Business travelers like Airbnb, and now the company is expanding with a new product suite to serve that lucrative market.
The new product will include central billing and a dashboard for travel managers to track employee itineraries and spending, the company says. Airbnb made a crude version of this system available to businesses about a year ago after more than 250 companies, including Google, Salesforce, Facebook, and TBWA, expressed interest. Since that launch last July, Airbnb says its business travel program has seen 700 percent growth—and now it’s launching these features globally.
Airbnb told Bloomberg that about 10 percent of its rentals are snapped up by business customers. And business travel spending is on the rise: it’s expected to hit $302.7 billion by the end of 2015 and grow by more than 5 percent next year, according to research outfit Global Business Travel Association.
Airbnb clearly hopes to be a primary player in that market. It already has the advantage of preference: Last week, expense software company Certify revealed that travelers rated Airbnb stays higher than hotel visits and tended to stay longer. Such strong talking points are not doubt fueling reported discussions that could value the 7-year-old company at $24 billion—more valuable than major hotel chains such Marriott International or Starwood Hotels and Resorts.
