 |
| Add caption |
|
| Add caption |
Short-term Vacation & Travel Rentals on the Blockchain
Short-term vacation rental is an alternative lodging option to traditional resorts and travel agent assisted hotel bookings. It involves the short-term rental to tourists and travelers of different types of properties including: apartments, private homes, cabins, beach houses, farm stays, chalets, multi-room villas, and cottages. These short rental units can be rented nightly, weekly, or on a monthly basis. The prevailing practice is renting by the week for vacationers usually staying for 1-2 weeks at a time in their chosen travel destination. They are also known as: holiday lettings, tourist rentals, bed and breakfast, homestays, timeshares and gites. Top reasons why travellers book vacation rentals over hotels are more living space (71%), lower rental costs (62%), better amenities than hotels eg. WiFi, kitchens, laundry, privacy (53%) and more of an at-home experience (47%).
The industry is estimated to be worth 00 billion USD annually$1 (with the U.S. accounting for ~25% of the revenue). It is predicted that the global, short-term vacation rental market will be worth ~$170 billion USD by 2019.
CryptoBnB is addressing three of the most important problems in short-term rentals with its decentralized blockchain platform: 1) guaranteeing reputable hosts and travelers, 2) reducing lengthy search times to find the best short-term rental property, and 3) reducing high middleman commissions. The CryptoBnB platform combines a decentralized blockchain with artificial intelligence and big data analytics to deliver vacation rentals that can be paid for using cryptocurrency.
Founded in early 2017 by Tariq Alwahedi from Dubai the short-term vacation rental marketplace put on the blockchain will allow owners and travelers to access a huge number of residences. Short-term renters can match their budgets to the accommodation requirements they need from international rentals around the world. The AI, smart machine learning, will be able to enhance the search results and improve property turnarounds helping both renters and short-term leasors. The AI algorithm, combined with blockchain platform, will generate the best possible matches between homeowners and short-term tenants with minimal transaction fees. This platform will allow homeowners and occupants to quickly secure booked rentals and pay using the CryptoBnB token.
The Benefits of CryptoBnB
CryptoBnB aims to improve on the travel options currently available to vacationers and travellers. The platform offers improved searches, overall lower fees, and better flexibility in booking rentals. The platform uses blockchain smart contracts for transactions and combines this with its AI and big data analysis to help find the desired accommodations, in the most efficient way for its users. This new technology allows peer-to-peer transactions of renting a property to be done securely, without having the added costs of an escrow service which results in lowered fees. Alwahedi estimates that CryptoBnB will charge 2-3% for the cost of a reservation compared to Airbnb that charges guests a service fee of 5-15% of the cost of a reservation and then charges an additional 3 % on top of that.
The Risks to CryptoBnB
CryptoBnB’s will compete directly against services like Airbnb that already are established in the marketplace. A number of existing short-term rental services include:
- Airbnb
- HomeAway
- TripAdvisor
- Wimdu
- Wyndham Worldwide
- World Travel Holdings
- At Home Abroad
- OnlineVacationRentals.com
- priceline.com
- Rentalo
- Roomorama
- Villas International
Despite such a competitive field CryptoBnB brings enough added benefits for travelers to switch to its service. The primary reason will be the much lower fees when using CryptoBnB compared to other services.
Other risks for the CryptoBnB platform may arise from the rental properties themselves with lack of proper regulations in some countries surrounding short-term rentals leading to inconsistency in the quality of similar priced rental units that the AI may have difficulty ranking. It is unclear how the AI will address, weight and rank rental units for matching based on (sometimes very) subjective reviews of previous short-term tenants. Also, the increase in short-term rentals (days versus week and month long stays) may affect the longer-term rentals vacancy rate (some owners may prefer longer term renters as they generate more income). However, given the increased number of short- and long-term rental units attracted to the platform such a disruption should be minimal.
The CryptoBnB ICO
The ICO will begin on Tuesday February 14 and run for 6 weeks ending on March 27, 2018. The token will list on exchanges as CKEY and 1 billion tokens will be issued but only 300 million will be offered to investors during the ICO. On initial listing 1 ETH = 9,000 CKEY or 1 CKEY = $0.08 USD. The token is ERC-20 compliant and investors wallets much be ETH ERC20 compatible. The ICO aims to reach a HardCap of $15.2 million and investors need to purchase a minimum amount of $75 (0.1 ETH) to participate in the ICO. More details of the ICO and to register for this ICO go to CryptoBnB’s ICO website.
Summary
CryptoBnB seeks to take on established short-term rental players like Airbnb and Wyndham Worldwide. The lower transaction fees and improved matching ability of the platform will make for satisfied short-term rental customers. CryptoBnB has potential to take a lead in the short-term rental space. CryptoBnB’s token is a strong buy.
Cryptobnb Webpage : https://cryptobnb.io/
Cryptobnb Whitepaper : https://cryptobnb.io/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/CryptoBnB_en.pdf
