LocalSort: helping hotels give their guests the best service

Umbono-funded company LocalSort is looking to disrupt the informal way hotels and guesthouses recommend services to their guests.

The company offers a marketplace where service providers like shuttle and tour operators can bid on how much commission they’re willing to pay for new business. Hotels can use the web interface to find local services to recommend to their guests, and they earn commission for doing so. LocalSort keeps a percentage of the commission as a fee for making the connection.

Born out of another tourism business

All four of LocalSort's co-founders were involved in a previous venture (still operating) called TravelGround. TravelGround allows customers to book accommodation all over South Africa. It was through building this business that they became aware of the opportunity that would later become LocalSort.

"When we started TravelGround none of us had any experience in the tourism industry. In some ways our ignorance was a blessing. It turned out to be much harder than we thought, but in the end we're really proud of what we've achieved," says Marcel van de Ghinste, one of the LocalSort co-founders.

Meet the team

LocalSort was founded by Marcel , his school-friend Jonathan Womersley, Jonathan's brother Justin, and Justin's school-friend David McLennan. David cut his Business Science degree short (converted to a BComm) to join the company.

On joining Umbono

"We didn't have a burning desire to take on funding, but Umbono sounded like such an amazing opportunity, we had to go for it," says Marcel.

According to Marcel, the biggest benefit of being a part of the Umbono project is the access to networks it provides. "It's absolutely amazing suddenly meeting people you would never have access to otherwise."

Advice for aspiring entrepreneurs

Marcel has a couple of pointers for would-be entrepreneurs. "Start sooner rather than later. It doesn't matter how much experience you have; you won't be completely prepared to run your own business and you'll have to learn the hard way."

"Also, try to focus better. When we started TravelGround we were all over the place with what we wanted it to be, but our conversions started improving as we simplified to the core of what we were doing."

What’s next for LocalSort?

LocalSort is coming up to the end of its first three months on the Umbono programme. At the end of that period, if the investors are happy and they've hit their milestones, their stay will be extended by another three months and they'll receive a further $25,000.

One of LocalSort's milestones is to have the beta version of their software up and running. Currently service providers are bidding on how much commission they'll offer per referral, but the company is going to focus on bringing in hotels in the next few weeks.

The initial target is the Cape Town market, but after that they plan to roll out the service to the rest of the country and international markets as well. "One of the reasons we got into this programme is the potential for this to get really big. We're trying to work out how to scale something that doesn't look that scalable from the outside," says Marcel.

They don't want to pin themselves down too much at this stage. As Marcel says, "We're very exploratory. We're happy to try new things, see what works, then double-down on what's successful.”