Packnada takes packing, laundry and baggage claim off the list of perennial travel annoyances. The luggage-free travel service allows users to store their clothes and essentials in Singapore, and then receive their freshly laundered and pressed clothing at their hotel concierge upon their next arrival. Here, co-founder Jonathan Lee tells us how it all began and the trouble with getting people to give up on inconvenient habits.
How did the idea for Packnada come about?
During a business trip, Johnbosco [Ng, co-founder] and I were waiting in a crazily long check-in queue at Hong Kong’s airport. All we wanted to do was to get home. And then we thought, “what if we had our clothes waiting for us at our destinations? We wouldn’t be stuck in this line. We wouldn’t even need to pack! If we can access our files wherever we go via cloud storage, why can’t we do the same for clothes?” And so Packnada was born.
How was response been so far?
Humbling! Our customers love the idea of being able to travel luggage-free and hassle-free—it gives them the freedom of carrying nothing but their passport. Studies say that most business travelers don’t enjoy business travel, but we think that removing packing and laundry from the process will go a long way in making it less painful.
What’s the most difficult thing about running Packnada?
Our biggest competitor here is the status quo. Plenty of travelers have come to accept travel and its inconveniences. The challenge is to convince them that it doesn’t have to be this complicated. Also, as we are the first company of our kind, we don’t have any best practices that we can learn from.
What’s the weirdest clothes/outfit you guys have taken care of?
There was a client who started off leaving only a few tattered clothes, and this raised a few eyebrows at our office. We eventually found out it was because he didn’t quite trust that his clothes would be safe. A few trips later, his clothes started to mend themselves—we started receiving more expensive threads. Plus, he was so happy about how well Packnada works that he even left us home-made cheese sticks. Our very own rags to riches story!
What advice would you give to an aspiring entrepreneur?
Don’t lose the child-like curiosity! There’s a ton to learn and discover, and inspiration can come from absolutely anywhere.
