EatAbout is an online platform which offers an alternative to traditional restaurant dining. The idea is that you eat in the chef’s home and you, along with the other guests, have a one-on-one interaction with the chef throughout. It’s an innovative idea and one that I suspect will join the ‘peer-to-peer revolution’ in the fight to bring consumers and service providers together through internet platforms. 

This concept of connecting the public through peer-to-peer platforms to share goods and services is being referred to as the ‘sharing economy’. Now this isn’t a new revelation that has recently come about. We have seen platforms such as eBay pave the way for peer-to-peer businesses in the past. But the recent advances in technology and direct connectivity between consumers and service providers has given the peer-to-peer market exponential fire-power. The notion of sharing a cab or staying in a stranger’s home may seem odd to some of us, but for a whole generation of people it’s becoming a social norm. 

One thing is for sure – the sharing economy is not something to be underestimated, regardless of the business that you’re in or the size of your market cap.

•   Ortus set to treble Northern Irish lending
•   P2P lender partners with Airbnb
•   Hotel turnover up 9%

I think it’s safe to say that the pioneer for this revolution came in the form of the accommodation-sharing platform Airbnb, and it’s interesting to speculate about the effect such a company could have on its markets. 

Airbnb has now taken its fair share of the travel accommodation market and the exponential growth that we have witnessed over the past two to three years doesn’t look like slowing any time soon. Most of the early evidence indicated that Airbnb had created its own new demand and catered for different demographics than that of your traditional hotels. However, there has been more recent evidence showing that 10% of hoteliers in London have seen negative demand as a result of Airbnb’s success. It has also been shown that in peak demand periods, hotels have been forced to restrict premiums due to the general increase in supply. In fact, a report carried out by Boston University on 9^th June 2016 suggested that for every 1% increase in Airbnb listings, hotels in the specified area see a 0.05% decrease in quarterly profits. So perhaps Airbnb is more of a threat to hotels than anyone thought. Which poses the question, what will hotels do to stay ahead of the curve?

It would be remiss to try to compete directly with the sharing community, after all, they don’t have the staffing costs, massive overheads and maintenance costs that hotels do. Hotels must seek to produce a unique offering and provide a service that is unrivalled. Which often requires capital expenditure or investment – that’s where specialist lenders like Ortus come in to help.