In a sign that Airbnb is now becoming a more acceptable lodging option for business travelers, Concur Travel, a provider of integrated corporate travel and expense management services, is set to incorporate Airbnb listings into its search and booking tool. This is the first time Airbnb listings will appear alongside hotels on a corporate travel platform, although business travelers are already able to use Concur’s travel management tool, Triplink, and other corporate travel companies such as American Express Global Business Travel and BCD Travel to manage Airbnb expenses. By integrating lodging options, Concur and Airbnb are enabling traveler managers and individual business travelers using the Concur platform to easily compare pricing, location, and availability.
Airbnb confirmed that companies including Autodesk, Box, and Salesforce have shown interest in being able to compare Airbnb with other travel options more efficiently.
Airbnb is actively pursuing the business travel segment with the recent introduction of the Airbnb For Work dashboard to search Business Travel Ready listings. These homes have amenities that include laptop workstations, 24-hour check-in times, and reliable Wi-Fi in pet- and smoke-free accommodations. Nearly 15 percent of Airbnb bookings last year were for business travel, including corporate clients Google and Morgan Stanley. According to a recent report from Skift, Airbnb lodgings are typically 8 to 17 percent cheaper than hotels in the same location in Europe, and 6 to 17 percent cheaper in the U.S.
At the moment, browsing Airbnb listings on Concur is available only on desktop computers, not mobile. Clients book on the Airbnb site, but the itinerary is saved into their profile on Concur.
