Germany: Munich-based LODGEA, a tech provider for the short-term rental and hospitality industry, has announced the launch of the LODGEA Marketplace, as it seeks to “revolutionise” e-commerce for short-term rentals and hotels.
From now on, companies of all sizes will be able to access around 700,000 holiday accommodations via an integrated interface and generate revenue by offering them online. The e-commerce solution in travel business for service providers and SMEs is based on an exclusive partnership between LODGEA and online travel agency Expedia Group. Ricarda Kies, founder and CEO of LODGEA, said: “So far, only platform providers [affiliates] with a transaction volume of at least one million dollars per year had the chance to access Expedia’s accommodation content and become an affiliate. With LODGEA Marketplace, we are closing this gap by opening up SMEs the chance to sell vacation rentals and create an additional source of revenue for themselves.
“Our intended target group ranges from influencers with a wide-reaching blog to platforms for special target groups to DMOs [destination management organisations] that want to offer a wide variety of accommodation online,” she added.
Whether on the websites of trade fair organisers, restaurant owners or ski lift operators, the Marketplace can be used wherever it makes sense to integrate holiday apartments, hotels and guesthouses as a supplementary offer.
LODGEA contractual partners can put together their desired range of properties on the Marketplace depending on the target group and therefore offer their users the most suitable offers. Anyone who runs a successful family or dog blog, for example, can filter out suitable, target group-specific holiday accommodation from the overall offer, select it, integrate it on their own website and monetise it accordingly.
Property management agencies are able to increase their own inventory via the interface and therefore serve the increasing customer demand.
Kies, who is also a member on the board of the German Holiday Home Association, continued: “As a software-as-a-service [SaaS] provider, we have so far specialised in software offerings. We are breaking new ground with the LODGEA Marketplace.
“Short-term rentals and hotels for leisure travellers is an absolute growth market. The forecasts for demand growth are encouraging. In order to provide our customers easy and uncomplicated access to this potential, we slip into the role of travel agent in this case,” she added.
Over the past two years, LODGEA has established itself as a software-as-a-service provider for hosts and property managers to easily set up an entire new website, integrate the booking engine or set up an individual solution via the API offered. Integrated marketing automatically connects the websites and accommodations to Google and social media channels.
In this way, LODGEA customers are able to push direct bookings quickly and efficiently, even without prior knowledge of sales and online marketing. The Marketplace can be used as an integrated part of the existing LODGEA software solution. Kies said: “After completing the previous test phase, we are now beginning the international rollout. This means that all self-employed people, entrepreneurs and organisations now have the opportunity to supplement their online offer with target group-specific holiday accommodation and to generate last-minute bookings for the summer as well as bookings for the coming booking seasons.”
Founded in February 2021, LODGEA raised a “seven-figure” investment in seed funding later that year in November. The round was led by investors from the Baystartup investor network, including the Müller Medien corporate family and DTM Deutsche Tele Medien GmbH.
