FILLING VACANCIES
App aids camps in oilsands
Labour camp provider Black Diamond Group has come up with a new way to fill the empty rooms at its sprawling facilities vacated by departing oil and gas workers: emulate the Airbnb model.
The Calgary-based provider of lodgings and accommodation primarily for major oil producers in Western Canada has teamed up with various camp providers including U.S.-headquartered Target Logistics and Nisku, Alta.-based Noralta Lodge, along with a number of oil companies, to offer rooms at the camps on short-term rentals.
The concept borrows from San Francisco startup Airbnb, which connects people looking to rent their dwellings with people looking for accommodations for a limited period of time.
On Tuesday, Black Diamond launched LodgeLink, a software app that will open those mostly empty camps to companies outside the energy sector, such as utility, construction and forestry companies, and aim to boost occupancy from their current rates, which are languishing around 40 per cent.
“It’s something between an Expedia and an Airbnb, but the difference is this is business-to-business rather than business-to-consumer,” Black Diamond president and CEO Trevor Haynes said of the software, which his company has spent two years developing.
In the first nine months of the year, companies used a beta version of LodgeLink to book 7,000 nights of accommodation.
It’s something between an Expedia and an Airbnb, but the difference is this is business-tobusiness.
Now, LodgeLink will launch in full and customers will be able to book rooms at 25 work camps, two of which are owned by Black Diamond in Western Canada. Haynes expects the app to generate between 7,000 and 10,000 bookings in the fourth quarter of this year alone.
Through a partnership with Toronto-based Vision Travel Solutions, the software will also allow companies to book travel to and from the camps in Western Canada. Haynes hopes the software will eventually be used across North America and globally as more work camp owners participate in the initiative.
If bookings do increase sharply, the software tool could provide a new revenue stream for Black Diamond, which has been hurt by the prolonged oil price downturn.
Black Diamond shares traded in the $33 range before oil prices began to collapse in the summer of 2014, but were trading around $1.86 at close of the day Monday.
Multiple financial analysts cut their price targets on Black Diamond in August after the firm cut its dividend and reported 40-percent occupancy rates at its camps, which was lower than expected.
Haynes said Black Diamond began developing LodgeLink after oil prices dropped but the need for the tool was underscored during the Fort McMurray wildfire rescue effort as tens of thousands of locals fled their homes. “The ‘aha’ moment was when we were engaged with many of the lodge owners around the fire,” he said.
Black Diamond operates 10 camps — or “lodges,” as they are called within the industry — for specific clients who need accommodation for staff working on projects in remote locations. The company also operates three “open camps,” which can be used by multiple clients at one time, like a hotel.