Skift Take

The startup is giving business travelers more choice and flexibility when it comes to long-term rentals.

More and more business travelers are using Airbnb for their quick business trips, opting for a studio in the heart of downtown rather than a chain hotel next to the convention center. The bleisure trend is on the rise, and many travelers don’t want their work trips to feel so much like work.

This option is only viable for shorter stays, though. When employees are relocated, staying in a new city for a month or longer, their housing options get a lot narrower and a lot less interesting. Large corporate housing companies like Oakwood and National dominate the market, converting multi-unit buildings into generic apartments for business travelers.

Smaller companies have tried to change the status quo, but the sector is a tough one to break into. Startup Zeus Living entered the corporate housing space in 2015, providing travelers with individual homes in smaller neighborhoods around San Francisco, more along the lines of Airbnb. Since then, the company has spread to four cities total and continues to expand.

We talked to Zeus Living CEO Kulveer Taggar about how business travel is evolving and the challenges of entering the closed-off corporate housing market.

Check out this story, and many more, below.

If you have any feedback about the newsletter or news tips, feel free to reach out via email at [email protected] or tweet @ikcarey.

Isaac Carey, Travel Reporter

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Travel Reporter Isaac Carey [[email protected]] curates the Skift Corporate Travel Innovation Report. Skift emails the newsletter every Thursday.

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Tags: corporate housing, corporate travel, ctir

Photo credit: An apartment offered by Zeus Living in Oakland, California. The startup is giving business travelers more choice when it comes to long-term rentals. Zeus Living

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