- People
- 03/04/2025
University dropout achieves success with personalized travel
Dennis van Ravenstein chased his dream and launched his startup Maps Untold
In 2018, Dennis van Ravenstein competed in the TU/e Contest, where Maps Untold earned him the audience award. Ultimately, he decided to quit his university studies. it was time to pursue his dream: launching his own startup. Now, seven years later, his tool – a sort of “tripadvisor on steroids” – is being used commercially for the first time.
Maps Untold is a tool that provides hotel and holiday park guests with personalized recommendations for local hotspots. A few weeks ago, Van Ravenstein launched the tool on partner channels such as the Great Stay app, a platform with over five hundred affiliated hotels and holiday parks. “Say you check in at one of the holiday parks. Our tool then sends you recommendations for things to do in the area, fully customized to the user’s needs.”
Expensive beer
The idea for Maps Untold came from co-founder and TU/e alumnus Gaby Gomes Branco. “She was on a study trip to St. Petersburg. She spent an hour searching for a place to have a beer, using the standard platforms Google Maps and TripAdvisor, but she ended up in a bar where the beer cost eight euros. Way too expensive for a student.”
Gomes Branco and Van Ravenstein decided to find a solution together. “Personalization has long been the standard in all kinds of sectors, but not in the leisure sector. Even though the technology is available.” Van Ravenstein and Gomes Branco started tinkering with the tool in their free time during their student days. “We always considered it sort of a side project.”
Turning point
That was, until Van Ravenstein decided to quit his studies in Industrial Engineering and Management Sciences during his third year. While studying, he worked at a friend’s family business. There, he was given the financial freedom to experiment with new ideas. “I learned much more from working in the business world than from my studies. When I started thinking about how to make the best use of my time, I came to the conclusion that I should quit my studies pretty quickly. I knew I didn’t want to pursue it any further, so why put any more time into it?”
The moment Van Ravenstein took this bold step, Maps Untold gained momentum. “I started reaching out to more and bigger companies. We were met with very positive feedback. One investor had been waiting for a way to personalize guest trips for a long time. They had all these connections with holiday park developers and other industry providers. That was the moment everything came together: the technology, the network and the market demand.”
Deep learning
Under the hood of the tool is a deep learning model with lots of data. “It contains the entire digital fingerprint of a business, including guest reviews and the dishes and prices on the menu. But also things like the atmosphere and the interior design.” Guests can enter their favorite restaurant, museum or hotel and are then presented with recommendations for similar places in the area.
The user’s privacy is safeguarded in this process, says Van Ravenstein. “We don’t ask for external data, just your favorite hotspot. By using very targeted questions and having a lot of data under the hood, our system operates in a privacy-friendly way.”
For the consumer
The development of Maps Untold had its fair share of hurdles. The team came up with several versions of the product, including a Tinder-like app where you could swipe locations and a matching system with influencers. Neither of the two made the cut. “We realized that it was smarter to use pre-existing data instead of creating the content ourselves.”
By now, the company has secured several investments, including from the Leisure Development Fund and Rabobank. The tool is currently only available through platforms to make bookings and reservations. Maps Untold receives a commission per completed reservation. “Basically, if there’s a transaction involved, that’s where we focus our revenue model.”
In five years, Van Ravenstein wants Maps Untold to be integrated as a tool in tourist platforms worldwide. But more is coming. “When we reach 250,000 monthly users by the end of this year, we plan to launch a consumer tool as well.”
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