Was macht eigentlich das Travel Start-up holidayheroes?

Könnt ihr euer Start-up in einem Satz beschreiben?

We are the new heroes of the German travel market 🙂 Our platform, holidayheroes, offers a completely new, personalized search and booking experience for vacation packages thanks to our own groundbreaking technology, combined with exceptional service.

In your opinion, what sets holidayheroes apart and makes you stand out from the competition?

We are the world's first algorithm-based personalized booking platform for dynamic vacation packages. No one else is doing what we do.

Holidayheroes isn't about searching—it's about discovery. Using a conversational approach, we scan millions of listings, and in less than two seconds, our algorithm fills the user's screen with a personalized feed of dynamically generated offers.

Our technology skips the tedious search phase of the customer journey and selects the best flight and hotel combinations that match users' preferences. We ask users to share these preferences in a short survey as soon as they arrive on our site.

That said, we’re not happy with the usual price and availability changes in the German OTA market 😉 We’ve kept them to a minimum and are continuing to work on it.

When did the idea for the business come about?

The founder of our company, Erez Bousso, has been active in the tour operator business for many years and wanted to redefine a segment that had been overlooked in the age of digitalization and, as a result, had not undergone a digital transformation. Selling our own inventory no longer made sense in today’s market, and since our founder cares deeply about both digitalization and customer service, he had a vision to create a customer-centric search and booking experience.

Was war der beste Ratschlag, den ihr fürs Gründen bekommen habt?

According to our founder, the most important advice he ever received was to choose the right partners.

Was war bisher euer größtes Erfolgserlebnis und was die größte Herausforderung?

Biggest achievement: Our first repeat customer after three months, as well as the rapid establishment of a holidayheroes team at our office here in Munich.

Biggest challenge: There are too many options for holidayheroes, ranging from partnerships to adding technical integrations. We can’t do everything at once 😉 We need to stay focused.

Was sind eure Pläne für die nächsten Monate?

Our focus is currently clearly on three pillars:
1. Expanding our holidayheroes team and thereby building a team of top performers.
2. Optimizing our operational processes

and last but not least

3. Increasing our brand awareness in the German market.

Angenommen ihr bekommt eine Finanzierung in Höhe von 500.000 Euro. Was würdet ihr mit dem Geld machen?

We have just closed a funding round of 7 million euros. This will enable us to accelerate our growth and double our figures month over month.

... but if you still have €500,000, we'll definitely know how to put it to good use 😉

See also: Roland Berger as an investor – Travel platform Move raises millions

Where do you see further potential for innovation in the tourism industry? 

Oh my, I don't even know where to start 😉 The customer experience, innovation in managing mass tourism, and promoting lesser-known destinations. Making it more enjoyable for customers right from the moment they start planning their vacation. That, for example, is what we've made our mission.

Welche Tipps würdet ihr anderen Gründern mit auf den Weg geben?

Making sure you have the right people around you.

In addition, truly listening to the customer and then having the organizational and technical flexibility to adapt quickly.

Last but not least: Trust your gut. Yes, you should trust the data, but not blindly. It’s important to always combine it with a healthy dose of intuition and interpret it accordingly.