Monaker Group, Inc. (MKGI) Boasts the Inventory and Innovati Monaker Group, Inc. (MKGI) Boasts the Inventory and Innovation Needed to Capitalize on Rental Sector Consolidation
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 (https://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 (https://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 (https://dtn.fm/iS9Xh) and Priceline (NASDAQ: PCLN) subsidiary Booking.com’s distribution agreement with Wyndham Vacation Rentals (NYSE: WYN) (https://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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