With 2.3 million listings and a valuation of more than $30 billion, Airbnb has become the behemoth of the alternative lodging rental (ALR) industry. Concocted 10 years ago to supplement rent, the idea of renting lodging from private home owners has taken off and turned the travel industry on its head. Renting a room or an entire house has gained widespread public acceptance. By providing vacationers with better options and home owners with newfound income, high-margin revenues can be generated by the intermediary. Naturally, this mutually beneficial arrangement for owners and renters has spurred competition in the alternative lodging rental arena. Multiple companies now offer varying forms of online alternative lodging rentals. The ALR market has proven to be so large and lucrative that the owner of one of the world’s largest travel websites, Expedia, acquired HomeAway’s ALR platform for $3.9 billion in 2015.
Even with large valuations for the companies, traditional ALR booking has drawbacks for travelers. Ongoing irritants include the need to employ multiple sites to arrange lodging, airlines, cruises, concierge services, and rental cars. Delayed lodging and travel confirmation is also a continuing source of consternation with travelers trying to book vacation packages. Often taking days or even weeks, travelers can’t even start to arrange for transportation or other services until after confirmation of lodging. In spite of this quandary, most ALR sites require users to fend for themselves when trying to create and book a comprehensive vacation itinerary.
The stand-out strength of Monaker Group (OTCQB: MKGI) is that it has managed to eliminate these irritants and delays. Monaker now offers a first in the ALR market: instant confirmation for ALR booking. Monaker Group’s unique ALR platform offers these services through its innovative, real-time booking platform NextTrip.com. The company then brings this unmatched new tool into the mainstream travel industry, merging it with conventional travel bookings, so that NextTrip.com is the only platform to offer travelers real-time ALR booking plus access to all the other conventional travel and lodging options needed to plan and organize vacations. There’s nothing else like it.
A technology driven, comprehensive travel company, Monaker Group utilizes multiple divisions and brands, leveraging its more than 60 years of operation in leisure travel, to serve the tourism industry. Decades of experience have given Monaker invaluable insights into how to best serve today’s traveler. On the high end, the company provides highly customizable tours, escorted vacations and travel solutions through its Maupintour subsidiary. Monaker’s Extraordinary Vacations Group (EXVG) platform will soon exploit a largely untapped market by providing timeshare owners the ability to market their unused timeshare, fractional, condo-hotel units to travelers, while the company’s Voyage TV division, with thousands of hours of worldwide travel footage, is utilized to enhance and market travel services across all of the company’s brands.
In the large and lucrative ALR market, Monaker’s real-time booking innovations and comprehensive one-stop services have given Monaker a new and unique position in the travel industry.
For more information, visit www.MonakerGroup.com
