Airbnb’s ‘for-work’ rentals have grown to account for 15% of the platform’s overall bookings. Although many users think of Airbnb as a platform for vacation, 700k businesses actually now book with Airbnb for Work (recently rebranded from Airbnb for Business, we assume because Airbnb4b doesn’t have a great ring to it).
Making things work for startups and corporate giants
Airbnb launched its Airbnb for Work program in 2014, hoping to capitalize on the $1T business-travel market.
To lure travelers away from traditional hotels, Airbnb allowed businesses to offer customized travel parameters on company-specific pages.
By offering perks geared toward companies of different sizes (collaborative workspaces for SMBs and locations close to subsidiary offices for Fortune 500s), Airbnb reels in 40% enterprise companies with 5k+ employees and 40% small businesses with fewer than 250 workers.
Not a bad spread…
Business is good business
Airbnb for Work’s popularity increased 3x from 2015 to 2016, then tripled again the next year — helping the company reach its first full year of profitability last year.
With more listings than the world’s 5 largest hotel chains combined, Airbnb is now valued at more than $31B. But, as the company looks toward a planned IPO next year, it hopes to continue getting down to business by increasing the volume of corporate bookings.