“Disrupters” Like Airbnb Are Shaking Up Business Travel
by Lark Gould /Not long ago the ‘disruption’ concept was all about the phone call.
Skype and Truphone had found a way to knock out the phone company with pennies-a-minute calls across the world via the Internet.
But it turned out that the sidelining of Ma Bell was only the beginning of what is fast becoming the era of the disrupter, as Uber, Airbnb, Lyft, Sidecar and slew of travel apps are linking travelers directly with suppliers in increasingly creative ways.
(‘Disruptive technology,’ or ‘disruptive innovation’ has come to mean innovations that improve a product or service in ways the market doesn’t expect.)
At the end of July, Concur announced a partnership with Airbnb and Uber for distributing services to the more than 25 million users in that company’s global managed travel network.
Suddenly the “sharing” economy was not just for couch surfers and café squatters any more. Corporate America was listening.
Worldwide network
Airbnb has a worldwide network servicing some six million guests last year with more than 550,000 properties.
A community-driven hospitality company, Airbnb enables travelers to stay in rooms, apartments or even private homes owned by “hosts” who rent out their unused space.
For business travelers this is a different kind of stay from traditional hotels. The company markets the experience as more homelike than a hotel stay and costing a fraction of what a hotel room costs.
It’s also ideal in cities with a shortage of hotel rooms.
“Nearly ten percent of Airbnb’s customers travel for business already and we’ve heard from customers that this type of offering is high on their wish list,” said Chip Conley, Airbnb’s head of global hospitality.
“We’ve now made it even easier for people to make the most of their business travel.”
For business travel
Airbnb for business operates on a separate portal than its regular rental site although much of the inventory is the same.
Filters allow for searches based on amenities, location, price, structure and configuration, taking much of the guesswork out of units that can range from an attic above a garage to a swanky private pad overlooking the city.
Guests send a message to a host through the site and wait for a response. However, for those travelers not making their plans on the fly, the site provides access to cost-effective options for long-term stays.
Companies can sign up for an Airbnb account for their employees and all actions will be tracked and managed. Concur uses Triplink as the app interface.
“We’ve been watching the Concur integration and seeing how smoothly it is going,” said Marc McCabe, one of a team of business development leaders at Airbnb.
“We felt Concur gets industry very well and seemed like an ideal partner.”
Companies sign on
Airbnb counts some 55 companies that have signed on to its business portal outside of Concur.
Many are tech titans from Silicon Valley – companies that need different solutions for business travel and for what McCabe calls “leakage” or out-of-policy travel.
“People see we are a very different solution,” he adds.
“And because we are different we are not hearing lots of objection from this sector. Rather, TMCs want to speak with us and want to learn more – and we see this as a good sign.”
Uber’s partnerships
Uber, the ride-sharing service that uses its own smart phone app to connect passengers with drivers of vehicles for hire, is also exploring partnerships with companies.
The companies see the alternative service as a way to track employe transfers and to give their employes freedom to manage their transportation.
In addition to making its own deal with Concur this summer, Uber has signed promotional agreements with United Airlines and the American Express Corporate Card.
Deutsche Bank, Barclays, Salesforce.com, and Tesla Motors have signed on with Uber’s new service, Uber for Business.
New opportunities
Other companies serving business travelers are following the “disrupters” lead in connecting suppliers and buyers directly.
LiquidSpace made its debut at the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) conference in Los Angeles this summer.
The company has an inventory of meeting rooms at urban hotels which it offers to small groups that need to meet on any given day in a particular city. Meetings usually last less than half a day and include ten or fewer people who schedule the impromptu sessions at the last minute.
“It was a market no one was tapping,” said Eric Zellhart, whose title is Hospitality Guru.
“Typically these types of meetings would require someone to pick of the phone, book a room and sign a contract. Now they can happen at the moment they need to happen and the spend can be tracked.”