Airbnb is launching a new set of tools for planning trips and managing expenses on the road, as it steps up its efforts to target the business traveller market.
Through a partnership with spend management firm Concur, business travellers who use Concur’s Trip Link service will be able to book Airbnb properties directly and have their expense reports automatically pre-populated in Concur.
Trip Link is a tool that lets employees book managed travel directly on third-party supplier sites, while providing travel buyers with “complete visibility into itineraries and expenses in one consolidated view”.
The service from Airbnb is expected to be available this autumn.
Airbnb is a site which allows homeowners to rent out properties to travellers. It’s available in 35,000 cities and 190 countries.
Airbnb is also introducing a website specifically for business travellers to help them “search and book accommodation, and easily manage expenses”.
The home-sharing company said almost 10 per cent of its customers rely on the site to meet specific business travel needs, such as accommodation for larger groups, longer stays, relocations and meeting spaces.
“We know Airbnb isn’t for every road warrior, but for larger groups, longer stays, and relocations, Airbnb offers inspired spaces in memorable places to make the most of any type of travel,” said Airbnb’s head of global hospitality, Chip Conley.
“Nearly 10 per cent of Airbnb’s customers travel for business already and we’ve heard this type of offering is high on their wish list. Working with Concur, we’ve now made it even easier for people to make the most of their business travel."
Concur’s executive VP Tim MacDonald, said: “We’ve noticed that business travellers are increasingly taking advantage of a new generation of suppliers like Airbnb. Employees clearly want Airbnb in their managed travel program and we think that trajectory will continue.
He added: “Our goal is to support customers who want to empower their employees while ensuring that fiscal visibility and duty of care responsibilities are met.”
Taxi app Uber has also unveiled plans to grow the number of business travellers using the service.
‘Uber for business’ will be available initially in the US and Canada but there also trials taking place in the UK and France, enabling business travellers to use the service and charge it back to their employees more easily.