A startup that professionalises short-term rental hosting launches in Hong Kong

Their services include listing creation and housekeeping.

Being a host on short-term rental platforms such as Airbnb can be tedious and time intensive. Therefore, a team of experienced entrepreneurs set up GuestReady with the mission "to take the hassle out of short-term rentals.”

GuestReady is a startup that professionalises hosting for short-term rental platforms such as Airbnb. Its service is aimed at Airbnb hosts and property owners with the goal to provide hassle-free hosting to help homeowners double their income. Services include listing creation, guest communication, housekeeping, laundry, and key management.

GuestReady keeps the unique aspects of Airbnb, and by doing so, the startup hopes it will not only provide ‘hotel-like services’ to the guests but will also create a listing that generates a higher yield for short-term rental properties.

The founding team consists of experienced ex-Rocket Internet venture executives from Zalora, Foodpanda, Wimdu and Kaymu who are all avid travellers so they understand the particular needs of a guest. However, they are always disappointed by either the listing, the host, or the service provided. The experience was simply not on par with that of a hotel. Hence, the idea to professionalise the short-term rental industry was born.

GuestReady was simultaneously launched last August 16 in Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, London, Amsterdam and Paris.

By launching GuestReady globally, managing director of GuestReady Hong Kong Lou Chan explains that the startup leverages location-specific advantages and taps into economies of scale to keep costs at bay.

GuestReady chooses to have one co-founder that will lead each market. The co-founders personally manage multiple homes to gain insights and experiences on what it takes to be an outstanding short-term rental host.

“No single co-founders are in the same country. Daily Slack/BlueJeans/Skype banter and calls are just part of how we keep ourselves together as we sweep through our daily tasks of product, strategy, sales, marketing and PR,” said Lou.

Swiss Founders Fund, a seed and early stage investment fund based in St.Gallen, Switzerland, helped fund GuestReady.

The founding team

Alexander Limpert is the CEO. Before launching the company, Alex was a country managing director of Foodpanda in Taiwan and Philippines. He was once a management consultant at Oliver Wyman in London and has travelled to more than 50 countries for business and leisure.

Patrick Degen is the CFO. He founded Mindprep Ltd., one of the ‘leading’ publishing houses in Switzerland. He is a former financial advisor and auditor of KPMG and UBS Investment Bank.

Bertrand Desies is France’s managing director. He was recruited by Rocket Internet to launch Kaymu.com in Bangladesh. Bertrand was Rocket Internet’s internal consultant, spending time mostly in African markets.

Jonna Van Kalker is Netherlands’ managing director. She was working as a Strategy Consultant in Boston Consulting Group. Jonna was tightly hooked in the startup scene in Berlin, where she started her career with several ventures of Rocket Internet, and later became an Entrepreneur in Residence at Hitfox Group.

Wen Dee Tan is Malaysia and Singapore’s managing director. She began her career in ZALORA Malaysia as head of partnership & offline marketing. She then moved to become marketing & PR manager of HotelQuickly Malaysia. Her deep passion for the travel industry inspired Wen Dee to join the co-founding team of GuestReady, looking after Malaysia and Singapore.

Lou Chan is Hong Kong’s managing director. Lou was a part of Hong Kong’s founding teams of WIMDU and ZALORA. He also co-founded Captcha Media, a digital marketing consultancy in Hong Kong, where he advised leading companies in consumer industries in Hong Kong and China on their marketing strategy.

Idzwan Tan is Singapore’s city manager. He studied rocket science and was working as a senior design engineer at ST Aerospace, converting aircrafts for special purposes. As Idzwan loves building things from ground up, he is excited to bring the GuestReady experience to Singapore.