge in a dynamic market. Keeping their technology ahead of trends and continuously enhancing user engagement will be crucial. Excitingly, if Holiwise stays its course, it may just redefine our approach to travel planning, making it effortlessly smart and seamless.