Rentivo, Bee Token & Blockchain: The Future of Vacation Rental Bookings

By now, I’m sure you’ve heard about Bitcoin and its “meteoric rise”. This year’s 1500%+ increase has rattled cages and turned heads around the world.

We hear constantly hear things like, “It’s a bubble”, “It’s a scam” and “there’s no real value”. We also hear things like “We’ll see 100k Bitcoin by end of 2018”.

But let’s be clear, Bitcoin is NOT the future of vacation rental bookings and its price is largely irrelevant. However, here at Rentivo, we believe Blockchain technology (Bitcoin’s secret sauce) IS.

Blockchain technology: A paradigm shift

The inner cogs behind blockchain are out of the scope of this article (surprisingly, this short video does a great job of explaining: https://twitter.com/superdeluxe/status/877216009890824192) but in its most basic form:

A blockchain refers to an incorruptible shared digital ledger that can record any economic transaction.

This simple concept might just be as revolutionary as the internet.

But why?

paradigm shift

noun
a fundamental change in approach or underlying assumptions.

Blockchain technology is more than just a decentralized value exchange like Bitcoin, it’s a revolutionary way to build new organizations & applications that are:

Open & transparent
Trustworthy, secure & incorruptible
Cheap & fast to use globally

It’s hard to grasp the concept at first, but when you consider the implications, it’s mind-blowing.

Decentralized organizations

Imagine an organization that:

Can’t be controlled by a single entity
Allows open & permissionless innovation by anyone globally
Is governed by its users “for the people, by the people”
Incentivises early adopters & users
Can’t be acquired, merged or monopolized
Can’t be shut down or stopped (unless governments ban them)
Is always cheap & fast to use globally
Gives users control over their own data

And above all else, has its incentives aligned with its users.

You might be asking why anyone would create a non-charitable organization that’s NOT profit-centric.

That’s the paradigm shift.

In the beginning of a decentralized organization’s life, they issue a limited number cryptocurrency tokens (using the blockchain) which are essentially the “fuel” to run the system.

This fuel can be used to pay for goods & services, reward users, pay suppliers & support the network – it keeps the engine running. Thus, these token have a monetary value.

The founders & team are then rewarded by increasing the value of their tokens, which can only be achieved by building an organization that’s popular amongst users & consumers.

Incentives are aligned.

If the team decides to make a negative decision or attempts something malicious, users can simply “fork” the project and change the software.

In software engineering, a project fork happens when developers take a copy of source code from one software package and start independent development on it, creating a distinct and separate piece of software.

If the updated software is more popular than the original team’s software, users can simply adopt the new one.

Survival of the fittest software.

But how will decentralized organizations start competing with existing monopolies? Surely they’d need enormous marketing budgets and experienced employees?

Not a problem. Initial coin offerings (ICOs) are used to fund the project. Investors & speculators buy a share of the organization’s tokens, which are put up for sale early on. If a project needs more funding, they can sell more tokens.

And the true beauty lies in the snowball effect. Early adopters are rewarded with tokens, who help promote the system to increase their own monetary value. A self-fulling prophecy.

So what does this have to do with vacation rental bookings?

Here at Rentivo, we believe the future of vacation rental bookings will be on the blockchain.

Imagine an online booking site with:

No commission
No guest service fees
Lets you control your data & business
Governed by its users
Rewards its guests & hosts
Can’t be acquired or controlled by another online travel agent

Let that sink in…

As long as it drives bookings, it sounds like the perfect solution.

And to drive bookings, it needs a great team, a critical mass of properties, marketing, education and awareness.

Rentivo + Bee Token partnership: Rentals on the blockchain

Which is why we have just partnered with The Bee Token, a decentralized vacation rental platform for hosts to list their homes and for guests to find accommodations.

It’s their goal to create a platform called Beenest, which rewards guests & hosts with network incentives, provides commission-free transactions and security unrivalled in the home-sharing industry.

To facilitate the growth of this platform, we will be adding a channel from our property management system to upload & sync properties on the blockchain using The Bee Tokens API.

Additionally, we will be endorsing the platform as an alternative to existing solutions.

A tangible solution on the horizon: Early adopters will be rewarded

There’s been a lot of talk about blockchain technology and how it will revolutionize industries but we’re yet to see real-life examples hitting mainstream adoption.

Finally, we’re close to something tangible and the early adopters will be heavily rewarded once technology improves & adoption increases.

Existing blockchain technology is relatively slow and clunky. Payouts are still in cryptocurrency tokens and they require selling on exchanges to receive fiat currency (with heavy fees).

However, technology is improving every day (just remember the beginning days of the internet).

Obviously, blockchain technology is extremely new and not for everyone just yet. But if you are interested in being an early adopter, we have created a simple “register your interest” form below.

You’ll receive more details about The Bee Token, their upcoming initial coin offering (Crush Crypto has already written an in-depth analysis of Bee Token’s ICO here) and how to list on their site.