Monaker Group, Inc.
(OTCQB: MKGI) is traveling far and fast. In a recent interview with investor
relations firm MissionIR, CEO Bill Kerby recapitulated the company’s most
recent achievements and its prospects in the growing online travel-booking
marketplace. Statista estimates (http://dtn.fm/6rOeB) that global international
tourism revenue in 2014 was $1,245 billion. Of that, about 27 percent, or $340
billion, was online travel-booking revenues. Online travel agency (OTA)
revenues are expected to continue growing at 12 percent annually, according to
this Forbes piece (http://dtn.fm/BIjt4). OTA websites have evolved to
accommodate this increased demand and now may offer information and access to
airlines, hotels and alternative lodging, car rentals, cruises, rail and a
combination of any of the above, referred to in the industry as ‘packaged
travel’.
In the middle of
2015, Monaker restructured its operations to take advantage of what CEO Bill
Kirby has described as ‘the hottest space in travel… alternative lodging’. This
is where people rent vacation homes rather than hotel rooms. An 8-K filing in
June 2015 published the company’s name change to Monaker Group, Inc. and a
1-for-50 reverse stock split, known colloquially as a rollback. In October
2015, Monaker announced (http://dtn.fm/CHpJ0) that it had acquired AlwaysOnVacations,
a large and very popular global platform. AlwaysOnVacations had, by the end of
2014, listed 65,000 properties in 120 countries. It also had 60 affiliated
partner websites, available in 16 languages, and about 700,000 subscribers
worldwide to its newsletters, also available in 16 languages.
The
AlwaysOnVacations properties are part ‘of close to 1.2 million homes’ that
Monaker has ‘under contract’, part of its strategy of cultivating ‘significant
partnerships for accessing inventory’. As CEO Bill Kirby pointed out, inventory
of that size would make Monaker as big as HomeAway, which was acquired by
Expedia (NASDAQ: EXPE) in December 2015 for $3.9 billion. In March 2016,
Monaker said that subsidiary Maupintour had signed a sponsorship agreement with
Trisept Solutions, creators of VAX VacationAccess and Xcelerator. VAX
VacationAccess is an award-winning leisure travel marketplace that is used by
over 70,000 travel agents. Xcelerator is a new, revolutionary agency management
platform that enables travel agents to capture extensive client profile and
trip information.
Also in March 2016,
the company announced its plans to add CustomTravelClubs.com as a preferred
distributor of its multiple travel products, including its growing alternative
lodging inventory and Maupintour land and tour packages. CustomTravelClubs.com
is a global brand servicing travel customers all over the world, and it offers
unique travel products to its exclusive members and builds custom tailored
travel clubs for organizations. And, also in March, the company’s comprehensive
booking platform, NextTrip.com, added over 150,000 vacation rental units. The
company also reported that, as a new feature, these new properties can be
booked instantly without the typical wait for a formal response from the
property owner to confirm booking.
In April 2016, the
company made public some details of a partnership with Recruiter.com, an online
global recruiting service with close to three million accounts. Also in April
2016, it announced the engagement of Primero Systems to upgrade its flagship
travel website, NextTrip.com. NextTrip.com is the industry’s first booking
engine featuring alternative lodging (vacation home rentals, resort residences
and unused timeshares), as well as a vast array of airlines, hotels, cruises,
rental cars, tours and concierge services, all combined in one platform to give
customers the power of choice when booking their vacations.
Monaker’s travel
assets now include Maupintour, with over 65 years in tour-guided vacations; Voyage.TV,
with its thousands of hours of travel footage shot in over 30 countries around
the world; AlwaysOnVacations, with its 250,000 listed properties; and
NextTrip.com. NextTrip is traveling in areas left uncharted by AirBnB,
HomeAway, Priceline and FlipKey by offering both proprietary and partner-held
alternative lodging accommodation, traditional hotel accommodation, timeshare
and resort inventory, real-time booking, a bidding platform, video content, car
rentals, cruise packages, tours, airline bookings, and access to real live
travel agents. It may be time for investors to take their next trip with
Monaker.
For more
information, visit www.monakergroup.com
MissionIR is committed to connecting the investment community with companies that have great potential and a strong dedication to building shareholder value. We know our reputation is based on the integrity of our clients and go to great lengths to ensure the companies represented adhere to sound business practices.
Sign up for “The Mission Report” at www.MissionIR.com
Please see disclaimer on the MissionIR website http://www.missionir.com/disclaimer.html
