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News • Bangkok • Thailand • 2012-10-17

BeMyGuest.travel Goes Online and Puts Uniquely Local Accommodation, Activities and Events in Easy Reach of Travelers

Be prepared to immerse totally into local culture around the world with what BeMyGuest has to offer. The new Singapore-based travel website now gives global travelers a one-stop shop to book all travel activities after they have arranged their flight.

SINGAPORE, 17 October 2012 – Go where the locals go for entertainment. Eat in a local\'s home. Learn parkour from a local. Or sample locally produced wines by a vineyard owner. Your dream travel experience will never have to be just fantasy from travel documentaries ever again.

Clement Wong and

Maasai Tribesman

BeMyGuest.travel goes online today to provide a new comprehensive way for discerning travelers to contribute the majority of their travel dollars directly to local businesses, while enjoying unique local experiences.

The site allows anyone to list their own accommodation, activity and event for free.

BeMyGuest.travel aims to simplify the search and book process. Through the use of its own bespoke technologies it has been designed to inspire travelers seeking unique experiences and convert people away from mass tourism packages.

Booking and payment is conducted with the primary objective of championing uniquely local, often small-scale, accommodation, events and activity providers, especially in emerging tourism economies in Asia and around the world.

Under the \"Stay\" part of the site, travelers are able to book local accommodation as well as book local experiences provided by these hosts such as tours and cooking classes.

For the \"Play\" part, travelers can be inspired by activities and events at the destination by genre, or simply let BeMyGuest inspire them with activities and events from around the world.

Samples of travel experiences currently on BeMyGuest.travel, which has the tagline, \"Stay Local, Play Local,\" include booking igloos, reserving the entire Sound of Music village in Switzerland for a wedding, riding a fighter jet to the edge of space, and arranging secret dining events, from popular tourism destinations such as Thailand, to off-the-beaten track destinations such as Kyrgyzstan.

Undecided between a surfing class or to go for a diving class? A trip to Bhutan or to Kazakhstan? One of the unique features of the site is that it allows guests to compare properties, events and activities before booking them.

Learn yoga with a guru

The idea is to empower people running local businesses such as guest houses, homestays, sightseeing tours, cooking classes, participatory activities and events. The aim is to cater to the rising demand for authentic and immersive travel experiences based on collaboration with local people.

Clement Wong, founder of BeMyGuest.travel, was inspired to make a difference after a trip to a Maasai tribesman\'s village in Kenya in 2010. \"I wanted to visit a local Maasai village. My driver told me it would cost $20, which I thought would go to helping the village. The friendly tribesman introduced me to his family and tribal elders and did a great job showing me around. However, they were still living a subsistence lifestyle. When I asked him why, as they were getting many tourists visiting them, he replied that he only gets $2 of the $20. The driver-guide takes the other $18. It\'s a universal problem that de-motivates people who should be benefitting the most. BeMyGuest has therefore been created to bring just rewards to real tourism providers and benefit smaller, more local travel businesses,\" said Wong.

The website has already been shortlisted for the semifinals of the Web in Travel Travel Start-Up Pitch Competition 2012, which awards innovative travel start-ups online.

Anna Pollock, a globally acclaimed tourism strategist, trend analyst and founder of Conscious Travel, said: \"BeMyGuest addresses an emerging need. Today\'s travelers want to touch and feel what is real, be transformed, and then come home with a different perspective. They want to know that the money they spend at their destination is a force for good, benefitting local hosts directly.\"

Fly in a fighter jet

In just four weeks, BeMyGuest.travel has secured 5,000 unique rural and urban travel offerings, mostly local accommodation, events and activities around the world, focusing particularly on Asia and emerging destinations. Wong is seeking to add more local accommodation suppliers, tour operators and travel agents who have access to a wide range of local travel products that mainstream travel agents don\'t sell.

\"We use technology to connect unique inventory with the long tail of global consumer demand. We want local communities to benefit from tourism,\" said Wong, who has worked with leading travel companies such as Travelport, PhoCusWright and Euromonitor International.

To ensure quality control, payment will only be made to the service provider after the guest has checked in or used the service. Guests are able to review the accommodation, activities and events on BeMyGuest.travel after they have experienced them.

\"Whether travelers want to spend $5 or $500 a night, the accommodation or activity provider gets a larger share of tourism revenues,\" said Wong. \"We use technology to empower travelers\' choices and help local businesses benefit more from tourism.\"

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About BeMyGuest.travel – Stay Local, Play Local

We aim to bring the benefits of tourism to local communities. We are a travel intermediary that helps local suppliers and intermediaries to distribute unique local accommodation AND local activities AND local events, both online and offline, to travelers, through the use of data analytics and bespoke search algorithms. It is free for individuals, local travel suppliers and agencies to list their travel products on BeMyGuest.travel. We will then market their travel products across all our distribution channels, online and offline for free. Guests can book unique travel experiences on BeMyGuest.travel while helping local communities at the same time.

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