Sharing Economy at Work in the Travel Business

For years, the sharing economy has been making a lot of buzz around the travel industry.
Therefore, the travel companies we have today must determine ways to react to this trending phenomenon that has managed to capture the hearts of travelers running into millions.
Although the phrase sounds new, it is in fact as old as commerce and even old as the first recorded exchanges of both goods and services.
Currently, individuals can easily reach out to total strangers all over the world at a very reduced cost web-enabling the peer to peer network.
Also, the smartphone platforms have thrown open the gates to newer stages of connectivity and reduced the bar for innovation without the costly investment in both developments as well as programming.

Travel Businesses Utilizing Sharing Economy
In the travel industry, resources that the average individual is sharing range from beds, cars, and even sofa.
All these changes have been able to grow vastly as a result of the smart companies and their clever marketing expertise. They practically discovered ways to not only promote but also package these sharers together.
Now, they are making good money by collecting a little cut from every transaction carried out. Meanwhile, some of the prominently known sharing economy travel players in the game consists of:

• Couchsurfing

Established in the year 2003, Couchsurfing is a non-profit organization. Back in 2011, all of its assets were traded and currently, they function as for-profit hospitality exchange.
Although the concept behind hosting guests in private homes is not in any way new, Couchsurfing took it to the web and transformed it into a phenomenon that kick-started sharing economy in our 21st century.

• Airbnb

This is a travel company based in San Francisco. It has indeed shaken a whole lot in the hospitality industry as it has never been seen before.
It can be said that Airbnb looked upon Couchsurfing, studied their ability to connect surplus accommodation resources and took it all to a whole new commercial level. The function of Airbnb is to connect homeowners with travelers and make a profit from both parties.

• Uber

This is yet another profitable company that has successfully managed to be much more controversial than the popular Airbnb. Situated in San Francisco as well, it has quite a huge monetary backing supporting it.
Uber has brought about a successful taxi service that is based on an app. Though the company has met with resistance in recent times, it has however managed to stand tall.

​Sharing Economy And The Travel Industry
With the controversies that currently surrounds both Uber and Airbnb, it has shown that both commerce and technology have made faster moves than legislation.
Due to all these, travel companies, as well as authorities, are being faced with unprecedented difficulties as even companies that have been established for years are being swept off with the speed of lightning.
However, travel companies are responding now. They now understand that they need to be flexible and so, hotel rooms, rental cars, and workspaces are being made available by the hour.
Also, more products are presented as being shareable and this includes the hotel rooms.
Sharing Economy and the travel business will ultimately result in newer marketplaces, partnerships, connections and booking processes for travel companies that are brilliant enough to swiftly adapt.
To Wrap It Up
Have it in mind that, before money was introduced, the available economies were all based on sharing tasks and possessions. Nonetheless, the sharing ability of the last few years has been transformed as a result of technology.