As a former management consultant, I spent over 250 nights in a hotel last year. The vast majority were at Starwood properties — the road warrior loyalty program of choice — which includes Sheratons, Westins, etc. I also spent 25–30 nights in the likes of Hyatts and Marriotts when a Starwood property wasn’t available.
AirBnb has, of course, turned the hotel industry on its head, just as Uber has for car transportation. With 1M+ available rooms (more than just about every major hotel chain…without actually owning a single piece of property) in 190+ countries, and a valuation trajectory totaling more than Marriott, Hilton, and Hyatt combined — AirBnb offers the most expansive breadth of lodging in the world. And in typical Silicon Valley fashion, the user experience of actually booking a room is far better than anything that industry heavyweights such as Marriott.com or Expedia can provide.
But until now, they’ve never offered a corporate product, and employees rarely considered AirBnb as an option when they had to travel for work. And even though my firm had no restrictions against staying in (and expensing) an AirBnb room, I never chose to. So this week when AirBnb launched its Business product, I was naturally intrigued.
The update brought employer-facing management tools and streamlined payments — features much needed to even be eligible for consideration. And as much as I hope this changes the corporate travel landscape, I don’t think any fellow business travelers will consider it even now — there are still several remaining roadblocks AirBnb needs to tackle first with its core experience:
- Instant booking — Not ubiquitously offering instant booking is a complete deal-breaker. On several occasions, I would book hotels upon landing in a new city at 10pm or decide to switch hotels based on where I needed to be in the next morning (or how delayed my flight was). I never would have waited on a host’s porch for 30 minutes while they finished their shower or endured an hour of small talk before I even got my room key. Most of the time, I just wanted to check-in and go to bed. AirBnb has an opportunity to provide top hosts with Lockitrons/Estimotes which work with a BLE key delivered directly to my phone on day of arrival
- Loyalty program / Status— There’s a reason why most frequent flyers choose to stay at Starwoods properties— they offer the best loyalty program. Lucrative points that can be used for personal travel (not discounts on my bills) were the biggest perk. Other benefits included recognition during check-in, suite upgrades, gift baskets in my room, etc. I didn't care about most of these, but others did. And they did at least make me feel valued. AirBnb could certainly implement aspects such as upgrades to nicer/bigger properties which are vacant within an x-block radius a day prior to arrival, gift baskets awaiting the traveler (delivered by the likes of Postmates, UberEATS, etc.), local events courtesy of SeatGeek, etc.
- Amenities - As a general rule, the nicer the hotel, the slower the WiFi, and the smaller the gym . Luxury hotels in big cities were the first to adopt fancy enterprise WiFi installations, which meant they also signed long-term contracts at bandwidths that they are still tied to today. And most closet-sized hotel gyms consist of two ancient treadmills, and perhaps some weights if you’re lucky. AirBnb + complimentary ClassPass / 24Hour / Equinox / SoulCycle? That’s a no-brainer to me.
- Room service - I dined solo on far too many overdone salmon filets and chicken caesar salads at 11pm while working in my room than I care to admit. If AirBnb had a partnership with Postmates / UberEats / Caviar / Sprig to send me food and bill directly to room, that alone would be huge.
- Concierge - SPG’s Ambassador program made it easy for me to call in and request "reservations for Mon-Thu the next 8 weeks, all within a 5-minute Uber of Google campus in Mt View — please make sure the rate is under $x". Integration with Magic / FancyHands / etc?
- HR Integration — Perhaps a curveball that employees rarely consider, this is a major concern for employers. The reason Amex/Concur have monopolized the enterprise travel market is not because of their killer partnerships or stellar UI - it's because they offer integration with HR systems for things like emergency alerts (e.g there's been an earthquake and I need to know which of my employees are staying in a hotel near xxx). I hope AirBnb is already be in talks with Workday / Zenefits / ZenPayroll and the likes to figure this out for tech startups — those most likely to be early adopters.
There’s a reason why I’ve name-dropped 20+ VC-funded startups above. AirBnb is a Silicon Valley company that has used its position to absolutely eclipse traditional hotel chains. But there is so much more opportunity to use its position as a SV juggernaut to form partnerships that normal hotel’s haven’t even begun to think about.
They don’t have terribly long (SPG has already rolled out a partnership with Uber, for example), but there is huge potential to crush AmEx/Hipmunk/Concur/Orbitz or anyone who has launched a Business product. Corporate travel is complicated, and customers are extremely finicky. Huge potential to get this right, huge opportunity if they actually do.
Thanks to Nimish Jain, Kathryn Weinmann, and Zach Sherman for reading drafts of this, as well as the countless unnamed Flyertalk members who taught me everything I know about business travel.
