You can buy a bike made out of solid gold with an alligator-hide seat and a stingray-skin water bottle;

Yup - It's a real thing, sold by the House of Solid Gold, a company in California which sells everyday items made out of gold. This bad boy will run you a cool Million.
 
Even purchasing a more reasonable customized bike can set you back a pretty penny.

And even for the aspiring cyclist with the best of intentions, a custom cycle all-too-often spends more time in the garage than on the pavement.
 
The takeaway? Customization isn't always the right way to go. People need cost effective and convenient options.

That's why bike sharing has become so popular across the globe, a notable example being the New York City Citi Bike sharing system.

A Citi Bike is all yours while you're riding it, but once you drop off the cycle at its dedicated rack, you can forget about it.

Now, let's shift our thinking. What do bike sharing and your property's digital marketing have in common? In many cases, borrowing your hotel's digital marketing assets by subscribing to a software as a service (SaaS) platform makes much more financial sense that paying a premium for a customized website.

In fact, both bike sharing and SaaS have played a huge role in the development of a broader movement called the sharing economy.

Leonardo DiCaprio Riding A Citi Bike 
 
The essence of bike sharing and SaaS rests in that both services allow you to log as many miles as you want. And just as the bike sharer doesn't have to pay for tune-ups (or fumble with a gear chain himself), a SaaS subscriber doesn't have to worry about whether their site's technology is up-to-date.

With SaaS, in-house engineers continuously update features and release new templates. Similarly, you can put miles on your website in the form of content creation. Watch the analytics data roll in and create new content when you need to gain some SEO traction.
 
Want to read more about digital marketing for hotels and SaaS? Check out our white paper, "You Don't Own Me: The Sharing Economy, Hotels, & Software As A Service."