US: Global water experiences and houseboat booking platform GetMyBoat has announced a partnership with Booking Holdings’ FareHarbor.
It hopes to leverage the support to meet the major demand in the market, as demand across the platform grew by 3,900 per cent between April and July.
GetMyBoat was launched in 2013 and is currently the largest boat rental and watercraft experience marketplace. The site is available in 184 countries and hosts over 130,000 listings, offering services such as houseboats and sleep aboard rentals.
GetMyBoat Sales VP Douglas Bird said: “We are delighted to be working with FareHarbor to bring added value to our customers through this partnership. Our customers will benefit from real-time integration that smooths out their booking management allowing them to focus on growing their businesses.”
The partnership with FareHarbor will integrate user calendars between the two apps keeping all the reservations in one place. This will prevent double bookings and simplify the process for operators, and as GetMyBoat offers new features and offerings, FareHarbor will have access to these innovations.
Booking.com forged a similar partnership with TUI this past June to improve their activities roster. The company has been eyeing the experience sector since 2018 when it initially acquired the FareHarbor platform.
The explosive growth in April and July allowed GetMyBoat to report an over $80M ARR, in spite of the fact that 60 per cent of boating markets are open. It believes that the major growth in demand for boating centred experiences is due to the growth in local experiences due to the pandemic.
GetMyBoat COO Bryan Petro said: “With boating being a great activity for family fun while practicing social distancing, we have seen a surge in interest and corresponding bookings. We had already been having a banner year due to the maturation of the platform, including being featured as Apple’s App of the Day, but these results have exceeded all expectations.”
