Why we built Hozy

The question that started it all

“What is there to do around here?”

It's the question every traveller asks after booking a place to stay. And it's the question nobody answers properly.

Philippe knows it by heart. He has been managing stays in Belgium for several years. Every week, the same messages: “Any restaurant you'd recommend?” , “Are there hikes nearby?”, “We're looking for an activity for the kids.”

Every time, he replied by hand. A WhatsApp here, an email there, a makeshift PDF with his recommendations. The knowledge existed - in his head, in other hosts' heads, in local conversations. But it was nowhere on the internet. Not in a structured way, not in an accessible way, not in a useful way.

On one side, platforms to book a night. On the other, scattered blogs, Google Maps and word of mouth. Between the two: a void.

Hozy was born to fill it.

From a client relationship to a shared conviction

Our story doesn't start in a Silicon Valley garage. It starts in a client-provider relationship.

Philippe needed a website for his stays. Florian, founder of the digital agency Nelty, helped him build it. First version, first results. Bookings. Revenue. Event management. The market was responding.

But over our conversations, something bigger emerged. Philippe saw the problem from the ground - hosts and travellers were disconnected from the local ecosystem. Florian saw the solution from the product side - a community that connects stays, experiences and places in a single place.

We looked at each other and said: this isn't a website we need to build. It's a new category.

The real problem: a fragmented travel experience

Today, travelling in Belgium - or anywhere in Europe - looks like this:

You open a booking platform. You book a cottage in the Ardennes. You close the tab. You open Google. You type “things to do in Durbuy”. You land on a 2019 blog with outdated info. You read contradictory reviews on another site. You open Google Maps. You look for a restaurant. You text a friend on WhatsApp who went there two years ago.

Ten tabs. Three apps. Zero connection between them.

And on the other side - hosts, restaurant owners, activity providers - they don't talk to each other either. The kayak operator in La Roche has no idea the host in Durbuy is sending clients their way. The fine-dining restaurant in Bouillon doesn't know that 50 people are sleeping 3 km away this weekend.

Local tourism works in silos. Booking platforms sell nights. No one sells a destination experience.

No one, until Hozy.

What we're building (and why it's different)

Hozy is the community that, for the first time, connects stays, experiences and places in a single ecosystem.

A traveller who books a stay on Hozy immediately sees the activities, restaurants and places to discover nearby. No more juggling ten tabs - everything is in one place.

But the real difference isn't the technology. It's the community.

Every place on Hozy is recommended by someone who truly knows it. Not an algorithm ranking by popularity or ad budget. Not an anonymous review from a passing tourist. A real recommendation, from a real local or a real traveller who took the time to share their discovery.

That human layer is what makes Hozy different from everything else out there. And it's what lets us celebrate what really matters: local regions.

Putting local regions in the spotlight

That's our mission. And it's not a marketing slogan.

Wallonia is full of treasures. Stone villages along the Semois. Century-old breweries. Hiking trails even Belgians don't know about. Craftspeople doing extraordinary work with zero online visibility.

The big booking platforms don't care about them. They optimise for large chains, big cities, volume. None of them has any interest in promoting a 6-person cottage in Villers-le-Bouillet or a fine-dining restaurant in Botassart.

We do.

Every place added to Hozy is an act of recognition. When a member of the community recommends an artisan bakery in Durbuy or a viewpoint in Frahan, they make that place exist for hundreds of future travellers. They contribute to the local economy. They take part in a fairer, more distributed, more human kind of tourism.

That's why the Hozy planner doesn't pull from Google results. It pulls from the community's recommendations. The itinerary it builds isn't a compilation of recycled “top 10” lists. It's a real map of the places that matter, validated by people who have actually been there.

Built from Belgium

Hozy is a Belgian startup. Founded in 2024, based in Wallonia, built by two entrepreneurs who know the ground.

Philippe brings the field experience - he knows what it means to run a stay, reply to travellers, and absorb the commissions of the big platforms. Florian brings the product vision and the tech architecture - he knows how to build tools that scale and interfaces that convert.

Our ambition is clear: start with Wallonia, expand to Belgium, then to Europe. One country at a time. One community at a time. One place at a time.

And now?

Hozy is live. The planner composes itineraries in French, English, Dutch and Spanish. The interactive map shows hundreds of places recommended by the community. The first stays are bookable.

But we're only getting started.

Every week, new places are added. New hosts join us. New travellers discover spots they'd never have found otherwise. The living map keeps growing.

If you're a host, a restaurant owner, an activity provider - join us. Your visibility shouldn't depend on your ad budget.

If you're a traveller - try the planner. In 90 seconds, you'll have a personalised itinerary built from the real places recommended by the community. No sponsored results. No recycled top 10s. Real addresses, shared by real people.

Travel is better when it's shared. We believe it. And we're building it, every day.