Munich Startup: What does your startup do? What problem does Myflexhome solve?
Kilian Ricken, Co-Founder Myflexhome: We offer a platform for anyone who regularly stays in a hotel – from four nights a month.
In contrast to other booking portals, our customers benefit from a radically simplified booking process and regular customer status with a constant price from the first night. Compared to individual bookings, our customers pay up to 40 percent less with the hotel subscription and also save themselves the time-consuming research and booking effort.
Our customers are private individuals, many in hybrid working relationships or long-distance commuters, as well as companies with travel between locations or teams spread across Germany with shared attendance days, to whom we offer a simple solution for their required overnight stays with our model.
Myflexhome: Hotel subscription with special booking process
Munich Startup: But that’s nothing out of the box!
Kilian Ricken: Of course there are many booking portals. But negotiated rates were previously only available to large companies. Our booking process, where you can book all overnight stays at the same time with just one click, is unique on the market.
You also normally have to pay for each overnight stay individually at the hotel. With us, on the other hand, there is only one monthly bill – no queuing at reception in the morning at check-out and the billing address is always 100% correct.
Myflexhome customers also receive special benefits at the hotels, such as luggage storage between stays.
Munich Startup: What’s your founding story?
Kilian Ricken: During Corona, we noticed that many of our friends and acquaintances moved away from Munich. Either because they went back to their original home or because they wanted more space that they couldn’t afford in Munich. At the same time, they kept their jobs in Munich, which wasn’t a problem during the home office obligation.
But we wondered what they would do as soon as they went back to the office, at least part of the time. This gave us the idea that a second home for just a few nights a week or month is not worth it and that hotels are the perfect alternative.
While we initially had a strong focus on hybrid employees, we have now also developed a special product for business customers.
First financing round in progress
Munich Startup: What have been your biggest challenges so far?
Kilian Ricken: We are currently working on our first round of financing. We realize that this has become much more difficult than two years ago, even though we have already reached over 50 percent of our funding target.
As none of us come from the hotel industry, it was initially a challenge for us to understand the hotel market in depth and to build up a network in order to find good hotel partners throughout Germany. We now have strong partners with Premier Inn, Numa and other chains.
On the technical side, the challenge was to develop the platform completely independently from scratch, as there was no software that offered a subscription model for hotels. To date, the solution is unique in the entire market.
Munich Startup: How is business going?
Kilian Ricken: We have now sold a high four-digit number of nights and more than tripled our turnover in 2023. At the same time, we have been able to increase our margin and reach new target groups. Our goal is to reach the one million mark in sales this year, expand into more than 20 cities and offer a Germany-wide subscription model, especially for business trips.
Many Munich startups are already using our subscription for their employees in hybrid working models, as well as for team days, workshops and projects.
Exchange with others is irreplaceable
Munich Startup: How have you experienced Munich as a startup location so far?
Kilian Ricken: Alongside Berlin, Munich is definitely the best place in Germany to set up a business. We’ve had our office in Werk1 since mid-2023 and the exchange with other startups and like-minded people is irreplaceable.
The coaching from Baystartup has also given us important impetus and is helping us a lot with our first financing. The Bavarian funding opportunities, such as Start?Zuschuss!, helped us a lot, especially in the beginning.
Munich Startup: Hidden Champion or Shooting Star?
Kilian Ricken: At the moment, we are certainly still more of a hidden champion. Our bootstrapping approach to date has allowed us to grow steadily, but we don’t yet have the name recognition and size that we want and need. With our financing, the strong expansion into other cities and the Germany-wide subscription for business trips, we want to develop into a shooting star.