9 ms·

Airbnb Business Travel

90 points by jamesjyu 11y ago

IanDrake 11y ago
Seems weird. "Hi John, attached is your itinerary. You'll be landing in Boston at 9PM. Once you arrive, text Billy at 617-XXX-XXXX, you'll be sleeping at his place."
- manarth 11y ago
  That's true of some Airbnb hosts - it's their own home, and their letting it (or a room in it) out. But my experience of Airbnb is generally that the host has their own home elsewhere, and the Airbnb venue is a dedicated place to let. For example, someone who has moved in with their Significant Other, and is letting/sub-letting what used to be their own place. Compared to a business hotel, it generally lacks in terms of concierge/information/predictability. But things like a full-size refrigerator, cooking facilities, and sofas can compensate (if that's what you're looking for). Personally, when I travel on business, for a trip of a few days, I prefer a hotel. If it's longer, or if I expect to have to work from the rental site, I prefer an Airbnb.
  - cnst 11y ago
    > Compared to a business hotel, it generally lacks in terms of concierge/information/predictability. But things like a full-size refrigerator, cooking facilities, and sofas can compensate (if that's what you're looking for). All of which is available in many 3* brand name hotels -- Hyatt House, Marriott's Residence Inn etc. However, do you really need a full-size fridge and cookies facilities when out and about for a couple of days? Most business people don't even cook back home, and you're talking about having to cook for yourself when you're on a business trip that someone's already paying for. The complementary breakfast (Hyatt House and Hyatt Place are the best) and the evening reception or nice lobby with pay-for food would seem like a better option than full-size fridge and a cooker.
    - ghaff 11y ago
      I not infrequently stay at the suite places mostly for the sofa. I do wish more hotels would have a small fridge for guest use though; don't need the full-size one. Especially given that those who still have minibars are now often using these RFID-enabled things that will automatically charge you if you look at them crooked.
      - secabeen 11y ago
        Yep, a fridge and a microwave are a minimum. I don't like wasting food, and those two things allow me to effectively save extra food. Adding a stove is nice if I want to re-heat something there, but it adds a lot of cleaning.
      - cnst 11y ago
        I don't recall the last time I've had a room without a fridge, or a 3* without a sofa when King, and I mostly only book opaque 2.5* to 3* ! You usually lose the fridge and the microwave if you upgrade to 3.5* +, and gain the RFID-enabled minibar at perhaps 4*.
  - IanDrake 11y ago
    I get that, I have two vacation homes for rent on Airbnb. I just think it's a bit weird and honestly business renters aren't exactly ideal from a landlord standpoint. They are the most likely to think they're at a hotel and you're their cleaning lady. Our guest have a checkout list that needs to be complete before they leave. I can't imagine too many business travelers would want to deal with that.
- pbreit 11y ago
  But it could easily be: "Once you arrive, proceed to the loft which is 2 blocks from your meeting site and punch in this code to enter. There's a beer in the fridge and the remote for the Apple TV is under the 70 inch flat screen."
  - jborden13 11y ago
    "But please don't use the front door, only the side door. And, if any neighbors or building staff asks who you are, just tell them you're staying with your friend, Tim. Tell them you grew up with Tim and are just visiting for a few days."
    - IanDrake 11y ago
      Yup, I had one of these experiences.
    - pbreit 11y ago
      I'm guessing that will be much rarer for business-certified lodgings.
DaveWalk 11y ago
Wow, there's a market for this? (Such words come before something is canned, or blows up to make millions I guess.) Can a business really save a lot of money by putting up their employees in "business-ready homes," like a twee Lower East Side room for $55/night that looks like a (very) young woman lives in it? One would think that the lost productivity in dealing with a different landlord in addition to the often exciting/terrifying moments that come with an AirBnB stay seem to offset the cost of a business rate hotel. Productive employees, also receiving a salary and benefits while traveling, are worth more to me than saving $100-$200/night on a hotel stay. The only place I've worked where something like this would fly was where "employees" could take some abuse: grad school. Maybe I am now an old soul, but I like boring, dependable hotels when I travel for work.
- untog 11y ago
  AirBnB can/could also be a benefit though - there are some original, inventive properties on there that few hotels can match. But you're right - the trick will be matching those properties with professional management.
- erikpukinskis 11y ago
  Yeah, you sacrifice consistency. Although some AirBnb units are MUCH nicer than even the fanciest hotels. You can get a complete kitchen, ground floor access, a yard, in-unit laundry, private parking, lots of stuff that can be super useful that are rare in hotels.
  - DaveWalk 11y ago
    An interesting point; but there are "efficency" hotel chains that have a complete kitchen/laundry/etc. Does today's business traveler need a yard and other accoutrements? Private parking is a really good point, though. In a metro area that can shoot up the cost of the stay some if one must rent a car.
- manarth 11y ago
  It's a modern take on 'serviced apartments'. Some places will get regular repeat clients, other places might prove flaky and not attract the same business clientèle.
covi 11y ago
Employees might prefer to stay at hotel brands of their own preference, for better service, loyalty programs, earning points, etc.
nailer 11y ago
What distinguishes business ready apartments from others? The page doesn't seem to be very specific.
- madcaptenor 11y ago
  Working Internet, for one. I've dealt with prospective hosts that don't have wifi, and not stayed at their places because of that - and that was for leisure travel.
  - nailer 11y ago
    I've stayed somewhere with working wifi, but the host mailed me and said its not working right now and I had to plug in. On a Mac that doesn't have wired Ethernet. Rant over, but for real I'd want to avoid airbnb surprises.
    - madcaptenor 11y ago
      Even if you have a computer with wired Ethernet, who travels with an Ethernet cable these days?
      - sethhochberg 11y ago
        I actually do, specifically for situations like this. A short (2ft) CAT5e cable lives in my backpack alongside a small 3-outlet surge protector, spare flash drives, spare battery pack for USB devices, etc when I'm on the road. I frequently work while traveling and don't want to gamble that a misconfigured access point near my gate, full power outlet, etc could cost me productivity. I've occasionally even stayed in hotels which didn't seem to provide wifi (or wanted to charge way too much for it), but, had an ethernet jack on the room's desk.
  - cnst 11y ago
    I stay in hotels a lot, and I don't remember the last time I've used their internet -- it generally sucks! Having your own hotspot is generally a more pleasant experience, instead of having to re-authenticate all the time, and call the support when their inet is down or has ridiculously bad latency. And I'm talking about brand-name hotels like Courtyard by Marriott, or Hyatt House / Hyatt Place.
cnst 11y ago
"Lower your trip cost with amenities like WiFi, stocked kitchens, and free parking." I'm LOL'ing! Airbnb is often several times more expensive than the opaque 3* hotel deals on Priceline! Whatever they do, lowering trip costs is not one of them! Just to give you an example -- I was able to book several 3* hotels in Austin during SxSW for about $50 per night, all the while craigslist and such were at $200/ni for one person, or $300/ni for two. Heck, some guy was even renting out his trailer for 1.2k$/week, or something like that!
- dntrkv 11y ago
  My experience has been the exact opposite. I'm not a heavy user, but I've stayed at an airbnb at least 5 times now and each one of those stays were significantly cheaper than a comparable hotel, but with a way better experience in almost every way. Also, finding multi room hotel suites for a reasonable price is usually next to impossible.
  - cnst 11y ago
    > My experience has been the exact opposite. I'm not a heavy user, but I've stayed at an airbnb at least 5 times now and each one of those stays were significantly cheaper than a comparable hotel, but with a way better experience in almost every way. Are you comparing published list prices, or the opaque prices through priceline / hotwire? Because I was clearly talking about opaque, which is a better comparison with Airbnb anyways, since you never really know what you're getting. > Also, finding multi room hotel suites for a reasonable price is usually next to impossible. You must be a novice hotel traveller, then. Pretty much all Hyatt House and Hyatt Place are suites that essential have two rooms (House would even have a door between them often), as well as Residence Inn and SpringHill Suites. Courtyard by Marriott has full suite rooms, too; surprisingly, very often the price difference between two-room suite and non-suite is like a symbolic $10 or $20, although you generally don't get any discounts if you require a suite, and can't use points for them, either. Hampton Inn (by Hilton) has two-room suites as an upgrade, too. I'm pretty sure other brands do, too. Heck, you could even go opaque for two rooms, and ask for a connecting door, which most decent hotels always do have.
- 11y ago
wehadfun 11y ago
Surprised Airbnb isn't worried about getting homejoyed out of the deal if a business traveler frequently uses the same place.
- _delirium 11y ago
  This definitely already happens, in the few cases where I've seen AirBnB be used for repeat business travel. A colleague of mine goes to Rome for 2-3 week stays and found the place he currently rents via AirBnB, but now he just books it directly. It's quite possible that they can make enough money on the other cases to not matter, though.
- pbreit 11y ago
  I'm not surprised at all. This is such a tiny issue compared to the bigger opportunity. And it's not even the same where the customer would hire the cleaner and never return to the service.
thinkbohemian 11y ago
This program offers interesting features to a business but not s much for the traveler. Anyone who is spending 25+ nights a year in a hotel is going to be sure to be getting points for those stays. Points == status and status == more convenience when traveling. Beyond earning free nights, there's expedited check-in, private lounges with free food, gift baskets when you check in, etc. The caveat is that to get status most (or all) of your points need to be with the same company. This means most hardcore business travelers are very loyal to <program x>. This travel program doesn't have any kind of loyalty rewards which is a non-starter. Other downsides of airbnb: booking isn't instantaneous as with a hotel (wait hours or days for confirmation from owner), checkin has to be pre-arranged and requires you get in touch with the owner (i.e. no 3am red-eye check-ins), each place you stay is slightly different amenities versus hotel chains which all have the same brand of pre-wrapped toothbrush when you forget yours. These might seem trivial but when you travel a bunch it's the little things that hurt the most. Story: I once had to wait for 2 hours to check into an airbnb in SF since the owner was in Africa and his mother forgot to leave his key where he said it would be.
- DaveWalk 11y ago
  I completely agree. But to play devil's advocate: is there a percentage of business travelers that would prefer an AirBnB experience over the lure of elite status and hotel points? Time will tell if this is a smart move or just AirBnB smashing together something that it already has anyway. But I'm curious if anyone has an insight.
  - 7Figures2Commas 11y ago
    > But to play devil's advocate: is there a percentage of business travelers that would prefer an AirBnB experience over the lure of elite status and hotel points? Looking at the photos of the "business-ready homes" on https://www.airbnb.com/business/signup https://www.airbnb.com/business/signup, I can assure you that there is nothing that would make me prefer the "AirBnB experience" over, say, a stay at the Mandarin Oriental or St. Regis. Hotels generally might get a bad wrap, but the quality of the accommodations and conveniences offered at the higher end of the market are very hard to compete with, elite status and hotel points not even taken into consideration.
stonetomb 11y ago
I've been a business traveler (1-2 weeks/month) for a number of years and recently began shuffling in stints of airbnb. I must admit Airbnb cannot beat the convenience and mental simplicity of business hotels. Flight cancelled, check-in at midnight, parking, need an ironing board, want to be left alone - no problem. I typically Airbnb on travel where I expect the workload to be light or operating on reasonable hours (not coming in at 1am every night). It's really an experience thing for me (akin to going backpacking/camping) which often turn into great dinner conversation with customers - they're always amused. I've met a number of great people (I think most people can be, and Airbnb provides the venue) and I highly recommend it - just be prepared to deal with sometimes awkward/interesting situations, but such is life!
scurvy 11y ago
I question the success of this from a loyalty/perks perspective. Not for the business traveller, but for the employer. Most people don't realize this, but when your company signs deals with airlines and hotels, they get big perks in return for pledging dollars to those businesses. You get to designate X number of people for platinum status, even if they only fly or stay a few times a year. Those perks translate into huge upside for the occasional business exec who has to pay for a business class ticket, but be at the top of the list for a free first upgrade. It might sound trivial to most people here, but it's a big part of the sales pitch when you're managing a large corporate travel department.
steaminghacker 11y ago
How about airbnb business space. meeting rooms etc.
techtivist 11y ago
There's a key mental difference between traveling for leisure and for business. When you are holidaying, you are looking for those little experiences that make every trip unique, and living in someone's home definitely adds to that. But when you are traveling for work, anything that's not work is distracting. So one seeks 'familiarity', and that's where the experience of just getting back to a hotel with no surprises waiting wins. It's the same reason I chose Starbucks to work from whenever I am traveling. I know I'll get the same environment, same mediocre coffee and similar wifi. No surprises, so I can GSD.
- ghaff 11y ago
  For me that exaggerates the contrast. One of the things that makes at least some business travel worthwhile is that I have the opportunity to spend at least a little time on distractions in the local environment, whether taking a walk or eating a meal. I don't go out of my way to seek out Starbucks though I'll go there if that's what is convenient. That said, I generally try to simplify with respect to the hotel stay. I may or may not stay with a familiar chain but I'll generally book with something that looks to be a reliable business hotel.
dotBen 11y ago
Many firms won't let employees share a double hotel room due to the risk of sexual harassment violations (one employee stumbles in on the other having sex in the room, said employee may have grounds to sue the employer). With that in mind, I assumed AirBnB Business Homes would be whole homes to avoid contact with an owner, other guests sharing the other rooms or situations that an employee might not be happy with - eg female employee staying alone in the home with a male landlord, etc. But looking through it appears many are shared situations, which surprises me due to the potential for legal issues.
- netcan 11y ago
  Which employee gets to sue in this case?
netcan 11y ago
To those who will point to the incompatibility of AirBnB and business travel..... This is almost certainly something they are doing because people are already using AirBnB for business travel. So, a front desk, loyalty points, instant bookings, avoiding the check-in/key issues, etc. These are all real. AirBnB will be disadvantaged in these areas. But, in some cases its advantages outweigh these. Prices & Airbnb's stock of properties. I don't expect your average VP of Sales to be too excited about this, but I think business travellers are pretty diverse these days.
rdlecler1 11y ago
Problem with AirBnb for business is the uncertainty: booking & checking. If you were able to have a confirmed booking and there were iPhone locks it would solve a lot of issues. AirBnb could underwrite the purchase of digital locks.

90 points by jamesjyu 11y ago

Seems weird. "Hi John, attached is your itinerary. You'll be landing in Boston at 9PM. Once you arrive, text Billy at 617-XXX-XXXX, you'll be sleeping at his place."

manarth 11y ago
That's true of some Airbnb hosts - it's their own home, and their letting it (or a room in it) out. But my experience of Airbnb is generally that the host has their own home elsewhere, and the Airbnb venue is a dedicated place to let. For example, someone who has moved in with their Significant Other, and is letting/sub-letting what used to be their own place. Compared to a business hotel, it generally lacks in terms of concierge/information/predictability. But things like a full-size refrigerator, cooking facilities, and sofas can compensate (if that's what you're looking for). Personally, when I travel on business, for a trip of a few days, I prefer a hotel. If it's longer, or if I expect to have to work from the rental site, I prefer an Airbnb.
- cnst 11y ago
  > Compared to a business hotel, it generally lacks in terms of concierge/information/predictability. But things like a full-size refrigerator, cooking facilities, and sofas can compensate (if that's what you're looking for). All of which is available in many 3* brand name hotels -- Hyatt House, Marriott's Residence Inn etc. However, do you really need a full-size fridge and cookies facilities when out and about for a couple of days? Most business people don't even cook back home, and you're talking about having to cook for yourself when you're on a business trip that someone's already paying for. The complementary breakfast (Hyatt House and Hyatt Place are the best) and the evening reception or nice lobby with pay-for food would seem like a better option than full-size fridge and a cooker.
  - ghaff 11y ago
    I not infrequently stay at the suite places mostly for the sofa. I do wish more hotels would have a small fridge for guest use though; don't need the full-size one. Especially given that those who still have minibars are now often using these RFID-enabled things that will automatically charge you if you look at them crooked.
    - secabeen 11y ago
      Yep, a fridge and a microwave are a minimum. I don't like wasting food, and those two things allow me to effectively save extra food. Adding a stove is nice if I want to re-heat something there, but it adds a lot of cleaning.
    - cnst 11y ago
      I don't recall the last time I've had a room without a fridge, or a 3* without a sofa when King, and I mostly only book opaque 2.5* to 3* ! You usually lose the fridge and the microwave if you upgrade to 3.5* +, and gain the RFID-enabled minibar at perhaps 4*.
- IanDrake 11y ago
  I get that, I have two vacation homes for rent on Airbnb. I just think it's a bit weird and honestly business renters aren't exactly ideal from a landlord standpoint. They are the most likely to think they're at a hotel and you're their cleaning lady. Our guest have a checkout list that needs to be complete before they leave. I can't imagine too many business travelers would want to deal with that.
pbreit 11y ago
But it could easily be: "Once you arrive, proceed to the loft which is 2 blocks from your meeting site and punch in this code to enter. There's a beer in the fridge and the remote for the Apple TV is under the 70 inch flat screen."
- jborden13 11y ago
  "But please don't use the front door, only the side door. And, if any neighbors or building staff asks who you are, just tell them you're staying with your friend, Tim. Tell them you grew up with Tim and are just visiting for a few days."
  - IanDrake 11y ago
    Yup, I had one of these experiences.
  - pbreit 11y ago
    I'm guessing that will be much rarer for business-certified lodgings.

DaveWalk 11y ago

Wow, there's a market for this? (Such words come before something is canned, or blows up to make millions I guess.) Can a business really save a lot of money by putting up their employees in "business-ready homes," like a twee Lower East Side room for $55/night that looks like a (very) young woman lives in it? One would think that the lost productivity in dealing with a different landlord in addition to the often exciting/terrifying moments that come with an AirBnB stay seem to offset the cost of a business rate hotel. Productive employees, also receiving a salary and benefits while traveling, are worth more to me than saving $100-$200/night on a hotel stay. The only place I've worked where something like this would fly was where "employees" could take some abuse: grad school. Maybe I am now an old soul, but I like boring, dependable hotels when I travel for work.

untog 11y ago
AirBnB can/could also be a benefit though - there are some original, inventive properties on there that few hotels can match. But you're right - the trick will be matching those properties with professional management.
erikpukinskis 11y ago
Yeah, you sacrifice consistency. Although some AirBnb units are MUCH nicer than even the fanciest hotels. You can get a complete kitchen, ground floor access, a yard, in-unit laundry, private parking, lots of stuff that can be super useful that are rare in hotels.
- DaveWalk 11y ago
  An interesting point; but there are "efficency" hotel chains that have a complete kitchen/laundry/etc. Does today's business traveler need a yard and other accoutrements? Private parking is a really good point, though. In a metro area that can shoot up the cost of the stay some if one must rent a car.
manarth 11y ago
It's a modern take on 'serviced apartments'. Some places will get regular repeat clients, other places might prove flaky and not attract the same business clientèle.

covi 11y ago

Employees might prefer to stay at hotel brands of their own preference, for better service, loyalty programs, earning points, etc.

nailer 11y ago

What distinguishes business ready apartments from others? The page doesn't seem to be very specific.

madcaptenor 11y ago
Working Internet, for one. I've dealt with prospective hosts that don't have wifi, and not stayed at their places because of that - and that was for leisure travel.
- nailer 11y ago
  I've stayed somewhere with working wifi, but the host mailed me and said its not working right now and I had to plug in. On a Mac that doesn't have wired Ethernet. Rant over, but for real I'd want to avoid airbnb surprises.
  - madcaptenor 11y ago
    Even if you have a computer with wired Ethernet, who travels with an Ethernet cable these days?
    - sethhochberg 11y ago
      I actually do, specifically for situations like this. A short (2ft) CAT5e cable lives in my backpack alongside a small 3-outlet surge protector, spare flash drives, spare battery pack for USB devices, etc when I'm on the road. I frequently work while traveling and don't want to gamble that a misconfigured access point near my gate, full power outlet, etc could cost me productivity. I've occasionally even stayed in hotels which didn't seem to provide wifi (or wanted to charge way too much for it), but, had an ethernet jack on the room's desk.
- cnst 11y ago
  I stay in hotels a lot, and I don't remember the last time I've used their internet -- it generally sucks! Having your own hotspot is generally a more pleasant experience, instead of having to re-authenticate all the time, and call the support when their inet is down or has ridiculously bad latency. And I'm talking about brand-name hotels like Courtyard by Marriott, or Hyatt House / Hyatt Place.

cnst 11y ago

"Lower your trip cost with amenities like WiFi, stocked kitchens, and free parking." I'm LOL'ing! Airbnb is often several times more expensive than the opaque 3* hotel deals on Priceline! Whatever they do, lowering trip costs is not one of them! Just to give you an example -- I was able to book several 3* hotels in Austin during SxSW for about $50 per night, all the while craigslist and such were at $200/ni for one person, or $300/ni for two. Heck, some guy was even renting out his trailer for 1.2k$/week, or something like that!

dntrkv 11y ago
My experience has been the exact opposite. I'm not a heavy user, but I've stayed at an airbnb at least 5 times now and each one of those stays were significantly cheaper than a comparable hotel, but with a way better experience in almost every way. Also, finding multi room hotel suites for a reasonable price is usually next to impossible.
- cnst 11y ago
  > My experience has been the exact opposite. I'm not a heavy user, but I've stayed at an airbnb at least 5 times now and each one of those stays were significantly cheaper than a comparable hotel, but with a way better experience in almost every way. Are you comparing published list prices, or the opaque prices through priceline / hotwire? Because I was clearly talking about opaque, which is a better comparison with Airbnb anyways, since you never really know what you're getting. > Also, finding multi room hotel suites for a reasonable price is usually next to impossible. You must be a novice hotel traveller, then. Pretty much all Hyatt House and Hyatt Place are suites that essential have two rooms (House would even have a door between them often), as well as Residence Inn and SpringHill Suites. Courtyard by Marriott has full suite rooms, too; surprisingly, very often the price difference between two-room suite and non-suite is like a symbolic $10 or $20, although you generally don't get any discounts if you require a suite, and can't use points for them, either. Hampton Inn (by Hilton) has two-room suites as an upgrade, too. I'm pretty sure other brands do, too. Heck, you could even go opaque for two rooms, and ask for a connecting door, which most decent hotels always do have.
11y ago

wehadfun 11y ago

Surprised Airbnb isn't worried about getting homejoyed out of the deal if a business traveler frequently uses the same place.

_delirium 11y ago
This definitely already happens, in the few cases where I've seen AirBnB be used for repeat business travel. A colleague of mine goes to Rome for 2-3 week stays and found the place he currently rents via AirBnB, but now he just books it directly. It's quite possible that they can make enough money on the other cases to not matter, though.
pbreit 11y ago
I'm not surprised at all. This is such a tiny issue compared to the bigger opportunity. And it's not even the same where the customer would hire the cleaner and never return to the service.

thinkbohemian 11y ago

This program offers interesting features to a business but not s much for the traveler. Anyone who is spending 25+ nights a year in a hotel is going to be sure to be getting points for those stays. Points == status and status == more convenience when traveling. Beyond earning free nights, there's expedited check-in, private lounges with free food, gift baskets when you check in, etc. The caveat is that to get status most (or all) of your points need to be with the same company. This means most hardcore business travelers are very loyal to <program x>. This travel program doesn't have any kind of loyalty rewards which is a non-starter. Other downsides of airbnb: booking isn't instantaneous as with a hotel (wait hours or days for confirmation from owner), checkin has to be pre-arranged and requires you get in touch with the owner (i.e. no 3am red-eye check-ins), each place you stay is slightly different amenities versus hotel chains which all have the same brand of pre-wrapped toothbrush when you forget yours. These might seem trivial but when you travel a bunch it's the little things that hurt the most. Story: I once had to wait for 2 hours to check into an airbnb in SF since the owner was in Africa and his mother forgot to leave his key where he said it would be.

DaveWalk 11y ago
I completely agree. But to play devil's advocate: is there a percentage of business travelers that would prefer an AirBnB experience over the lure of elite status and hotel points? Time will tell if this is a smart move or just AirBnB smashing together something that it already has anyway. But I'm curious if anyone has an insight.
- 7Figures2Commas 11y ago
  > But to play devil's advocate: is there a percentage of business travelers that would prefer an AirBnB experience over the lure of elite status and hotel points? Looking at the photos of the "business-ready homes" on https://www.airbnb.com/business/signup https://www.airbnb.com/business/signup, I can assure you that there is nothing that would make me prefer the "AirBnB experience" over, say, a stay at the Mandarin Oriental or St. Regis. Hotels generally might get a bad wrap, but the quality of the accommodations and conveniences offered at the higher end of the market are very hard to compete with, elite status and hotel points not even taken into consideration.

stonetomb 11y ago

I've been a business traveler (1-2 weeks/month) for a number of years and recently began shuffling in stints of airbnb. I must admit Airbnb cannot beat the convenience and mental simplicity of business hotels. Flight cancelled, check-in at midnight, parking, need an ironing board, want to be left alone - no problem. I typically Airbnb on travel where I expect the workload to be light or operating on reasonable hours (not coming in at 1am every night). It's really an experience thing for me (akin to going backpacking/camping) which often turn into great dinner conversation with customers - they're always amused. I've met a number of great people (I think most people can be, and Airbnb provides the venue) and I highly recommend it - just be prepared to deal with sometimes awkward/interesting situations, but such is life!

scurvy 11y ago

I question the success of this from a loyalty/perks perspective. Not for the business traveller, but for the employer. Most people don't realize this, but when your company signs deals with airlines and hotels, they get big perks in return for pledging dollars to those businesses. You get to designate X number of people for platinum status, even if they only fly or stay a few times a year. Those perks translate into huge upside for the occasional business exec who has to pay for a business class ticket, but be at the top of the list for a free first upgrade. It might sound trivial to most people here, but it's a big part of the sales pitch when you're managing a large corporate travel department.

steaminghacker 11y ago

How about airbnb business space. meeting rooms etc.

techtivist 11y ago

There's a key mental difference between traveling for leisure and for business. When you are holidaying, you are looking for those little experiences that make every trip unique, and living in someone's home definitely adds to that. But when you are traveling for work, anything that's not work is distracting. So one seeks 'familiarity', and that's where the experience of just getting back to a hotel with no surprises waiting wins. It's the same reason I chose Starbucks to work from whenever I am traveling. I know I'll get the same environment, same mediocre coffee and similar wifi. No surprises, so I can GSD.

ghaff 11y ago
For me that exaggerates the contrast. One of the things that makes at least some business travel worthwhile is that I have the opportunity to spend at least a little time on distractions in the local environment, whether taking a walk or eating a meal. I don't go out of my way to seek out Starbucks though I'll go there if that's what is convenient. That said, I generally try to simplify with respect to the hotel stay. I may or may not stay with a familiar chain but I'll generally book with something that looks to be a reliable business hotel.

dotBen 11y ago

Many firms won't let employees share a double hotel room due to the risk of sexual harassment violations (one employee stumbles in on the other having sex in the room, said employee may have grounds to sue the employer). With that in mind, I assumed AirBnB Business Homes would be whole homes to avoid contact with an owner, other guests sharing the other rooms or situations that an employee might not be happy with - eg female employee staying alone in the home with a male landlord, etc. But looking through it appears many are shared situations, which surprises me due to the potential for legal issues.

netcan 11y ago
Which employee gets to sue in this case?

netcan 11y ago

To those who will point to the incompatibility of AirBnB and business travel..... This is almost certainly something they are doing because people are already using AirBnB for business travel. So, a front desk, loyalty points, instant bookings, avoiding the check-in/key issues, etc. These are all real. AirBnB will be disadvantaged in these areas. But, in some cases its advantages outweigh these. Prices & Airbnb's stock of properties. I don't expect your average VP of Sales to be too excited about this, but I think business travellers are pretty diverse these days.

rdlecler1 11y ago

Problem with AirBnb for business is the uncertainty: booking & checking. If you were able to have a confirmed booking and there were iPhone locks it would solve a lot of issues. AirBnb could underwrite the purchase of digital locks.