The sharing economy has taken the vacation world by storm. While there are dozens of every day applications, there’s no part of life more accommodated by the new sharing trends than your ability to vacation with minimal interaction between you and big corporate entities. From boarding your dog to ordering ‘room service’ at your destination, the sharing economy has it all. Whether you’re an anti-corproate enthusiast or just want to try an awesome new vacation theme, here’s how to plan the perfect, almost 100% sharing economy vacation.
1) Book with Airbnb
This first step is something we’re all familiar with. Airbnb has been the flagship company for the entire sharing economy since it started making hotels nervous a few years ago. It has grown huge, with thousands of hosts across the country and the world offering rooms in their homes, mother-in-law apartments and even entire investment properties beautifully decorated for your vacation. You can even choose between friendly local-tour-guide hosts or complete secluded privacy.
2) Board Your Dog with DogVacay
If you have a favorite furry friend who can’t come along, as is often the case with our far-away vacations, there’s a sharing economy for that, too! No one wants to leave their dog in a kennel and you know they’ll get lonely left in the house, even if a friend comes to feed and walk them once a day. With DogVacay, you can board your dog in a dog-friendly home in your neighborhood where they will have a loving family and doggy companionship while you’re gone.
3) Rent Out Your Parking Spot with ParqEx
By joining the sharing economy, you have the opportunity to make a little money from almost anything you’re not using, including your parking space! With ParqEx, you can rent out the place you usually park whether it’s an assigned parking lot space, a street spot, or in your own garage or car port. If anyone needs convenient parking while you’re gone, they can pay you to borrow the space. All you need to do is register your spot and the time it’s available in the app.
4) Fly to Your Destination
Okay, so there’s not yet a great (affordable) sharing solution for air travel yet, so you’ll probably end up flying commercial but it’s only a matter of time before people figure out a way to sharing-economy something like foot-room or carry-on luggage. That said, if you want to book a vacancy on a private jet, there’s always Jettly. You can leave your car at the airport, with a friend, or with Getaround, who will rent it out for you while you’re gone.
5) Travel with Uber, Getaround or Liquid
Once you get to your new destination, usually everyone’s first stop (after baggage claim) is usually either a taxi or the rental car depot, but the sharing economy can cover both. If you want to be driven to your Airbnb, simply call for Uberor Lyft to meet a local and discover their taste in music. For rental cars, you have the Getaround service in which locals rent their cars. Once you’re in place, you can even get sharing-economy bicycle time with Liquid for a fun and healthy way to get to and from the store.
6) Eat In with GrubHub
In a normal hotel, you could ring up the front desk to call in some room service. While your Airbnb host probably isn’t ready to make you french toast on a whim, you can definitely use the sharing economy to get any kind of delicious meal available in the city. Services like GrubHub and Door Dash have independent drivers who don’t take passengers, just piping hot bags of delicious restaurant food. You can even have groceries delivered with Instacart.
7) Monitor Everything from Your Phone
While the concept of the sharing economy, having independent people doing each other paid favors, is wonderful, it’s also awesomely easy to track. Most, if not all, sharing economy gigs can be tracked through your mobile phone, tablet, or an online interface so that you never have to wonder what’s going on. You’ll be able to message your DogVacay family to get mobile pics of your happy pooch, check or ParqEx app to see if anyone’s using your spot, and track the GPS location of your delivery drivers if you’re worried about arrival times.
The sharing economy puts everything you need for a wonderful vacation at the tips of your fingers. For more awesome news and tips about sharing in the mobile world, please contact us today!
