Airbnb for Work expands, aims to extend reach in lucrative corporate sector

Airbnb expands services to corner profitable business travel market

Apart from offering unique vacation spaces for travellers, Airbnb is ramping up its efforts to capture more of the corporate market by expanding its Airbnb for Work offerings.

The multibillion dollar company is now keen to tap three new key areas – teambuilding, offsites and relocations – as part of their “new strategic direction”.

Airbnb expands services to help companies locate unique spots for their next offsite meeting

This means that existing teambuilding activities (offered through Experiences), offsite and meeting locations (offered through Homes), and longer-term rentals for relocations (also through Homes) are now being promoted to the corporate community alongside Airbnb for Work’s existing product.

According to Alvan Yong, regional lead, Airbnb for Work, Singapore, Airbnb for Work now accounts for 15 per cent of the company’s overall bookings since its launch in 2014 when it was was first named as as “Airbnb for Business”.

Yong told TTGmice: “One of the biggest challenges for human resources today is engaging their employees.”

As such, he said the use of Airbnbs for work offsites could benefit companies with their offer of unique environments, which can be catalysts for belonging and personal connections – a factor much sought after especially among millennials.

He said: “The beauty of our experiences is that we can help to engage their staff, which will in turn help drive up the company’s productivity.”

According to the latest AMEX Global Business Travel report, rising demand for non-traditional meeting spaces is expected to continue to outpace the growth in demand for other property types in 2018. In addition to homes, there are nearly 3,000 castles and 1,400 treehouses around the world on the Airbnb platform.

With an increasing global and mobile working population, Airbnb will also now surface homes suitable for relocating individuals and families.

Delving further on Airbnb’s new strategy into the corporate market, Yong explained: “We want to go beyond just business trips, as the average of working professionals who travel for work is only 25 per cent.

“With our new push, we believe we can now make Airbnb available for all working professionals whether they travel or not,” he concluded.

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