Skift Take
Hotels have clearly fallen out of favor with most business travelers, but they'll be back at some point. Monaker's focus on alternative accommodations may be a long shot.
Alternative accommodation was one the better performing parts of travel last year, as tourists avoided cities and hotels. Now, a booking engine that supplies 3.4 million of these kinds of properties for major online travel agencies wants to go it alone — targeting company travel.
Technology company Monaker Group, which acts as an aggregator for the likes of Agoda and Hometogo, has launched a business travel platform called NextTrip.
Monaker's entry into a crowded marketplace was prompted by demand from small to medium-sized business owners. It has also made some atypical acquisitions recently, which it claims will help NextTrip stand out from the crowd.
Castles in the Air
Monaker's booking engine certainly connects to a mixed bag of content — which is instantly bookable — including castles and chalets, alongside the more usual lodging types like apartments, resort residences and villas. However, it's confident there will be demand for this kind of accommodation from companies once corporate travel resumes.
"A lot of businesses have recognized many of their travelers
