Airbnb Wants to Become a Business Travel Mainstay — Corporate Travel Innovation Report

The Skift Corporate Travel Innovation Report is our new weekly newsletter focused on the future of corporate travel, the big fault lines of disruption for travel managers and buyers, the innovations emerging from the sector, and the changing business traveler habits that are upending how corporate travel is packaged, bought and sold.

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The Future of Corporate + Business Travel

Airbnb announced this week that it will continue its slow embrace of the corporate travel ecosystem, as it will now allow internal travel buyers and assistants to book business travel for their coworkers.

Airbnb’s head of global payments and business development Lex Bayer told Skift that the new capabilities are a direct result of requests from its biggest corporate partners. Still, however, traditional travel agents and travel management companies themselves won’t have access to these tools.

It will be interesting to see how forward-thinking travel buyers and managers react to the news, compared to their more risk-averse peers.

As alternative accommodations become more popular among business travelers, this new capability will help build the conversation around embracing sharing economy services despite safety and visibility concerns.

— Andrew Sheivachman, Skift

Social Quote of the Day

lol our corporate travel agent said LET ME GOOGLE THAT FOR YOU to me over the phone someone put her in jail –@_buupy

Business of Buying

You Can Now Make an Airbnb Booking for Someone Else at Your Company: Airbnb has now removed one of its most egregious limitations by now enabling third-parties to place business travel bookings. But travel agents and travel management companies are still left out of the picture. Read more at Skift

The Sharing Economy Has Yet to Catch on in Extended Stay Business Travel: About half of business travelers say their company’s travel policy doesn’t address extended stay lodging, leading them to book on their own. Read more at Skift

American Airlines Finalizes Revenue-Based Loyalty Program and New Elite Tier: How the ranks of AAdvantage members expand or contract after these changes will now largely depend on whether American can compete on product instead of loyalty. Read more at Skift

Security + Safety

Business Travel Spending in Europe Is Expected to Grow at a Healthy Clip: The latest projections reinforce what has become a regular talking point of the Global Business Travel Association: Business travel is resilient. Read more at Skift

Business Travel From the UK to the Baltics Continues to Climb: Another sign of Europe’s continued strength in corporate travel. Read more at Buying Business Travel

Disruption + Innovation

Marriott CEO Interview: Speaking Up on Social Issues and Building a Huge Brand: Marriott is already one of the biggest players in the hospitality industry and in a few months, it’ll be the biggest. Whatever the company decides to do — whether that’s speaking up for LGBT rights and issues or pushing more direct bookings — is having a larger impact on the industry as a whole. Read more at Skift

Hotels Need to Watch Out for Airbnb and HomeAway on Peak Nights: It’s still a little too early to call this, but it’s understandable why Airbnb and other alternative accommodations providers can have an advantage on peak nights: their supply is flexible, whereas the number of hotel rooms is not. Read more at Skift

Ryanair Set to Launch New Low-Cost Rooms Product: The low-cost carrier wants to transform into the “Amazon of air travel,” as many have unsuccessfully tried to become in the past. Read more at Buying Business Travel

Comments

The Skift Corporate Travel Innovation Report is curated by Skift editors Hannah Sampson [hs@skift.com] and Andrew Sheivachman [as@skift.com]. The newsletter is emailed every Thursday.

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