Our journey so far

Dine With The Locals was founded by Cambodian Sorida Nhim and German Thomas Wanhoff in 2018. It is based in Siem Reap, Cambodia. We both came together for the first time in November. Thomas had the idea for a platform for a while, but was looking for a local co-founder. He also wanted a woman for this position, because part of Dine With The Locals is supporting women, and that should always start at the top.

Thomas (right) and Sorida (left) with our host Mom and her daughter.

Shortly after, the idea for Dine With The Locals was born: A platform, where locals can promote meals and experiences and where travelers can connect with locals for a real authentic experience.

We started talking with families in Siem Reap about the food project and got positive feedback: Many woman stay at home and take care of children and house, but would also like to have opportunities to get some additional income. We also talked with tour operators and tourists about our idea, and many told us, that the were looking for exactly this kind of authentic experience.

Thanks to a great developer Team (shoutout to Sinal and Bun Huot!) we were able to move our WordPress site to a modern platform with a better backend. By end of December 2018 we had 7 hosts in Siem Reap and were in talks with hosts in Banteay Meanchey and Battambang. The new version of the website was launched on 30.12.2018.

January 2019 will be a busy month for us: we will register as a company and start offline promotions, in particular flyer, to attract customers. We will also expand our social media activities on Instagram and Facebook.

We progressed through spring 2019 and expanded the team: Leaphy and Thyda joined us and will help us from Phnom Penh. We started to make our first deals with other businesses to sell our service and get commission or just help to promote us. We are listed on BookMeBus and Camboticket as well as on Tripadvisor and I like Local.

In June 2019 we had a change: Sorida left us to work on her new venture, als natural soap company. In July Mealea joined us to help in Siem Reap with sales. 

The Dine With The Locals Team