Those who travel often will tell you that air travel can be tedious. At the airport, you have to bear with the long lines at the airport.
And of course, you have to pack for your business trip too. Travelling for a few days is fine, but if you are travelling for weeks, laundry might be an issue for you.
To take the hassle of the long lines at the airport and the hassle of having to pack when you travel, two best friends came together and created Packnada, a service that helps you travel light so you spend less time in line, and more time on what’s important to you.
It is your overseas wardrobe that packs itself.
How does it work? Every time you arrive at your hotel, Packnada will have a package of your clothing and essentials waiting at your hotel. You simple just check in and go about your business. At the end of your trip, simply leave your clothes at the hotel and fly home luggage-free. Packnada will take care of the laundry and maintenance. You can also store your preferred brands of soaps and shampoos on top of your cloths with Packnada’s storage box.
Here’s what Packnada promise: You’ll have fresh, clean clothes the next time you arrive at your destination. Essentially, this means that there will be no more packing, laundry or check-in queues.
Interesting concept? Vulcan Post speaks to Johnbosco, one of the cofounders of the new service:
Tell us how did the idea came about and what is your background?
The idea was born in a long queue at the end of a business trip at the Hong Kong airport. Packing, queues, and laundry were the last thing Jonathan (my co-founder) and I wanted to deal with during a trip that was focused on work. I thought about cloud storage and how we had our files available to us wherever we went, and I imagined how much simpler travel would be if clothes and essentials were always waiting at our destination. We’re both passionate about efficiency and productivity, so Packnada’s goal was really to simplify business travel by taking clothes out of the equation.
I studied Tourism and have a degree in Marketing and Entrepreneurship. I spent 3 years doing Marketing and Business Development in Mindshare, a media agency, before starting Packnada.
How did you and your cofounder meet and whats the best and worst part about working together?
I met Jon while working in Mindshare, became good friends after completing a few projects together.
Jon and I both have deep respect for great design and a shared vision for seamless travel – helps alot with decision making in respect to Packnada. We also complement each other pretty well in terms of skill sets – Jon’s more technical, so it allows me to focus on the business aspect
Our similar experience, personalities and ideals sometimes limit our ideas and hinders problem solving. Another person in the team with a different perspective to make it more dynamic would be super useful.
What are the hotel destination you are working with?
All of them! Packnada will have your clothes available at any hotel that you stay. Though we’re also looking to work together with key hotels to integrate with their loyalty program.
How do you handle all the client’s personal items across the different country? Logistics must be a nightmare.
For now, we’re only available for travelers inbound to Singapore. Personals items are washed and stored in Singapore by Packnada. Singapore is a great testbed because it’s the most popular business travel destination in Asia Pacific in 2012, according to a research by Accor Asia-Pacific Business Traveller. It is also one of the top 5 convention cities of the world, a regional hub that welcomes over 3 million business travellers a year.
We’re currently in beta with inbound travellers to Singapore, hoping to launch early 2014.
When you say you are in beta now, what does it mean and how many customers do you have now?
It’s a closed beta run with about 10 inbound travelers to Singapore using the Packnada service. The beta is helping us with customer discovery and strengthening the operational process before the official launch.
So all hotels are registered with packnada now? How does it work?
Packnada works by dropping off bags with the personal items at the hotel concierge, ready for the user to pick up upon check-in/out. Bags are tagged to the guest name and room number, similar to leaving your luggage after checking out during a holiday. We don’t need the hotels to register with us!
Whats your pricing model like?
Travellers pay a flat monthly subscription for full access to Packnada, including laundry, storage, and deliveries. We have different plans depending on frequency of travel.
Why do you think this will work and how do you reach out to your target audience?
We think now is a great time because business travel is increasingly commonplace, especially in developing Asia. Research shows more than 1 in 4 business travellers report exhaustion and have negative job satisfaction with business travel. Charging for checked in baggage is becoming a trend as airline margins fall and look toward ancillary fees for alternate revenue.
We’re very optimistic because we feel business travel could be a lot simpler! Instead of worrying about what to pack, whether their luggage will get lost in transit,
or wasting time in queues it allows business travellers to focus on what’s important for the trip, and just get back home.
We left our jobs to work on Packnada full-time. We’re funded by the ACE Startup grant.
Read also: He travelled from Singapore to London across 14 countries by land. It only costs US$2126