WoofAdvisor.com is a new platform with a simple proposal – it makes traveling with, or without, a pet as comfortable as possible.
Traveling with your pet is not easy at times. Finding accommodation for your pet, when they can’t travel with you, is also difficult.
WoofAdvisor.com is a new platform with a simple proposal – it makes traveling with, or without, a pet as comfortable as possible.
Pets are big business. In Ireland, for example, 49% of households have a dog (or dogs). In the UK this figure is 24%, and in the USA it is 44%.
The Americans already have an established pet travel market. 65% of all hotels in the USA today allow dogs.
This, however, is not the case in Ireland and the UK.
Pet-friendly businesses
Gerry Molloy, the founder of WoofAdvisor, says the platform was built to help pet owners but also to build a social community of pet owners and pet-friendly businesses.
“It’s a business platform with a community backbone. We bring like-minded pet lovers together, and we connect them with hotels and other pet-friendly businesses in the travel sector,” says Molloy.
WoofAdvisor puts pet-friendly accommodation providers, and other players in the pet industry – pet sitters, pet service providers, pet insurers, pet food manufacturers and pet brands – together, to connect and engage directly with pet owners.
“We will also help those who cannot bring their pets on holiday by connecting our customers with pet sitters. We have a partnership arrangement with HouseMyDog.com,” says Molloy.
Millennials are the fastest growing target market
And in case people think the pet-travel industry is the preserve of the elderly or the ‘empty nester’ generation, the reverse is true.
“Millennials make up 20% of the world’s population and will represent 50% of total global travel spend by 2020,” says Molloy. “By 2017, Millennials will outspend baby boomers on hotels. What’s most interesting is that Millennials will surpass baby boomers as the largest pet-owning generation* in about three years.
“Millenials are also 77% more likely than any other generation to get a dog or cat while unmarried and before they have children**,” says Molloy. “The pet-travel market is very vibrant and creative, and it’s growing and maturing each year. We see significant opportunities in this industry.”
Images from Shutterstock.
*Source: Stifel Equity Research.
**Source: gfk / Pet Expo.
