Business Travel Redefined: How Airbnb is catering for the modern corporate traveller

Airbnb has so many practical applications for travellers of all kinds in the modern world. It’s contributing to our globalism in business as well as in tourism and companies are now favouring Airbnb for corporate stays. In the summer of 2015, Airbnb was chosen by 5,000 companies for bulk business bookings and it’s only snowballing.

So why are businesses who have existing strong relationships with hotel chains now favouring Airbnb over traditional means of accommodation? Airbnb’s Head of Global Hospitality and Strategy, Chip Conley when interviewed said:

‘It’s obvious the businesses have been longing for a better way to manage their employees’ travel needs,’ and went on to describe how they were eager to change from the traditional means to accommodate businesspeople into more flexible accommodation in both position and price.

Airbnb is around 30% cheaper than hotels for corporate accommodation so it’s no surprising choice financially but the environment is also preferable. More productive, cosier and friendlier, more business travellers are desiring homely places to stay and the environment is often less clinical than hotel chains. Kitchens and dining room access is more natural and friendly and because more corporate travellers are choosing to tack on holiday time to their trip, homelier amenities are becoming more attractive.

Businesses do have standards for accommodation, though, for example, fast reliable WiFi, laptop friendly workspaces and fulfilled legal requirements in smoke and carbon monoxide detectors and because of this, Airbnb have had to adjust their platform to assure businesses of their host’s offerings.

The formal identification of business friendly rooms is called the ‘Business Travel Ready’ programme and it selects the highest quality hosts with reliable feedback who fulfil business criteria for working environments which are well provided. The new platform has fused many relationships between Airbnb and businesses as well as between the hosts and businesses themselves, who obviously receive repeat business with happy clients who make good reports. Today, the programme has received huge boosts from major corporations like American Express and Google.

Of course, it is not so simple to fulfil the criteria and you may be thinking ‘how on earth do I provide 24/7 support?!’ – the answer is Airbnb management services like our own who provide the support for you! It’s the ideal way to get your listing up and running with the Business Travel Friendly Programme and the rewards are great. Not only can we take care of the communications between businesses and yourself, but also fulfil the physical criteria through the fitting of lockboxes.

The programme is set to grow and being on board with it is estimated to provide huge boosts to the short-term rental industry as well as all the hosts who take part.