Airbnb makes it easier for road warriors to find a room
Airbnb is becoming a more popular option for business travelers. Employees from more than 250,000 companies around the world have signed up to use it for work, the company says. So, Airbnb caters to these road warriors with a new search tool that shows only listings suited for business travel.
What does that mean, exactly? According to Airbnb, it’s a location with amenities and services essential to business travelers, like Wi-Fi, laptop-friendly workspaces and self check-in. The company says more than 150,000 of those options around the world are currently available through its service.
If you want to try the new search function, you’ll need to link your work email address to your Airbnb account. If you want to register as a business traveler with Airbnb, you can do that here.
Airbnb’s attempts to cater to business travelers aren’t exactly new. It’s been trying to lure them in since 2014, when it launched a dedicated Business Travel portal. This year, it launched a third-party booking tool, so travelers and their managers can make reservation changes and message hosts with questions. It also introduced business-friendly receipts to streamline the expense process.
Airbnb says it’s working on even more business-friendly features this year, including integration with corporate travel booking tools and easier access to amenities like gyms and co-working spaces. That’s surely bad news for the hotel industry, which is already putting legal pressure on the company. Earlier this year, the American Hotel and Lodging Association launched lobbying and research campaigns to convince politicians to “crack down” on Airbnb by imposing more regulatory restrictions.
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