Withlocals connects tourists with authentic local food, activities, and tours across Asia

Netherlands-based startup Withlocals is a peer-to-peer marketplace where local people offer home dining, tour experiences, and other local activities. It’s an Airbnb that goes beyond accommodation to sell travel experiences in three categories – Eat Withlocals, Tours Withlocals, and Activities Withlocals.

Withlocals launched an alpha website back in June and is planning to launch its beta in mid-November. Although, the site has not officially launched yet, it has over 40,000 Facebook fans and over 100,000 site visitors per month.

Although, the company was born in Europe, Withlocals focuses 100 percent on Asia. The startup’s main office is in Holland but it has over 70 local staff in Asia working as ambassadors. There are also over 10,000 locals across Asia who applied to be hosts for people who want to share their knowledge, skills, and culture with tourists. They vary widely from home-chefs, artists, to martial-arts specialists and fishermen.

How it started

Willem Maas, the startup’s co-founder has traveled to many places all over the world and has especially fallen in love with Southeast Asia. His many authentic travel experiences inspired the concept of Withlocals.

For Eat Withlocals, the idea came up in Sri Lanka during co-founder Marijn Maas’ honeymoon trip. He and his wife coincidentally experienced a home dinner with local Sri Lankan people and felt it was an amazing experience. Since then, he thought, “wouldn’t it be great if all travelers could have an experience like this?”

Marijn tells Tech in Asia:

We love the sharing economy and wanted to give travelers and locals in Asia the opportunity to connect with one another.

Sharing economy principal

Using the principles of the sharing economy, Withlocals wants to enable people to earn a sustainable income by doing something they’re passionate about. The site connects local people directly to travelers through its marketplace, making it possible for a much broader group of people to earn money in the tourism industry. On the website, travelers can find verified local and authentic travel experiences in the categories of Home Dining, Tours and Activities.

Competitors

Of course, Withlocals is not the only sharing economy startup in Asia. Here’s a list of 10 Asian travel startups that crowdsource tours from local guides. There’s also Plateculture, which offers similar services for home cooked food with locals. And, of course, Airbnb is quite popular in Asia, too.

Withlocals just landed a $500,000 funding round from Greenhouse Group to help it battle in Asia.

Regarding his competitors, Marijn also commented:

Why Asia?

Business model