The “wily fox” of French travel has a cunning plan to change the way we voyage around the world. Dominique Auzias, co-founder of Le Petit Futé – France’s answer to Lonely Planet – is preparing to unveil the personalised interactive travel guidebook.

No more hours spent trying to find a hotel, restaurant or even shoe repairer. Auzias says his new books, currently being tested by Petit Futé staff and expected to be available next year, will combine the best of a traditional travel guide, TripAdvisor, Airbnb and Google search.

Based on personalised itineraries created from the company’s vast database, the guides will be available as ebooks for smartphones and tablets, but also in print and in most languages.

Travellers will also have the option of editing the information and adding their own commentaries and photos online during their trip, all material that can be used to produce an individualised souvenir of their holiday to share with friends and family on their return home.

“It’s a revolution for travellers who today are taking more frequent, shorter holidays and on a tighter budget,” Auzias told the Guardian.

“The internet is a mine of information, sometimes too much, a lot of which is contradictory and hard to verify, so it is hard to find information that’s pertinent and hard to know what’s true or false.

“Our teams spend their time checking and updating the information so we can suggest an itinerary for a holiday and give concrete and detailed information about what’s good or bad.”

Le Petit Futé, or Wily Fox, is, as it turns out, a good description of Auzias, 53, a graduate of France’s elite HEC business school, who came up with the idea of producing no-nonsense travel guides as a student more than 30 years ago.

“Back then the idea was to advise French travellers on things like where they could buy a croissant at 3am for under two francs,” Auzias said.

The firm started in a small office in Paris’s 15th arrondissement – the top of the Eiffel tower can be spotted on the near horizon – and now occupies several buildings. Outside is a sign so small it is easily missed. Auzias insists he prefers to be discreet.

Today there are Petit Futé guides for 186 countries – out of around 196 in the world – that are edited at a rate of four a day, giving the company a €17m turnover.

Auzias says there are a total of around 400,000 contributors – 12,000 of them “serious and trusted” – whose comments are verified by 130 full-time and 300 freelance journalists.

He insists there is still a thriving market for the printed books that are republished at least every year. Online information is permanently updated and classified into 9,000 categories to give precise results.

“Name me a place and I can tell you where you can eat organic, vegetarian with a panoramic view and at what price,” he said.

He is also working with Air France and the French rail company SNCF to offer travellers purchasing tickets access to a free online extract from Le Petit Futé guide for their destination (in the hope they will buy the full version). There is also a Petit Futé smartphone app.

The personalised travel books are expected to cost between €7-€8 if purchased online – roughly half a Petit Futé paper guide – and around €30 for an individually printed customised book.

In his office, lined from floor to ceiling with Petit Futé editions in dozens of languages and forms, it is clear Auzias, who makes around 50 trips every year, knows the travel business.

“I love selling things and I love travelling. That’s my life. I’ve been to every country in the world at least once,” he says with a look that begs a challenge.

Has he set foot in Afghanistan? “Oui.” North Korea? “Oui.” St Helena (technically not a country but a British Overseas Territory)?

This stops Auzias in his tracks.

“You mean where Napoleon died? Non. Have you been there?”

“Mais oui,” I say.