Reviews mixed for sharing economy
Travellers rush to Uber, but aren’t sold on Airbnb
When his company TribeHR was a scrappy startup, Joseph Fung regularly turned to Airbnb for business travel accommodations. “When cash was very tight, I put in that extra effort and was willing to maybe commute a little farther in order to save money,” he said. “I gave up a bit in terms of convenience to get the lowest price.”
Fung sold his company to NetSuite two years ago, staying on as vice- president of human capital management. But he no longer uses Airbnb for business trips.
“It’s hard to rationalize now that money is less of a concern,” he said. “The key reasons have to do with com- pliance and safety of employees, as well as cost balanced against convenience and expectation management.”
As it turns out, business travellers account for about 30 per cent of hotel bookings, but only about 10 per cent of Airbnb’s rentals.
Airbnb would l i ke to remedy that. Last July, it launched a revamped dashboard for corporate travel managers featuring central purchasing and billing, employee tracking and streamlined expense reporting. It also rolled out Business Travel Ready, a program intended to educate Airbnb hosts about business travellers’ needs, from free Wi- Fi to 24-hour check in and a superior level of cleanliness.
Perhaps at least in part because of the new focus, Airbnb saw the number of stays in the U. S. grow 261 per cent in 2015, while international stays were up 249 per cent, user data compiled by Certify, a cloud- based provider of business expense management software, shows.
The real growth story in the sharing economy is for ride- sharing services such as Uber and Lyft, Robert Neveu, CEO of Certify, said. In 2015, Uber became the undisputed ground transport leader with 41 per cent of the U. S. total in the fourth quarter, compared with 39 per cent for car rental and 20 per cent for taxi. Lyft accounted for a much smaller proportion of total rides, but nonetheless saw 700 per cent growth in 2015.
Ride- s haring s er vices trace their success to their ability to make travel hassle- free, said Gregory Luciani, CEO of travel provider TravelOnly.com, which has both leisure and corporate travel specialists. “It’s über-convenient to just get on your phone, call a car, track it and see how long it’s going to take. You even know what kind of car you’re going to be riding in.”
In contrast, “some of the things Airbnb requires you to do add stress,” Luciani said. No one wants to come in from a long flight and worry about whether the owner will be there to greet them, or fumble in the dark to open a key lock box, he added.
Even getting to get an Airbnb property can be problematic, compared with taking a hotel shuttle or directing a taxi driver to a well-known hotel, Fung said. When organizing a quick inand-out business trip, “you’re really trying to optimize your time with customers, coworkers or partners,” he said.
“You’ve got back- to- back meetings and it’ s not so much about where you’re staying or whether you manage to save 10 per cent on the hotel bill.”
As well, the value proposition isn’t always there anymore. “I travel a lot to San Francisco, New York and London,” Fung said. “In those cities you get a lot of professional property owners. That means there’s not a lot of friction — they’ve got Wi-Fi and the key is easy to get. But the price is actually pretty comparable to a hotel room. And if you leverage rewards programs, you can often get deals that are cheaper.”
Luciani agrees most business travellers belong to some kind of hotel loyalty program. That often results in room upgrades, free breakfast, treats in the room, or a business l ounge for drinks. “That’s a challenge for Airbnb,” he said. “It’s tough to move a business person away from a particular hotel chain.”
Although his company’s agents will book Airbnb if asked, it’s rare they get a request. There’s a hotel to fit just about any business’s budget, from Motel 6 to the Ritz. “But they all have a full reception and they’re insured, so if something happens to you you’re protected.”
Fung, who still uses Airbnb f or personal travel, said, “It’s a unique experience every time. That’s what makes it charming. But charming can be frustrating when you’re in a rush. If it’s a hotel chain you visit regularly, you really don’t have to think about it too much.”