Demand for vacation accommodations that escape the bounds of
traditional hotels and resorts is on the rise. According to a 2015 consumer
study by Travel Weekly (http://dtn.fm/wqJe5), awareness of collaborative or
sharing-economy services, such as Airbnb and HomeAway, has skyrocketed in
recent months. In 2014, nearly two-thirds of survey respondents were unfamiliar
with these services, but, in a survey completed just 12 months later, roughly
60 percent of people reported familiarity with the growing trend. Last week,
the growing focus on alternative accommodations in the vacation rental sector
was reiterated when travel giant TripAdvisor (NASDAQ: TRIP) acquired UK-based
HouseTrip for an undisclosed fee (http://dtn.fm/ZI2v3).
Since its founding in 2009, HouseTrip has successfully
secured nearly $60 million in funding, but it has struggled to compete with
more established brands in the burgeoning sector. In 2014, HouseTrip replaced its
chief executive officer and laid off roughly a third of its workforce ahead of
a planned restructuring. The magnitude of these struggles is echoed by a look
at HouseTrip’s booking numbers. Since its launch, the platform has generated
approximately eight million bookings. For comparison, Airbnb records about 37
million bookings annually.
When considering HouseTrip’s difficulties in gaining market
share in the alternative lodging space, its acquisition points toward the
importance of another factor for booking platforms – inventory. When commenting
on the benefits of the acquisition of HouseTrip, Dermot Halpin, president of
TripAdvisor Vacation Rentals, highlighted the addition of the platform’s
130,000 properties to TripAdvisor’s existing property listings, which currently
include nearly 800,000 unique properties. With the recent consolidation in the
rental sector – including Expedia’s (NASDAQ: EXPE) $3.9 billion acquisition of
HomeAway last December (http://dtn.fm/iS9Xh) and Priceline (NASDAQ: PCLN) subsidiary
Booking.com’s distribution agreement with Wyndham Vacation Rentals (NYSE: WYN)
(http://dtn.fm/msl5H) – companies with innovative plays and sizable property
inventories are well-positioned to capitalize on the forecast growth of the
$240 billion vacation rental sector moving forward.
One company that’s likely to catch the attention of travel
industry giants in the near future is Monaker Group, Inc. (OTCQB: MKGI). In
February, the company launched NextTrip.com, a fully comprehensive booking
engine that includes conventional lodging, alternative lodging and unused
timeshare and resort inventory. Since its launch, Monaker has added an
alternative lodging inventory of more than 250,000 units to its new platform,
and the company reports approximately one million alternative lodging units
currently under contract. This amount of alternative lodging inventory already
positions Monaker as one of the largest players in the rapidly growing
alternative lodging industry.
Last week, Monaker highlighted the marketability of NextTrip
when it unveiled its proprietary timeshare booking engine, NextTrip Resorts.
The integration of NextTrip Resorts positions Monaker on the cutting edge of
the alternative lodging industry, giving it access to a largely untapped market
including an estimated 19 million rooms, of which 25 percent regularly go
unused. The company is now focused on aggressively pursuing timeshare resort
owners, developers and property managers in order to expand its inventory in
high-demand vacation markets around the globe. This growth will undoubtedly
benefit users of the NextTrip platform, but it could also play a key role for
Monaker’s shareholder base as the travel industry experiences further
consolidation.
For more information, visit www.monakergroup.com
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