Tempe-based mobile luggage valet service expands internationally
Sep 1, 2015, 10:00 AM
(Instagram/Dufl)
PHOENIX — Travelling with a lot of baggage? Thanks to a Tempe-based mobile app, the weight can literally be lifted off your shoulders, according to the Phoenix Business Journal.
Dufl, a mobile baggage valet service based in Tempe, has recently gone global.
The app offers customers the service to ship, clean and store their luggage for them, before arriving at the traveler’s destination and allowing the customer to travel hassle-free.
This week, the app expanded into Europe, Canada, Singapore, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Sydney, Melbourne and Bermuda, according to the article.
Founder and CEO of Dufl Bill Rinehart said the app gives customers the freedom to travel while assuring that their luggage will arrive to their destination, clean clothes and all.
“With all the convenience apps, we’re still traveling like it’s the 1960s,” he said in an interview with Phoenix Business Journal. “It seemed pretty silly. Dufl takes the pain out of checking in a bag and cleaning your business clothes.”
The app, which launched on iOS in April and Android in July, is tailored toward frequent business flyers — Think George Clooney in “Up In The Air.”
To partake in the service, customers order a Dufl suitcase and fill it with any and all business clothes and toiletries they might need. Dufl then picks up the suitcase and takes photos of its contents for the customer’s “virtual closet.”
Whenever the customer needs to travel, they go online, pack their virtual suitcase and fill out their destination information. Then the bag is ready to go!
After the trip, Dufl picks up the luggage again and stores and cleans its contents until the next outing. Rinehart said that he came up with the idea during a business trip to London, dreading the laundry he would have to do in between business trips.
“There’s nothing like this on this kind of scale, nothing tailored for the business traveler,” he said in an interview with Phoenix Business Journal. “We’re definitely the first.”
So what’s the price to have your own personal, international maid service? Dufl costs $10 a month to store clothes and $99 to domestically ship and launder your items.