$MKGI, very good news, all coming together
Monaker Launches NextTrip.com Booking Engine
Comprehensive Travel Platform including “Alternative Lodging” for Consumers and Travel Agents
WESTON, FL -- 2016-02-01 08:30 ET - News Release -- Monaker Group (OTCQB: MKGI), Monaker, a technology-driven travel and digital marketing company, announced today the initial launch of its NextTrip Travel and Booking Platform, a fully comprehensive booking engine designed for use by both travel consumers and travel agents. The NextTrip booking engine allows its users to book hotels, resorts, vacation rental homes, unused timeshare inventory, airlines, land tours and rental cars all in the same place.
The initial nexttrip.com platform integrates all of the company's acquired technologies with very select channel partners, turning it into a fully comprehensive booking engine. This will make NextTrip the first booking solution to include conventional lodging, alternative lodging, and unused timeshare and resort inventory all in one place. The technology allows consumers to search and book from the timeshare inventory in real-time without any timeshare solicitations. A recent article published by thestreet.com estimated size of the alternative lodging market at $100 billion dollars.
NextTrip's initial launch will be a simple layout that will allow it to steadily upload all of its features, however, over the coming weeks and months, the NextTrip platform will further evolve with new integrations and functionality. These enhancements include product videos, language conversion, dynamic booking capabilities and eventually a unique social media integration that will allow customers to engage with the community and its travel opportunities. Each of these modules will work together to assist the consumer in their decision and keep the visitor engaged on the website while encouraging purchases. By combining all travel services, the NextTrip site allows consumers to research, plan and book any vacation without ever having to use multiple sites.
Commenting on the launch, Mr. Bill Kerby, Monaker Group Chairman and CEO stated, "We expect the NextTrip 'alternative lodging' Platform to become the primary booking utility for both travel agents and travel consumers. At launch we will have access to 600 airlines, 100 rental car companies, and over 600,000 hotels. We are also pleased to report that, by end of month will have grown our alternative lodging inventory from 100,000 to over 400,000 available units/rooms, and we expect the inventory in that category will nearly double by Fall. Additionally, our resort resident inventory (i.e. unused timeshare resorts) is expected to be uploaded and integrated during February and should initially be over 200,000 units/rooms. Based upon existing contracts and ongoing discussions with property management companies and developers, we expect our alternative lodging category could grow to 1 million units by December, 2016."
Mr. Kerby added, "In 2015 we focused on acquiring travel assets and technologies in order to develop a solution for travel consumers and agents covering alternative lodging, traditional lodging, air, car, cruise, land tours and packages for research, planning and booking. For the first time ever, the nexttrip.com platform will offer all of this to the travel industry, our channel partners and the travel consumer in one comprehensive platform, ultimately benefiting all stakeholders. Our NextTrip site and anticipated expansion of inventory should quickly make us a significant player within both the alternative lodging and travel booking space."
Mr. Kerby concluded, "Our site brings together significant inventory and channel partners with distribution in both the B2B and B2C markets. Today's launch is a significant milestone for the Company as we now begin to monetize our efforts to achieve sustainable growth and profitability. We anticipate and have planned for quick adoption of our proprietary platform by thousands of travelers and should see a significant revenue ramp during 2016."
