The Internet heralded the rise of the Online Travel Agency (OTA) in the mid-nineties. The sudden freedom from prying travel agents, the ease-of use options on the OTA website, and convenience to book tickets, hotel stays and luxury packages from the comfort of one's home, made OTAs popular among consumers. Soon, OTAs became a force to reckon with in the global travel and leisure industry.

Expedia has the best rewards program that lets you use frequent flyer miles, airline and credit card points and Expedia rewards points to schedule your travel. Orbitz shows you its policies and fees upfront, so you know exactly what you’ll be paying for your trip. You can choose to search for just flights, or travel bundles. Travelocity lets you pick flights, hotels, car rentals and excursions to plan a full vacation right on its site. You can compare prices and dates and plan all aspects of your trip.

Airbnb is a community-based online platform for listing and renting local homes. It connects hosts and travelers and facilitates the process of renting without owning any rooms itself. Moreover it cultivates a sharing-economy by allowing property owners to rent out private flats. The Airbnb platform has created a whole new way to book accommodation. With many other platforms similar to Airbnb, such as HomeAway, VRBO etc they all have a very similar business model in that Hosts provide accommodation services. What if Host’s could do more than just provide accommodation?

Way back when, travel agencies were the place to go to when booking accommodation, flights and other tours. In today’s world, Hosts could also operate as mini or micro travel agencies. When booking accommodation for a holiday, people may also wish to book tours, restaurants and other activities. What if there was a platform to facilitate Hosts recommending local and other service providers they love. Where Host's could work with the local businesses to offer guests great deals.

To fill this gap, AirRentalz has launched its platform and offers Hosts and business to come together to promote each other.  This offers Hosts the opportunity to provide their guests with greater experiences and also promotes local and other businesses. Hosts and businesses can collaborate with others and begin advertising and promoting together. They  can work together to cross promote each other, grow a new audience and more guests. The adverting fee AirRentalz charges to its advertisers is shared with the Host. The platform provides Hosts the opportunity to operate as a micro travel agent in some ways. It also provides Hosts the opportunity to make their listing their own as you can customise some of the layout.

Hosts can now truly partner with businesses they know and love and therefore promote local services to their guests. Local businesses benefit through new patronage and more business for them. It’s a win-win all round. This is unique in that while other operators provide a similar service, their hosts cannot participate and gain no financial benefit. AirRentalz believes, its model fills a gap in the market as it allows locals to work more closely with local businesses, which is what the sharing is partly about.

Through our Collaborations, Tailored and Tangible Experiences programs, AirRentalz is providing hosts the opportunity to do more and therefore earn more in new and different way. We also offer an affiliate program which also allows hosts to earn additional income. Here hosts partner with great brands and products which they can advertise on their listing page. Again, we share the commission income with our hosts.

AirRentalz is taking hosting to new levels and has re-imagined how the platform operates. Expanding on the benefits of the sharing economy, AirRentalz has redesigned what hosts can now do and offer their guests will the ultimate aim of delivering the best experiences to their guests.

See also: How to use video to advertise your property | How to partner with local businesses | Using social media to build your exposure.