With the warm weather finally here to stay, the summer travel season is upon us. There are certain travel traditions that will never die like the annual beach vacation, the obligatory summer road trip, a visit to a national park, a theme park, or just the local water park—all of which are about as American as apple pie, hot dogs, and baseball.
However, when it comes to how you plan your trip, the times have certainly been a changin’. You can thank the internet for that, but I’m not so sure travel agents would share that same sentiment. Back in the pre-internet days and before GPS, vacationers had a few more hoops to jump through and still never knew what they were getting into. Imagine having to find a hotel at the beach without knowing its exact location or the amenities offered. You once had to call a travel agent or actually look up the toll-free number in the yellow pages. And still, it was really anyone’s guess how nice your accommodations would be.
Getting to your destination was another chore because you’d actually have to follow an atlas, while kids kept asking, “are we there yet?” rather than having their eyes glued to an iPad.
Well, as much as everything’s changed in the last 20 years, the internet is helping to disrupt the travel industry one more time. We’re referring to this new idea of the sharing economy. It started with peer-to-peer businesses like eBay, but it is morphing into more of a renter’s society. Maybe, it’s an offspring of the Financial Crisis, as people try to make money on their underused assets, as you can rent other people’s homes, cars, musical instruments or whatever.
Air BNB is a community marketplace for people to list and book unique accommodations around the world online or from a mobile device. The site allows property owners to list extra rooms or entire residences online for others to stay. The service provides an affordable alternative to the traditional hotel.
For example, an Upper East Side hotel room near Central Park can run you close to $400 a night. You can rent a one-bedroom apartment just two blocks away for $250 a night. The company lists accommodations in more than 34,000 cities and 190 countries and has more than 600,000 listings worldwide.
Uber is a private e-commerce company providing car for hire services. A user can text the company their location and time to be picked up and one of three types of privately licensed cars will meet them per request for transport to their desired destination. The company is likely to become public in the next few years. It operates in 127 cities in 38 countries. It is easy and economical from the consumer’s point of view. The service eliminates the need for you to stand roadside and hail a cab, which is obviously disrupting the old way of doing things. The main problem is the licensed cabbies are being overlooked by this e-commerce solution
At Henssler Financial we believe you should Live Ready, and that includes learning how the Internet is changing everyday travel. If you have questions regarding your financial situation, the experts at Henssler Financial will be glad to help. You may call us at 770-429-9166 or email at experts@henssler.com.
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