Hey Layla! Where’s My Next Vacation?
A German startup has used an AI chatbot that suggests destinations and helps book tickets
Some would say, this is the end of the world of the tours and travels business. Others would call it just the beginning. Which is actually what Jeremy Jauncey, the founder of travel agency Beautiful Destinations believes as he takes his startup Layla to the market, armed with an AI-led chatbot that suggests destinations and even does bookings.
And no! ChatGPT is nowhere in the picture here. At least not as yet, as Jauncey and his team has come up with their own chatbot along with an app that provides glimpses of the destinations by tapping heavily into creator content. Do the original creators get paid for their efforts? Well, we aren’t sure about that yet.
For the uninitiated, Beautiful Destinations already has millions of followers across social media platforms on Instagram and is considered by fans as the chosen destination for the next generation of travelers (we are sure even Christopher Columbus would’ve appreciated their website) seeking out-of-the-mundane choices.
A post-pandemic trend is what seeded Layla
Layla is the brainchild of Jauncey and Saad Saeed, who co-founded grocery delivery service Flink in Germany in 2020. A report published in TechCrunch quotes Jauncey to state that the company’s new effort was to provide a solution to the travel industry that is based on their own experience of social networks and building tech products.
A post-pandemic trend that the duo observed revolved around how users were basing their travel decisions around what they saw on Instagram and TikTok (not in India) and this formed the basis of the idea around Layla, which was officially launched on November 29 to a select audience initially. Users in India too can download it on Android and iOS.
Of course, Layla has a huge fan following on Instagram, obviously coming off the Beautiful Destinations network. For starters, the founders are hoping that the Instagram chatbot would be the entry point for users seeking different destinations. But, at some point they want to move the conversations over from Instagram to the Layla chatbot itself.
What can Layla do for you now?
Currently, one can ask Layla about destinations, the climate and the best times to go and things to do there. One also gets to see some videos from creators who are aligned with the Beautiful Destinations network. Having done a quick recce, one must admit that the entire thing boasts a certain class, whether showing videos, sharing ticket prices or displaying hotel options.
Jauncey wants Layla to be an aggregator of that’s good across the platforms or websites, given that most users prefer to make multiple digital visits before actually accepting travel advice. The idea is to shorten this journey through partnerships and associations. Layla already has tie-ups with Bookings.com and Skyscanner for lodging and travel options.
Layla already has several backers in the industry
The idea has found backers in the form of FirstMinute Capital that has invested $3.2 million as seed investment. Other investors include Booking.com co-founder Andy Phillips, Skyscanner co-founder Barry Smith and entertainment diva Paris Hilton. Revenue models for now are limited to transaction fees, though the startup believes there will be more post scale-up.
What’s interesting about the entire Layla story is that the founders expect stickiness from the different types of content being surfaced without the need to have a website structure where users need to work harder with folders and searches. This is where the large language modeling comes into play to parse queries and display results.
In other words, there’s an in-house recommendation engine already at play whereby Layla could soon share answers to queries that are out-of-whack such as “find me destinations that look and feel like the Himalayas”. Of course, investors are aware that users may initially find it tough to find what they’re looking for and may need prompt engineering lessons.
Which is true for anything related to AI-led chatbots as we would know while using ChatGPT or Bard for the first few times.
