A Chat with Mel Suntal, Founder & CEO at Luxury Travel Company: Axonall

We’re shifting travel from consumption to consciousness, using AI to design journeys that align with who you are and what you value.

Tell us about Axonall

I believe travel is much more than going to new places. We don’t just ask “Where are you going?” and build the trip around that location. We go deeper. Axonall can think and its different to what you’ve known in the market. The way you interact with our system tells us a lot more about you and your intention behind the trip. Basically, we look at your deeper desires and motivations and continuously learn about the real you and your goals.

This is why Axonall can make recommendations that go far beyond surface level preference delivery. Starting from hotels to unique experiences, we make recommendations that are deeply personal and individual to you in a matter of seconds. With our newest addition, the Carbon Wallet, our customers can see the footprint of their trip in real time. So, this helps our customers to choose with intention and travel more consciously.

This kind of personalisation has never existed in the travel industry before.

How did you come up with the idea for the company?

There’s a big gap between in what the travel industry sells and what modern customers actually need. I’ve experienced this first-hand. You get sold into five-star hotels and endless lists of “top tens”. But what’s missing is depth. I wanted something much more than just room types, location, or extra pillows. Most travel companies are built to sell transactions. They can tell you where to go and what nice things to do.

But “why you’re going” is nowhere in the equation. I built Axonall for transformation. Axonall listens, learns and understands the intent. This changes the game and turns travel into something very personal and meaningful.

Tell us about your core product or service

We are an AI native luxury OTA company. The more you interact with the Axonall platform, the more it understands your style, and who you are. For our customers, Seren, our AI concierge is there to help. Seren can hold a full conversation and guide you through the entire journey. Behind the scenes, we work with a sophisticated framework that translates into what we call Transformation Arcs. This is dynamic and unique to each person. This framework shapes every recommendation you receive on the Axonall platform. So, your transformation starts as soon as you log-in.

We’re tech-forward, but we also know technology can’t replace human warmth. That’s why we have round-the-clock private travel support. And our Journey Artisans are our cultural insiders. They design the kind of experiences you won’t find on web-searches. I mentioned the Axonall Carbon Wallet earlier, which lets travellers see the footprint of their trip in real time. Can you imagine the impact we can make with this? Of course, sustainability is front and centre for us, and we put the power back in the hands of our customers. So, they can make conscious choices before they even set off.

What most excites you about the travel industry?

The future of travel is shifting from consumption to consciousness. Axonall is the first company to make that shift real and for the first time, travellers can see and feel it in action. People no longer want just another five-star hotel. They want travel to be a compass for their personal growth. They want to understand the impact of their journeys. They want to travel with intention, to make their own choices, and to see how those choices shape the world. Axonall brought the emotional intelligence into travel in a real tangible way. Now, we can understand travellers at a deeper level, and their values and desires.

Then, translate that into meaningful actions. Axonall’s Carbon Wallet is part of this pioneering work. It lets travellers see the footprint of their trip in real time and make conscious choices before they even start packing. That’s new in hotel bookings. This is changing the trajectory the industry has been on for decades and giving travel a new meaning – a force for both personal transformation and planetary regeneration.

What has been the biggest challenge you’ve had to overcome along the way?

The hardest thing has been building a category that didn’t exist before. When you create something entirely new, like emotionally intelligent travel, there’s no benchmark, no playbook. People like comparisons and want familiar references. But there wasn’t anything like Axonall. My job is much harder because of this. We are continuously educating the market while building the product at the same time. We know we are different.

And I want to stay true to what we stand for. We are uncompromising with standards. Many platforms scale by adding as many hotels and experiences as possible. But we curate ruthlessly and say “no” far more than “yes.” This is the only way to protect the integrity of what we’re building. And of course, like any founder, there are the personal challenges – the rejections, the setbacks, the moments when you wonder if the vision is too far ahead of its time. But what keeps me going is the conviction that this has to exist. The industry needs it. Once people experience it, they’ll never want to go back.

What is your number one piece of advice to aspiring entrepreneurs?

I think you should be brutally honest with yourself about whether this is what you really want. Real life is nothing like what you see in social media. Being a founder is a tough gig. It’s like carrying heavy bricks for 15hrs straight, even when you don’t have to. It’s lonely. And it can test you in ways you can’t ever imagine. But if you find something you are really passionate about, don’t let anything stop you. In fact, when its real passion, nothing can stop you.

What can we hope to see from Axonall in the future?

We’re going to keep pushing the boundaries of emotionally intelligent travel. We introduced a new way of thinking about travel. And now we’re just going to make it even more personal and meaningful. Of course, we are constantly working on improving our platform and expanding our partnerships with amazing hotels and local experts. We’re committed to providing life-changing journeys for our customers while also serving our planet.