After turning its home rental platform into a one-stop destination for booking travel experiences, Airbnb is now planning to cater to the needs of its growing number of business travelers. The company states that more than 250,000 employees have already signed up to use Airbnb for work-related travel bookings. And to further ease their experience, the home rental aggregator has today announced the addition of a new search functionality to single out listings which are business travel ready (BTR).
In the past, the Airbnb experience has been designed primarily for leisure travelers. Not anymore. Business travelers come to Airbnb already knowing where they want to stay, and with less lead time. They want speed, convenience, and reliability.
In the official blog post, these listings have been defined as those home or apartment rentals which come equipped with the essential amenities and services required by a business traveler. This includes a high-speed Wi-Fi connection to help you manage your work on the go, laptop-friendly workplace, and self-check-in facility. The latter meaning business travelers don’t need to contact Airbnb hosts to gain access to their rental home, they could simply use a key lockbox, smart lock, keypad, or doorman any time post the designated check-in time.
Now, if you’re planning to access the simplified search tool to book homes or apartments with aforementioned amenities then you’d need to link your work email address to your Airbnb account. You can register to use the service as a business traveler right here and then navigate to the company’s mobile or desktop platform. While searching rentals for your next business trip, you’ll now see a new ‘business travel ready’ toggle in the filter menu. Enable the same and choose the listing which suits you best.
This is not the very first time Airbnb has upgraded its experience to lure business travelers, it has been catering to their needs for the late three odd years. Business travels listings, whose number now exceeds 150,000 globally, have existed on the platform since 2014.
Earlier, it had launched a third-party travel booking tool to make it easier for business travelers and their managers to make suitable reservations. They can also pitch questions about their listing or neighborhood in general, to the Airbnb host managing the property. The home rental giant also streamlines your expense process by making a business-friendly receipt available to you. It has partnered with several travel management companies (TMCs) and duty of care providers for the same.
Airbnb plans to further simplify your business travel experience by adding new features and tools to their platform in coming weeks. But until then, you can explore the city and get in touch with the local, traditional side of the same through the ‘Experiences’ feature debuted last year. It has even made its way to India last month, with a handful of about sixteen listings in tow. Work and personal life balance is a must!
