Airbnb kickstarted its push into business travel with partnerships with other tech companies like Evernote, Lyft and Salesforce, which have integrated Airbnb options into their corporate travel booking systems.Credit Traveling for business or pleasure? Airbnb, the home-rental start-up, wants to be your go-to for both.
On Monday, the company introduced a new business travel initiative, expanding Airbnb's cross hairs beyond the vacation and couch-surfing crowds it has traditionally focused on.
Since 2008, Airbnb has hosted a service that allows home and apartment owners to rent out rooms for short periods of time, effectively becoming short-term hostels for travelers.
The new effort adds another section to the company's website, targeted specifically to business travelers. Airbnb started its push for business travelers by forming partnerships with other tech companies like Evernote, Lyft and Salesforce, which have integrated Airbnb options into their corporate travel booking systems; Airbnb plans to offer the service to other businesses as well.
"Nearly 10 percent of Airbnb's customers travel for business already, and we've heard from customers that this type of offering is high on their wish list," Chip Conley, Airbnb's head of global hospitality, said in a statement.
Airbnb, which currently operates in nearly 200 countries around the world, has also hooked up with Concur, the expense account and travel booking management company. Through the partnership, travelers can book Airbnb accommodations via Concur's smartphone app or website. Expenses for the bookings will automatically appear in Concur's expense account management software.
Airbnb's pitch is aimed at those on business trips who tire of lodging at large hotel chains. Often, Concur has found, employees have ventured outside their internal travel systems to book trips using Airbnb's service, including travelers who have corporate deals worked out with a hotel chain.
The initiative is a large undertaking for the rental-sharing company, squarely taking on giants in the hospitality industry like Marriott International, Hilton Worldwide and Wyndham Hotel Group.
The move into the sector could attract more scrutiny from regulators and government officials, which have grown increasingly interested in whether Airbnb's rental-sharing customers are breaking the law. In April, the New York State attorney general's office won a case in which Airbnb was required to hand over anonymized data on a host of its users.
In April, Airbnb closed a $450 million round of venture financing, valuing the start-up at $10 billion. The company has raised nearly $750 million dollars to date.
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