One-pager · August 2026 · Confidential
HostAgent
HostAgent is the desk on the operator’s own site. It holds the same remaining key Booking.com would sell.
Working product. No paid operators. First paid Cloudbeds pilots in Queenstown are the next step.
After 10pm the guest is already on their page. A FAQ bot takes an email. We take the night — at 3%, not 15%.
The ask
NZ$500,000 · 12 months
- People
- Founder + one engineer. Not a sales army.
- Sites
- 8–12 paid Queenstown Cloudbeds lodges.
- Run
- Infra, insurance, Queenstown travel, pilot legal.
- Not
- No ads. No US office. No second city until the basin pays.
How money is made
| Lakeview night | NZ$389 |
| Booking.com take (15%) | NZ$58 |
| HostAgent take (3%) | NZ$12 |
| Lodge keeps the difference | NZ$46 |
Site fee on traffic, plus 3% only on nights the desk writes. Tiers below.
What the worse software does
| Them | What they are | What they are not |
|---|---|---|
| Intercom Fin / Zendesk | FAQ. USD $0.99 a resolved chat. Seats on top. | Cannot hold a Cloudbeds key or a Superpass. |
| HiJiffy, Canary, hotel chatbots | Guest messaging and upsells, sometimes PMS-aware. | Not the same remaining-keys lock as Booking.com. Not room + gondola + hire on native APIs. |
| Cloudbeds Messenger | Chat next to the PMS they already pay for. | Still a messenger. Does not package Skyline or Quest. Does not take 3% vs 15%. |
| Booking.com | Distribution. They own the guest. ~15% a night. | The expensive option we replace on the nights the desk writes — not a chatbot we out-talk. |
| Trip-planner AI | Itineraries. Mindtrip, GuideGeek, the rest. | No write to the operator’s system. A plan is not a hold. |
First 12 months
- Now. The Ridge in the demo is the 12-room product — not a customer.
- Weeks 1–12. One real Cloudbeds lodge. Live lock. Pilot terms below.
- Months 4–12. 8–12 paying Queenstown sites. Founder closes them in person.
- Not this year. Skyline, NZSki, and Australia wait until lodges pay.
8–12 Lodge sites at NZ$200 is about NZ$1.6–2.4k MRR, plus 3% on nights written. The ~NZ$37k / ~$445k ARR figure is only if the basin later fills — 50 lodges, Skyline, NZSki, hire take. That is arithmetic on a full book, not a 12-month forecast.
Why this founder
Aiden Buckleigh
25 · Queenstown
I run the Xplosiv store here — stock, banking, the floor. Nearly three years on the Repco trade counter before that: parts systems, trade accounts, the customer in front of me. Motorsport tech in Melbourne, then independent security research (NVIDIA TensorRT, coordinated disclosure). I want the next job to be this desk. I live in Queenstown — I can sit down with a lodge this week.
Pilot
Public site fee for their traffic, plus 3% of nights the desk writes. Setup billed once. Not free.
| Tier | Sessions / mo | NZ$ / mo | Plus |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lodge | Up to 10k | 200 | 3% of nights the desk writes |
| Town | 10–50k | 500 | 3% of nights the desk writes |
| Peak | 50–200k | 1,500 | 3% of nights the desk writes |
| Basin | 200k+ | 3,000 | 3% of nights the desk writes |
- They get
- The desk on their site. Holds into Cloudbeds. Same remaining-keys lock as Booking.com.
- We measure
- OTA nights displaced. Holds after 10pm. Zero double-sells.
8–12 weeks. They keep Cloudbeds. They can leave. Weekly 30 minutes with whoever runs the lodge.
Risks
- No signed Cloudbeds, Skyline, or NZSki APIs. Demo locks are ours.
- Skyline and NZSki may never let a third party collect lift money. Vendor-collect is the design.
- iCal lodges are a weak lock. REST or we wait.
- We do not delist Booking.com. We take the nights that leak.
- GMV is seasonal. One founder in Queenstown.
Success at 12 months
- 8–12 Cloudbeds sites paying.
- A real number for nights moved off Booking.com.
- Still founder-led. One engineer. No second city.
- If those are missing, we were wrong — not underfunded.
Then — multinational
- 1. Queenstown-Lakes. Own it. 8–12 Cloudbeds sites. Wanaka is the same district.
- 2. Rest of NZ. Rotorua is Skyline’s other NZ door. Then Franz, Auckland, Christchurch. Same lock.
- 3. Australia. Skyline already runs Cairns. Gold Coast, Hobart, Thredbo/Perisher. Stripe AU, Afterpay. Vendor-collect still unblocks lift money.
- 4. Follow the operators. Skyline’s other cities (Singapore, Calgary) and ski towns that look like this basin. We do not open a country without local acquiring and vendor-collect. US/EU is after AU pays.
The Ridge, Skyline, and NZSki on the site are the product, not signed partnerships.