Airbnb wants to reach more business travelers and today announced a new partnership with Bellevue-based travel expense company Concur.
Business travelers who use Concur’s TripLink booking service will be able to reserve Airbnb listings straight from Concur’s platform and have their expense reports automatically updated to TripLink.
It’s part of a new push from Airbnb toward the business traveler community. The San Francisco-based company also today unveiled Business Travel on Airbnb to help pinpoint home and apartment rooms that appeal to travelers. Airbnb is already working with 30 companies, like Salesforce and Evernote, to help with business travel-related bookings.
Chip Conley, Airbnb’s head of global hospitality, noted today that almost ten percent of Airbnb’s customers travel for business already.
“We know Airbnb isn’t for every road warrior, but for larger groups, longer stays, and relocations, Airbnb offers inspired spaces in memorable places to make the most of any type of travel,” Conley said in a press release.
This is the second notable partnership that Concur has inked in July. Earlier this month, the company partnered with United Airlines to enable direct corporate travel bookings on United.com and United apps.
In April, Concur reported better than expected earnings for the first quarter of 2014, with revenues of of $169.5 million. That financial performance earned high praise from “Mad Money” host Jim Cramer, who called out the company’s relative lack of competition as a reason why he feels optimistic about its chances.
