Recently, Monaker Group, Inc. (OTCQB: MKGI), a technology-driven travel company focused on the alternative lodging rental (ALR) market, announced the launch of the Monaker Booking Engine (MBE) and the completion of the Application Program Interface (API) to the MBE. These developments further advance Monaker’s foray into the fastest growing sector of the travel market, alternative lodging rental, which is expected to reach $169 billion by 2019.
With the MBE, Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) will be able to access Monaker’s vast inventory of alternative lodging, timeshares and resort accommodation. Through the API they can go further. Having access to Monaker’s API gives OTAs, tour operators, airlines and cruise originators the ability to build their own apps and sites based on the Monaker databases and libraries. By setting up an API, Monaker is preparing fertile ground for a community to grow around its mission statement of “Travel Made Easy”.
An API is essentially a set of standardized requests designed for a particular program. An API’s protocols tell a software developer the proper way to request a service, such as printing a document, from the program. An API covers the middle ground between software that can only be accessed by the one who wrote it and software with source code that has been made public.
An entertaining piece in a January 2000 issue of Computerworld magazine (http://dtn.fm/rJPZ1) explains APIs by drawing similarities to gaining access to your neighbors’ lawn mowing services if your lawn mower broke down. It’s useless even considering the first of three neighbors, Closed Carl. A high wall with no gate protects his lawn mower so there’s no way of getting to him to even broach the subject. ‘An application like Closed Carl exposes no source code or APIs.’
At the other extreme is Open Oscar. You can enter his yard and borrow his mower without even asking him first. You can, also, alter the mower to suit your tastes by, perhaps, installing a beer cooler on it. ‘An application like Open Oscar has open source code, giving you free reign if you want it.’
The newest neighbor, API Annie, is nice too. You can borrow her mower provided you ask, but, aware of your mechanical prowess, she has asked you not to ‘improve’ her lawn mower. With an application like API Annie, you have access to mowing services, but the lawn mower is off limits.
APIs have the potential to rapidly develop support systems for an enterprise that boost its growth. The first company to capitalize on their potential was Salesforce (NYSE: CRM) when it launched its platform API on February 7, 2000, just about a year into its inception, according to the History of APIs (http://dtn.fm/8OWAy). That API strategy is partly responsible for the company’s present market cap of $48 billion.
Other industry titans subsequently embarked on the API adventure. In June 2005, the Google (NASDAQ: GOOG; GOOGL) Maps API made its appearance. And in 2006, Facebook (NASDAQ: FB), Twitter (NYSE: TWTR) and Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) launched their APIs. The ecommerce giant’s API portal is called Amazon Web Services.
Just like these successful companies have, Monaker aims to build a healthy ecosystem around its MBE and NextTrip platform. NextTrip is an intuitive, fully comprehensive booking platform for hotels, resorts, vacation rental homes, timeshare rentals, airlines, cruises, tours & land packages, and rental cars. Apart from NextTrip, Monaker’s travel assets now include Maupintour, with over 65 years in tour-guided vacations; Voyage.TV, with its thousands of hours of travel footage shot in over 30 countries around the world; and AlwayOnVacation, with its 250,000 listed properties. With the launch of its API, Monaker is poised for a further stage of development.
For more information, visit www.MonakerGroup.com
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