“With employees looking for the comforts of home, a low rate, especially in major cities, and/or a space large enough for small meetings, corporate travellers are increasingly seeking out Airbnbs,” said Lorraine Sileo, senior vice president of research at Phocuswright.
Analysts said Airbnb for Business’ partnerships with three major travel management companies (TMC), announced last week, were unsurprising, a natural progression in providing business travellers with the increasingly popular private spaces that are convenient, comfortable and, in many cases, cheap accommodations.
“With employees looking for the comforts of home, a low rate, especially in major cities, and/or a space large enough for small meetings, corporate travellers are increasingly seeking out Airbnbs,” said Lorraine Sileo, senior vice president of research at Phocuswright.
“Considering the inevitable, it makes sense to integrate Airbnb into corporate programmes.”
Airbnb announced last week that it has partnered with American Express Global Business Travel, BCD Travel and Carlson Wagonlit Travel.
Extended-stay business travellers will likely benefit from agreements like those Airbnb has begun to forge, according to Christopher Anderson, director of the Centre for Hospitality Research and associate professor at the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration.
“I could see how it would be very attractive to aspects of the business segment,” he said, highlighting the amenities an Airbnb property could give extended-stay travellers.
Henry Harteveldt, an analyst with Atmosphere Research Group, cautioned against some potential issues travellers could have with private-home type of accommodations, such as a property’s overall cleanliness, a lack of certain amenities such as an on-site gym, and basic safety concerns such as working smoke detectors.
“These may seem like trivial things, but for a travel manager and the duty-of-care responsibilities that a company has toward employees, they’re important,” Harteveldt said.
Atmosphere Research Group’s data indicates that in 2015, 8% of business travellers stayed in a home-sharing environment, whether it was an apartment, condominium or similar, Harteveldt said.
Atmosphere is projecting that in 2016, that will rise to 10% of business travellers.
Harteveldt predicted more partnerships between Airbnb and TMCs are coming, and Anderson agreed.
“I think everyone is just more cognisant of how to work with the burgeoning channel,” Anderson said. “I think in the early days there was ignorance, then there’s fear. Now there’s kind of, like, ‘How do we work together?’”
Source: Travel Weekly USA