AIRBNB’s new partnerships with global TMCs, American Express Global Business Travel (GBT), BCD Travel and Carlson Wagonlit Travel (CWT), will bring its content to more road warriors while satisfying corporate duty of care requirements.
The partnership with Airbnb will first allow individual travellers of GBT’s clients to book accommodation on Airbnb.com using a corporate email address. In the coming weeks, Airbnb booking information will be integrated into GBT’s reporting platform, “enabling corporate reporting and traveller tracking which supports duty of care responsibilities”, explained a GBT spokesperson.
This arrangement will go live in the US in the next few weeks to allow all GBT clients there to book Airbnb content worldwide, before expanding to other markets later this year.
BCD Travel, which has an existing partnership with the sharing economy giant, will integrate Airbnb data into its DecisionSource business intelligence and security solution. This will allow BCD Travel’s clients to interact with maps and detailed reports in real-time and bring Airbnb accommodation bookings into view for managed travel.
With CWT, Airbnb for Business content will be made available to its clients, allowing travellers more options and flexibility as well as a highly personalised itinerary.
While post-booking security measures are in place, the TMCs will not be able to guide clients in making a safe Airbnb accommodation choice – one of the concerns among corporate travel managers who shun sharing economy accommodation options.
In response to TTG Asia e-Daily’s question on this aspect of security measures, Suzanne Lee, spokesperson of BCD Travel, Asia-Pacific, said: “DecisionSource does not provide risk assessment for individual Airbnb properties (just as) it does not provide individual risk assessment of hotel properties. But it does help companies with travellers staying at Airbnb accommodations by tracking them and alerting them when an incident takes place in their neighbourhood so companies can communicate with them as necessary.”
The GBT spokesperson, too, explained that “travellers and their respective employers will continue to decide the type of accommodation that is most suitable for their needs, and determine their policies accordingly”.
However, he added that travellers can look out for Airbnb’s Business Travel Ready options.
Such properties have five stars for at least 60 per cent of reviews; have hosts that respond to 90 per cent of booking requests within 24 hours and do not cancel confirmed reservations within a week of the check-in date; provide 24-hour check-in; offer business amenities such as Wi-Fi, laptop-friendly workspace, etc; and are an entire home or apartment.
