Airbnb is making it easier for business travelers to find accommodations with targeted site
Airbnb has been steadily working on its business travel product, first debuting at the annual Global Business Travel Association conference in 2014 and most recently launching a dedicated platform for booking business travel. The platform includes a coupon system so companies can sign up and then provide coupons to employees that transfers the actual cost of booking onto the company account. This eliminates the need for reimbursements while mimicking traditional travel accounts familiar to corporate travelers.
The short-term rental company is now reportedly going further to ensure business-ready listings by reaching out to hosts with information on how to become "business ready." Such information includes specific listing designations, such as: whole home rental, 24 hour access to keys, Wi-Fi, no pets or smoking, and necessities such as hangers, iron, ironing board, coffee, tea and a hairdryer — basically, any amenity that one would have in a business-class hotel would need to be provided.
Hosts would also need to meet stringent criteria for responsiveness, such as a 90% response rate and at least 60% 5-star reviews. These standards might actually be a bit too low, as the company requires SuperHosts to receive 5-star reviews 80% of the time. It seems that business travelers would want that sort of filter. as well.
It's likely that this certification will eventually make it into one of the consumer-facing searches, but for now it's purely in beta. One way to get around that is for business travelers to start at the business portal. While it's not clear how these listings are then delivered, the ones that show up here are far more likely to be whole home rentals and cater to the independence and convenience treasured by business travelers. When seeking a space that is larger and more comfortable, Airbnb certainly has many hotels beat — especially in cities like San Francisco where hotels are now the most expensive in the world.