The explosion of websites such as Airbnb and Booking has shown the power and influence of the online travel booking industry. Airbnb has been one of the most successful startups in Silicon Valley, and Booking has exploded with millions of hotels and private homes to be booked online.
One of the major issues, however, is the high commission rate that these platforms charge. For example, Airbnb can charge anywhere between 10% and 20%, and Booking’s average fee runs around 15% – 20%. Such a high cost is a problem for a lot of customers: both private and corporate ones.
A solution to the growing issue may be solved by Concierge.io, a company that develops a new, highly modern, decentralized online booking platform that is built on the NEO blockchain network. What will be different from the popular traditional platforms is the direct P2P network that will allow for travelers and home/hotels-owners to communicate directly, eliminating the need for the third party – the platform provider. Concierge aims to give opportunities for the smaller service providers, who may have found it expensive and inconvenient to list their property on Booking or Airbnb and pay high fees.
The new Travel Booking Marketplace will enjoy the following features:
- Instant Booking Functionality – the blockchain technology embedded will allow for customers to instantly book and view availability of their chosen place
- Easy integration – advertising will be allowed, and the app will be available for both web and mobile
- Low costs and choice – customers will be able to use both fiat and cryptocurrencies and benefit from lower operational costs, hence lower fees
The token, CGE, will be the major payment option for customers. Accordingly, those who do not have the token, will be able to pay in fiat money. Thus, the business captures both groups of people: crypto-owning ones and those who prefer fiat.
Regarding the token sale and the ICO process, Concierge has already passed the pre-sale round of CGE, and now enters the token sale, which will continue from the end of March to the end of April, 2018. The plan of the team is to issue 100 million CGE tokens, and 65% of those to be for sale. Since the project is built on the NEO network, the major currency for buying the tokens will be NEO.
The company also offers the so-called Bounty Program, which will allow users to collect points by completing specific activities outlined on Concierge’s website.
With the ever-growing competition from online booking agencies and platform, Concierge plans to leverage the power of blockchain and NEO to revolutionize the industry.