Home-sharing sites are targeting business travellers

By A.W. | WASHINGTON, D.C.

BUSINESS travel accounts for about a third of total travel spending in America, according to the United States Travel Association, an industry group. But Airbnb, a private firm which is probably the world's second most valuable hospitality provider after Marriott, gets less than 10% of its business from people travelling for work. As the San Francisco-based company continues to expand, it’s pretty clear whom it will be targeting.

This week Airbnb is rolling out a new tool specifically for business travellers to book home rentals. All listings deemed “Business Travel Ready” (BTR) feature free Wi-Fi, a desk, soap, shampoo, a hairdryer, an iron and check-in with a doorman (or a digital lock). In other words, all the basic amenities of a hotel. The tool also allows companies to track their spending, receive invoices directly, and manage employees’ itineraries.

Even if it is still principally for vacationers, Airbnb has seen a surge in business travel use in the past several years. The company says that the number of business stays booked through the site tripled last year. It claims that employees of more than 250,000 companies now use Airbnb for work travel. That has spooked traditional hotels. Some have taken to imitating the home-rental service: earlier this year, Marriott unveiled a new suite concept that looks an awful lot like the sort of multi-bedroom apartment that can be booked via Airbnb.

For most business travellers, the new booking tool will not make much of a difference. It was already easy to seek out rentals suitable for business—to screen out, with a single click, bedrooms in shared houses or units without Wi-Fi. But it may go some way toward reassuring their employers. According to a survey from the Global Business Travel Association, 70% of corporate travel policies do not explicitly allow employees to use home-rental services. By centralising the process for booking and payment, and perhaps by giving the Business Travel Ready stamp of approval, Airbnb might persuade some wary managers that it is as reliable an option as a hotel.

The trend toward home-sharing is hardly unique to Airbnb, or to America. Last week, Xiaozhu, dubbed “China’s Airbnb”, announced its own class of rentals suitable for business travel. These have similar criteria to BTR—properties must have 24-hour check-in and an internet connection—but differ in one important way: they must also be within a 10-minute walk of public transport. Xiaozhu is newer and smaller than its American rival, but already has a higher share of its bookings coming from business travellers: 15%, according to its chief executive.

Airbnb has its sceptics in the business travel world. Craig Fichtelberg, the president of AmTrav Corporate Travel, published an article earlier this month in Business Travel News under the headline “Business Travelers Expect Consistency That Airbnb Can't Deliver.” Whether it is daily clean sheets and towels, a dry-cleaning service, a gym or a bar, argues Mr Fichtelberg, “hotels around the world have established a standard they all must maintain in order to attract business travelers”.

Some will always prefer such dependability: a good hotel is the safer route to comfort. But for people who are on the road for long stretches at a time, the most persistent affliction can be a kind of homesickness—missing the ability to cook breakfast and dinner, to chat with neighbours, to experience a home’s quirks and personality that even the finest hotel rooms lack. For these road-weary warriors, home-rental sites might be an increasingly attractive option. At least, Airbnb is betting that they will be.