This post details how boat rental platforms are changing the travel industry. Millions of travelers worldwide are boating, and using rental platforms, such as Click and Boat, to make the most out of thier vacation.
How Boat Rental Platforms Are Changing the Travel Industry
The “sharing economy” has changed so much about what we used to consider traditional travel industries and upended things completely with brand new business models.
In just 10 years or so we have seen a total transformation of the travel industry almost from top to bottom. People today are a lot more comfortable opening a mobile application on their phone, reserving pretty much anything and everything they need from other people through these sharing apps and platforms, and paying very competitive prices along the way.
Well, according to the National Marine Manufacturers Association – as well as startup investors around the world – the next big travel industry to be disrupted by the sharing economy is going to be the boat rental industry.
Millions Boat Every Year in the US – And Millions More Worldwide
According to information from the National Marine Manufacturers Association, 37.8% of the United States – or more than 88 million people – went out on a boat in the past year for recreational purposes, the largest amount of people to do so ever since this organization first began collecting data back in 1990.
The demand for recreational boating activities – and the demand for recreational boats themselves – has never been higher. That’s always going to be an attractive signal for companies looking to carve out a big piece of a new market for themselves and that’s exactly what’s happening right now.
Companies are diving into the boat-sharing industry left and right, with more than many new boating-focused startups hoping to get funding.
One company, Clickandboat, is enjoying almost overwhelming success. Launched not so long ago, it was able to grow its following to hundreds of users in just a couple of days, providing more than 30,000+ boats available for rent in 600+ locations with plans to rapidly expand.
Major Industry Disruptors Are on the Way
The overall boating industry in the United States (recreational boating) has a total economic impact of over $120 billion every single year. That number continues to grow every year, with $51 billion every single year being spent on just over 12.4 million registered boats.
Right now, the only limiting factor to this industry taking off like a rocket is the lack of infrastructure that makes renting boats possible. Organizations like Uber had to deal with this same kind of lack of infrastructure when they first transformed the world of taxi services.
It didn’t take them very long to figure out how to establish this infrastructure or to grow into the mega multibillion-dollar giant they are internationally today.
Many of the boats on the smaller rental platforms are managed by independent businesses, smaller businesses, and individual boat owners who were renting their boats through more traditional rental platforms.
Sharing Economy is Booming
These individuals may not be all that interested in bringing down the overall cost of their rentals as quickly or as significantly as the sharing economy model may demand, and that’s been holding things up quite a bit as well.
At the end of the day, however, it’s almost impossible to think that the world of boat rentals is going to be able to hold out or withstand the transformative power of the sharing economy.
It’s not at all unreasonable instead to believe that we are going to see a major national (and probably later international) platform spring up to make renting boats possible – and effortless – sooner rather than later.
Peer-to-peer boat rental programs, skippered yacht rental programs, yacht charters, fishing charters, and more are currently available through a variety of independent apps and platforms.
Soon though we could see a major consolidation of the market with one company breaking apart from the rest of the pack and taking off, especially if more people keep renting boats at the pace that they have been so far.
This already $120 billion a year industry could get significantly larger if boat owners are holding off purchasing boats and recognize that they can offset the overall cost of ownership by using a rental platform that works to list their boats when they aren’t otherwise using them.
It’s interesting to learn that boat rental platforms are managed by smaller businesses. My wife and I are wanting to start a small business and we want to know what would be a good platform to go in to. I’ll be sure to talk to my wife about possibly starting a boat rental business.
should be lucrative for you! I have a friend who also does it in Washington.