Vacationing Revisited: Creation of a Sharing Economy Platform for Vacation Homes
Student: Alex Curry, 2016-2017
Sponsor: Tradelast, South Bend, IN
Many owners of vacation homes find their property to be under utilized, expensive, and limiting their range of vacation possibilities. Although those that own these homes have extra income that they could pay to vacation elsewhere, they have an experience below the lifestyle they are used to and strive for. Tradelast proposes a shared economy style community that allows people with such assets to stay at each others' vacation homes for a cheaper price than they could at hotels while the person who is renting out their home accumulates points to save on their next vacation. This helps add value to the property and also opens the door to vacation as if they had multiple homes in differing locations. Tradelast will develop an app to allow users to view available property and their prices, create an economic plan on how to allow revenue streams to stay active, as well as investigate a dynamic pricing model that would change rent prices according to their desirability at that time.