Finding the Best Tour Guide with GuideWe

Kaiyi Chu founder of Beijing GuideWe Travel shares with us new ways to help inspire and plan trips through local experiences and local guides. Kaiyi is part of our Beijing Travel Massive chapter and a industry leader when it comes to guiding tours in the most local way. 

Who is your start up for?

We serve independent travelers who are interested in exploring China. We experiment new ways to help them get inspired, plan their trips, and eventually get the best local experience with best local guides.

What inspired you to create this startup?

I started working on overseas marketing projects for China tourism and found a big gap between the foreigners’ perspective on China and the real China. I believe the best way for people to know the real China is to invite them over. It was then that I took this idea and created GuideWe. Quite often local guides aren’t getting paid as they deserve and travel experience is jeopardized by shopping stops, mandatory tips, and additional fees. All of this led me to build a different travel platform where travelers directly connect with local guides and have more options for tailor-made and deep travel experience.

How is your startup different than others?

Our business model is like Uber, but for private tour guides. Once a traveler places an order, we find the best guide available for their preferred travel. We interview all guides to ensure their language, knowledge and professionalism. We also publish many ready-to-book city tours and on our website and mobile app we allow travelers to add their guides as friends and stay connected. All guides are equipped with mobile hotspots for free wi-fi access, first aid kit for emergencies, and free souvenirs like t-shirts, backpacks, or postcards. 

How is your startup changing the future of the travel industry?

We want to let more and more people know about the beauty of China. Most travel agencies are for profit and reluctant to spend too much resource on market education. We think it’s more valuable to curate interest and build up long term relationships with potential audiences through new media channels, creative marketing campaigns, and innovative technology. Secondly, we want to make sure tour guides get paid what they deserve and travelers get quality service. 

Do you have any tips for new entrepreneurs who want to create successful startups?

My first tip is to be an expert in your game. I trained myself to be a mobile developer to get to know the technology. When I started working on GuideWeTravel, I met with guides, travel agents, and industry professionals to get industry insights and under the table rules. I even followed tour guides during their service to see how they work and to talk to real tourists. Secondly, you must have passion in what you are doing. If you really believe in your vision, don’t back down, try everything you can to make it happen.

What benefits have you seen from being part of Travel Massive meet ups?

The network connection is great. the business introduction and information sharing are really helpful. The global coverage benefits us greatly since we need to build up partnerships all over the world. My team attends every local meet up in Beijing and always have something fresh to take away.

Travel Start-Up is a monthly series that profiles unique online travel start-ups in the Travel Massive community around the world. Connect with Kaiyi Chu on Travel Massive.