Uber beats Airbnb for business

Despite its popularity with leisure travellers, Airbnb still hasn’t quite cracked the corporate market.

A survey by the Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE) in partnership with American Express Global Business Travel recently quizzed 350 corporate travel managers around the world to find out what goes and what stays business as usual.

The survey found that 13% of corporate travel programs were already including transport options like Uber, with a further 13% planning to bring them into regular practice within two years, a report from the SMH said.

Another 33% of corporates were also talking about introducing it into their policies.

But while Uber is raking it in with the corporates, Airbnb hasn’t been quite as successful. 13% of corporate travel managers have put in place provisions for their staff to use accommodations from the sharing economy such as Airbnb.

But while another 7% plan to bring it into practice in the next year or so, 56% have completely tuled out ever adding it to their program.

“These figures may be more indicative of a mindset than practical application,” ACTE executive director Greeley Koch told SMH, adding that Uber was probably more popular because it wasn’t something that needed clearing by headquarters and could be used by travellers at any time.

“Accommodation decisions are a different and more complex story,” Koch said.

Per SMH reports, in August, National Australia Bank business travel specialist expert David Crawford said the bank, which caters for more than 16,000 travellers, does not allow employees to use Airbnb or Uber due to security, but things might change as the industry progresses.

One UK-based global travel manager told the ACTE survey their company would “absolutely not” use Airbnb for security reasons.

“We don’t see this changing in the next two years,” the travel manager said, according to SMH.

“It’s different with Uber. We’re still evaluating Uber in terms of safety – but we’re not stopping travellers using it.”

Corporate Travel Management chief operating officer Laura Ruffles said clients of her firm have not expressed interest in using Airbnb for accommodation, per SMH, but this could well be because they already receive great rates from hotels as part of their contracts.

“People do expect facilities to a certain degree and a good location,” she explained as a reason corporates liked hotels.

In addition to this trend, a Canadian travel management analyst told the ACTE survey that insurance and liability was also a major issue with sharing options, asking, “What if there was an accident?”

Airbnb has launched an “Airbnb for Business” product with listings available in San Francisco and Chicago, but industry sources admit a large chunk of the business comes from smaller companies and not larger corporations.

The ACTE travel survey found corporate travel managers are working hard to ensure they provide a proper “duty of care” to their travellers, with 47% engaging third-party experts for advice and 20% using new methods to communicate with employees on the road.

“Duty of care maybe was a check box thing before,” an American travel manager said.

“Now people appreciate the value. We communicate that it’s not ‘Big Brother is watching you’ but more ‘Big Brother is watching out for you’.”

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Email the Travel Weekly team at traveldesk@travelweekly.com.au

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