A recent look
(http://dtn.fm/PJWt1) at Expedia’s (NASDAQ: EXPE) increasingly dominant share
(http://dtn.fm/C6oGP) of the roughly $1.3 trillion and growing travel market by
research firm Morningstar forecast global online penetration as climbing
steadily through 2020, from around 40 percent last year, with online travel
bookings seeing as much as 10 percent growth per year. One of the hottest
segments in this massive market is alternative lodging, where the rise of
decentralized, peer-to-peer architectures and sharing economy models have
helped augment the overall space (http://dtn.fm/1RyI9), with the most notable
example being privately owned and operated short-term accommodation marvel
Airbnb.
In many ways, Airbnb
has offset aggressive pricing by hotels in what is traditionally a cyclical
industry, creating a market where consumers have more choice at a better value
than ever before. This sharing economy is now able to compete directly with
incumbent operators in a major way and demonstrates why, in an industry where
increasingly dominant Expedia recently gobbled up HomeAway, with its one
million plus vacation rental listings, for nearly $4 billion, players like
Priceline Group (NASDAQ: PCLN) are finding themselves increasingly outgunned.
It’s also a reason
why alternative lodging-focused Monaker Group, Inc. (OTCQB: MKGI), which
recently moved to lock down a key partnership with enterprise platform and
solutions provider Primero Systems in order to facilitate final integration of
its NextTrip.com platform, is such an interesting target. With some 1.2 million
homes under contract via the AlwaysOnVacations acquisition that make MKGI
bigger than HomeAway, a travel agent-based strategic overlay to supplement its
market traction (a distinct feature unlike anyone else in the industry), and a
partnership with Recruitergroup.com that gives the company access to a
distribution base of some three million people, Monaker Group is
well-positioned to benefit as the industry grows.
In a recent and
exclusive interview with investor relations firm MissionIR
(http://MKGI.MissionIR.com/interview.html), CEO Bill Kerby explained the
importance of being the first in the industry to really nail the package deal
concept and provide consumers with the best bundled alternative lodging and
associated activities deals possible.
For more
information, visit www.monakergroup.com
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