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What Can We Learn from the Hotel Industry?
Our Outdoor Future: Five Insights for the Future of Hunting, Fishing and Shooting Sports
Lincoln, NE -(Ammoland.com)- “A simpler, more open and transparent way of doing business across our industry is the only way we can ensure the future of our way of life,” Eric Dinger, co-founder and CEO, Powderhook.
In a little under two years of work on the access problem, Powderhook has learned a lot. Based on what we’ve learned, we’ve created five concepts we believe to be imperative for the future of our way of life. These insights represent, in our view, a cultural shift in thinking for our industry. Examples from other industries are provided as a means to rationalize each argument. It is our hope this series can serve as a springboard for new ideas and better solutions.
Have you ever wondered why it’s so easy to book a hotel room? You can book the same hotel room across dozens of websites. Knowing that, have you ever really asked yourself why it’s so hard to find a duck blind to sit in, a place to hang your deer stand, or the upcoming 3-gun competitions in your area? The fundamental underlying issue is our industry lacks a standard tradable good — a commodity, like a “room night” for hotels.
“Access” means several things, and somehow nothing all at once. It could mean a lease; a trespass fee; a role on a shooting team; a seat in a blind or a spot in your friend’s truck. We believe the industry, in the interest of standardizing this commodity, will come to define access as “the right to be in a spot for a period of time” — effectively, our version of a room night. This is a natural conclusion given we buy, sell and trade periodic access to all kinds of things, including movies, concerts, vacation rentals and cars. But, what should we call ours?
Industry leaders often speak of the need to introduce new and different audiences to hunting, fishing and shooting. The development of a commodity is one of the best ways to do so. Commodity in hand, we could begin providing the opportunity and incentive for partners from affiliated industries to get to work marketing, giving, trading, buying and selling our collective access assets, regardless of who owns or creates them. Again, hotels serve as a solid model of this concept.
It is simple for a customer to book the same hotel room via a travel site like Expedia, via a hotel broker such as hotels.com, via a trip planner such a travel agent, via search site like Google and many more. Because the hotel has made its rooms a commodity, it benefits from marketing reach it could never afford on its own.
About the Author:
Eric Dinger is the co-founder and CEO of Powderhook.com, a website built to help people find access to hunting and fishing spots, trips, groups and events. He can be reached at [email protected].
About Powderhook
Powderhook’s mission is Access for All. That means access for new hunters, anglers and shooters; for parents and their children; for neighbors who haven’t been out in the field for years; and for you. Powderhook works with the nation’s leading conservation organizations, retailers and manufacturers. The Powderhook platform is bringing our industry together to solve some of its most important problems.
For more information, please visit www.PowderHook.com.
Source: http://www.ammoland.com/2015/05/what-can-we-learn-from-the-hotel-industry/
