ABOUT · EST. LISBON 2021

We got tired of being the planner.

MyPerfectStay is a small, opinionated company building the tool we wished we'd had for every group trip we ever tried to organise.

The founding team, Sintra reunion, October 2020. This trip generated eight spreadsheets and one very tired planner.

Eleven friends went to Sintra in October 2020. Six of us were exhausted before we arrived. One of us — Maya — had spent fourteen hours over the preceding month orchestrating flights, splitting villa costs, confirming dietary requirements, and sending the same restaurant proposal three times because nobody replied.

On the second night, over too much vinho verde, Maya said something we have been thinking about ever since: “I love you all. And I am never doing this again.”

She meant the planning. Not the friends.

We started MyPerfectStay a few months later. Not because the world needs another travel app — it doesn't — but because we genuinely could not understand why, in 2021, the best tool for organising a trip with five people was still a Google Sheet and a 400-message WhatsApp thread.

The bet was simple: the next generation of travel tools will be built for groups, not individuals. Five years in, with 210 partner hotels, 142 creators in our programme, and a small but unreasonably loyal base of customers — we are more convinced than ever.

This page exists to tell you who's behind the thing, what we believe, and what we are not willing to do to grow. If you've read this far, you are probably our kind of person. Say hi.

“The next generation of travel tools will be built for groups, not individuals.”
— THE FOUNDING HYPOTHESIS · JAN 2021
  HOW WE GOT HERE

Five years in twelve lines.

2021

The Sintra spreadsheet

Maya, Dmitri, and Lina quit their jobs. Build the first prototype in eight weeks. Pitch it to 30 friends who all politely say they're "too busy to plan trips anyway."

3FOUNDERS · 1 LAPTOP
2022

First paying hotel

A 42-room guesthouse in Porto signs up on the back of a cold email. Still a partner today. Still refuses to go on our case-study page.

€24kSEED ROUND · FRIENDS & FAMILY
2023

The creator programme

Six travel creators try a closed beta. Three quit other affiliate networks within a month. Programme opens publicly in September.

48HOTELS · 24 CREATORS
2024

Series A, quietly

€6M led by Point Nine. We hire seven people. Commit, on day one, not to grow faster than we can hire thoughtfully.

18TEAM · 4 OFFICES · 0 LAYOFFS
2025

Today

210 partner hotels, 142 active creators, and 40,000+ group trips planned. The Sintra reunion is in its eleventh year. Maya hasn't made a spreadsheet in three.

40k+GROUPS PLANNED · AND COUNTING
  THE TEAM

Small, opinionated, hiring slowly.

Maya Okonkwo

CO-FOUNDER · CEO

Ex-hotelier. Organised the trip that started this. Still prefers paper maps.

Dmitri Volkov

CO-FOUNDER · CTO

Built the first prototype in a café in Chiado. Has never missed a sunset.

Lina Fischer

CO-FOUNDER · DESIGN

Designs so things disappear. Furious about bad fonts. Will not use Helvetica.

Rhea Patel

HEAD OF RESEARCH

Reformed behavioural scientist. Writes the field notes. Organises nothing.

Tomás Reis

HEAD OF HOTELS

Runs the partner programme. Has slept in 204 hotels in the last three years.

Clara Silva

CREATOR PARTNERSHIPS

Was a travel creator before. Still is, a little. Speaks five languages badly.

Sam Hartigan

ENGINEERING

Shipped the plans feature. Has never not finished a group trip spreadsheet.

You?

Join us

OPEN ROLES · 4

Engineers, a researcher, a BD lead, a photographer we'll never fully define.

  HOW WE WORK

Four things we will not do to grow.

01 —

We will not list a hotel we haven't slept in.

Every one of our 210 partner hotels has been visited, slept in, and reviewed by a member of the team. We pay for our own rooms. If we haven't been, it's not on the app.

02 —

We will not run a programme our creators can't explain.

Commission rates are on the homepage of our creator page. Payouts are monthly. Terms are in plain English. If our smallest creator can't understand it, we rewrite it.

03 —

We will not use dark patterns to boost our metrics.

No fake scarcity. No countdown timers. No “12 people are looking at this room right now.” If 12 people are looking, we'll tell you honestly. They probably aren't.

04 —

We will not grow faster than we can hire carefully.

We've said no to two offers to scale up headcount with agency contractors. Every person on this page was hired by a founder. That's the rule. It may slow us down. Fine.

  BACKERS

Supported by people who, when we said “no dark patterns,” said “thank god.”

Point NineSeedcampFaberCherryKima

Come plan a trip with us.

Or work with us, or write for us, or just send us an email telling us we're wrong about something. All three are welcome.