Airbnb Business Travel
airbnb.com
airbnb.com
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.
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.
Looking at the photos of the "business-ready homes" on 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.
Lisabon is another city good for cheap luxury hotels. Trivago is a great hotel aggregator.
When I travel privately, I'm willing to pay to avoid all that crap.
I don't care about getting a gift basket or gym membership or being recognised personally at check-in. Perhaps if I travelled significantly more it would make sense. WiFi and a power socket next to the bed is enough.
The downside was mostly that we couldn't instabook, there's still some required interaction with the host. It means you need to be there on time and so does your host. If something goes wrong, you're at the mercy of a random person to fix it whereas in a hotel there's normally some chain of command.
For instance, our outbound flight was 6 hours delayed (different city) and we arrived at 3am. We were thankfully booked into a hostel for the first two nights with 24 hour reception. If we'd gone for Airbnb, we would likely have been sleeping on the street.
We had a great stay because Airbnb worked. If something had gone wrong, it would have been hell.
Not necessarily or even probably since it's a popular perk and most companies are sensitive to sending their employees on the road.
Always put down your own loyalty/elite number when booking the reservation. Always charge everything (meals, sundries, drinks, etc) to the room to maximize loyalty points.
To the spirit of your question, almost always the employee.
>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),
As for these points though, I agree that I mostly don't want to deal with this sort of thing when I'm traveling on business. I want a 24 hour desk that I can just roll up to a 2 in the morning if need be and I need to be able to cancel on short notice. On vacation, I'm often willing to deal with something more interesting/less cookie cutter but for business I mostly want "just works."
In some locations, I know where the deals probably are, whether because of company-negotiated rates or just past experience. But $50-$100 (or more)/night cheaper is not at all unusual compared to just choosing my default chain in a large city. (Though sometimes the price of the large chain is fine.)
And just last night I happened to get an email from a hotel I've stayed at previously in SF about a special. Turns out it was about $150/night cheaper than a rate I had locked in at another hotel just to make sure I had somewhere to stay for an event in late August. So I cancelled and switched. Took 5 minutes to save about $600.
My basic point is that, especially in expensive cities, there's a big difference between even doing just a quick search and just staying at the usual.
The other objections regarding amenities aren't too worrying, because 40% of AirBnB stays are through commercial operators that presumably are able to offer hotel-comparable amenities.
Although I was at full liberty to do so (and expense it), I never chose to stay in an AirBnb. To make this feasible for me, I think AirBnb would need several things:
* Some sort of loyalty program with PERSONAL benefits to me - this would best manifest itself as a credit in my personal account
* Status - SPG Platinum greatly enhanced my traveling experience with perks such as recognition on check-in, upgrades, gift baskets, etc. I didn't care about most of this, but AirBnb could certainly implement aspects such as "upgrades" to nicer/bigger properties which are vacant within an x-block radius, gift baskets (delivered by the likes of Postmates, UberEATS, etc.), local events, etc.
* Instant booking - this is HUGE. I very very often would book hotels past 6pm on the night of, or move/cancel stays based on work, airline schedules, etc. I don't want to wait to interact with a host - I just want a key.
* Amenities - Fast WiFi is a must, outlets by the bed are nice, and very important - gym access. No reason why AirBnb couldn't come up with an arrangement with e.g. 24 Hour Fitness to provide access passes to guests
* Room service - Partnership with Postmates/Caviar/DoorDash/etc. to bill directly to room, along with a preview of what's available
* Personal concierge - ala SPG Ambassador
* Perhaps most crucial to this list, is a concern for the employer, not me - the reason Amex/Concur have a duopoly over the enterprise travel market is not because of their partnerships or UI - it's because they offer integration with HR systems for things like emergency alerts (e.g there's been a terrorist attack in NYC - I need to know which of my employees are staying in a hotel near xxx). AirBnb should already be in talks with Workday/Zenefits/ZenPayroll and the likes to figure this out for tech startups - most likely to be early adopters.
AirBnb has a potenitally superior product as compared to SPG,Hyatt,etc. and a better interface than Amex/Hipmunk/Concur/Orbitz for Business. But corp travel is complicated, and customers are extremely finicky. Huge potential to get this right, huge opportunity if they do.
AirBnB has limited control over the guest experience. For instance, delivering instant booking would be difficult, and it can't guarantee consistently fast WiFi. It could conceivably incentivize hosts to offer certain amenities, but not all hosts will offer them, they won't be implemented the same way and in many cases this could negatively impact price. Where a host doesn't live up to AirBnB's standards, AirBnB would often have a limited ability to rectify the situation promptly.
Cobbling together features like gym access through partnerships is not very appealing. Depending on the location of an AirBnB rental, it could in many cases be incredibly inconvenient to have to travel to a gym, and folks used to staying at higher-end hotels are not going to be thrilled with access to 24 Hour Fitness. Gyms like Equinox have no incentive to partner with AirBnB so that somebody renting a room for a few nights can use a facility that members pay a premium to keep somewhat sheltered from the riff raff.
You'd be surprised at the quality of both WiFi and gyms at high-end hotels.
Standard Xfinity 25 Mbps would have easily beat the outdated WiFi at most luxury hotels (many of these were early adopters of enterprise internet service, thus signed up for long contracts at now outdated speeds)
I would have killed to have access to a 24-Hour Fitness over the gyms at 99% of hotels I stayed at. Most were the size of a small room with 3-5 treadmills, a couple of cycles, and if I was lucky, some outdated weight equipment and a water cooler. I bought national access to any location, so I'd often opt to take a 5-minute Uber (another partnership opportunity) to a remote location rather than using the hotel gym.
I think there is huge potential for them to cobble together an experience with already-existing partners that meets and surpasses a luxury hotel experience. Loyalty programs are already heading here across the Travel industry (SPG+Uber, Delta+Emirates+SPG, United+Uber, etc.). AirBnb should be crushing these given their superior engineering talent and Bay Area location.
If they don't get to it quickly, then somebody else in SF will - Uber, Workday, Zenefits, Hipmunk...
It's exciting at first, and but repeated business travel becomes tedious over time. Points are your personal reward for that necessary evil in the time you spend away from your home, family, and friends in cars, shuttles, trains, airports.
And that's not even counting the cancelled flights, train delays, terrorism scares, lost baggage, crying kids, and other traveling issues.
I've had hotels cancel my reservation because my flight got in after 12am, and they assumed I wasn't coming. In a major city, that Airbnb host probably isn't around, let alone, going to wait for you to arrive 4-6 hours after your reservation start time.
I've used points to fly my wife and I to Hawaii, rent a car, and stay in an ocean front room for a week with no money out of pocket aside from $10 in award processing fees by United.
I used points to fly my brother to an interview for his first job, which he aced and has been at for the last 3 years. And I still have points left for one more big international trip. It doesn't erase the original issues, but I feel like I got something in return for the trouble.
They really need a concierge service where our admin assistant can call someone and tell them "we need a bedroom for these days, with easy subway access to our NYC office" and have them sort out the rest.
But yes, if you are just one guy for a night or two, a hotel is more convenient.
"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."
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.
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.
Adding a stove is nice if I want to re-heat something there, but it adds a lot of cleaning.
You usually lose the fridge and the microwave if you upgrade to 3.5* +, and gain the RFID-enabled minibar at perhaps 4*.
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.
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!
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!
Also, finding multi room hotel suites for a reasonable price is usually next to impossible.
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.
And Airbnb is even more expensive than Craigslist. At least here in Austin, the hosts figure that the extra security etc should come for free, and they shall maintain their supposed margins, so, they pass all of the fees back to the guests!
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.
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.
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.
But you're right - the trick will be matching those properties with professional management.
I agree that after a certain point business travel becomes "soulless," but I figured it was due to being away from home instead of the surroundings. And the allure of accumulating hotel points to use at the high-end places is....alluring.
The only downside to AirBnB is the lack of daily housekeeping. Maybe there is room for a 3rd party service that caters exclusively to AirBnB hosts to provide regular housekeeping.
That all said, I'm not sure what this "Business Travel" service provides that you can't get from a regular booking. Is this just a shared AirBnB account for teams? Are there special business rates or liability insurance policies associated with it? This page does a fairly poor job of explaining the merits of creating a business account with them.
Is this really an issue for most people? I haven't ever stayed in an AirBnB but I've stayed in B&B's or similar (without the second B) that charged a one-time cleaning fee for the stay but not daily room service. (Presumably you could pay for additional cleanings if you wanted.)
Interestingly, at one point, Starwood was offering points for forgoing daily maid service but I only ran across that a couple of times and then they must have discontinued the experiment.
I know some people who are not that way that need more regular housekeeping, and prefer hotels because they provide that service. (Even though there is little to no guarantee that the housekeeping in a business-rate hotel will be any good.)
I would say the bigger problem isn't whether or not it is necessary for most people, but rather about breaking expectations. Many people have become so accustomed to daily housekeeping services in hotels that expect it as the norm.
The fact that the SPG experiment was apparently short-lived however suggests that you're probably right that this isn't how most people want the hotel experience to be.
As a result, we were able to negotiate a rate down from about 12,000INR/night to about 6500INR/night. The hotel is huge, has every amenity (in India, especially if you're flying solo, most business travelers are not likely to venture outside the hotel for dinner), is close to the office, and we're only paying about US$100/night.
I think Manhattan may be one of the few cities where this legitimately makes sense (due to general lack of hotels, or price gouging). SF, perhaps, but it depends where you're going to be for work and whether there are any huge conferences going on at the same time. One year at Dreamforce I booked late and ended up in a shared room at a craptastic rundown place near the Embarcadero. Perhaps not typical, but it does happen.
Otherwise in most cities: Hotels are more conveniently located, better serviced, much better priced, much easier to deal with, etc. etc.
When I travel for work, I often add additional time onto my trip to explore where I visit. Sometimes people don't have a sense of adventure, and this may not be for them. For people like this I believe you are correct, they will not enjoy this program.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Rant over, but for real I'd want to avoid airbnb surprises.
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.