Travelling to a foreign country is exhilarating – and a little bit intimidating too. You are venturing somewhere completely new and you really don’t know what things will be like there when you arrive. It’s always a massive learning curve when you leap into the unknown. When you are planning your trip you’ll have so many questions. What will the climate be like? What kind of clothing is appropriate to wear? Will people speak English? What is the food like?

Technology's effects on the travel industry are widespread, with innovation signalling the dawn of a new age of travel products and services after the birth of the Internet and modern-communication systems. Not only has the industry itself benefited from recent technological advancements such as with GPS in rental cars, Wifi on airplanes, and computerised hotel door locks, just to name a few, but consumers have as well through the rise of countless travel websites and apps devoted to enhancing the customer experience from beginning to end.

For those who are travelling within the same state some of the issues above are not as important or even required. However even the smallest trips can require some research on places to eat, what to see, local shops and medical centres in case of emergency. For those travelling interstate or to another country there are many more things to consider.

While there are many things you can plan for there are things that you can’t plan for such as delayed or cancelled flights, bad weather, missing a connection or even sudden illness that changes your travel plans. These things can significantly impact your trip.

When you break down a travel trip, its people moving from one destination to another, spending time at that destination, then either returning home or moving to another destination and at some point, returning home. Your transport can be car, plane, train or ship. The last 3 generally have a set departure time and arrival time. You spend time at your accommodation and your destination and then you use a means of transport to take you to your next destination or return you home. While, there is an abundance of research one can do before your trip, nothing beats having up to date and instant information about where you are going.

Imagine you have booked a week in Hawaii and travelling from Melbourne and this is your first time there. You are staying with a short-term rental host and not with a hotel chain in this instance, so you do not have some of the amenities or services you may require.

With today’s technology and also the release of 5G technology our ability to pin point where a person is in their travel journey is relatively easy. Before you even board your flight, you are sent messages about the weather and shuttles bus services to get you from the airport to down town Waikiki.

You have an early flight and looking for a place to have breakfast after you check in. Because your arrival location is known in advance you are served up with a few places to check out for your breakfast on your arrival at your accommodation. Check in, and then 10 seconds later a local cafe provides you an exclusive offer to have breakfast with them….it could be 2 free coffees with breakfast.

While you are having breakfast at one of the locations presented to you, your host sends you a few things to see and do while you are there. They already sent you their recommendations of great local places to eat, drink and shop which maybe the less touristy places. While you are there you are presented with great information plus deals and offers which are tailored to your liking. How does this occur? Before you arrived, your host provided you a questionnaire of questions you would like answered. In addition, your host partnered with a number of other services providers and has been able to deliver exclusive deals for you. It could be a discount at a restaurant or an additional 20 minutes on a spa treatment.

Today, people are looking for more tailored or personalised experiences. Be it shopping, sight seeing or adventure tours, more and more people want personalised services. By connecting hosts and travellers with services providers you can begin to deliver better information and services when required. AirRentalz does just that. We connect hosts and travellers with services providers so you as a guest can receive great experiences.

As a short-term rental operator your key role is to provide great accommodation. What if you could provide your guests more than that? What if you can deliver to them just some of the little things to make their trip more enjoyable. While we all do our research on things to do and see and places to eat and drink…you generally don’t get presented that great local coffee shop or bakery that only the locals know. Part of what AirRentalz is doing is bringing the local operators together with their local hosts so that they can provide their guests with great local experiences.

AirRentalz has harnessed location-based marketing within its platform. We are connecting local businesses with hosts which allows us to advertise service providers to potential guests who will be staying with a host in a specific area. By connecting hosts with local and other businesses we can deliver greater experiences for their guests by presenting them great places to eat, visit, sight see and do activities while they are holidaying or staying in that location.

By harnessing the power of data by location, AirRentalz is taking location-based marketing to the next level for the short-term accommodation industry and the businesses that this industry supports.