Brief - The Hustle

700k businesses of all shapes and sizes are fueling rapid growth of Airbnb for Work

Written by Conor Grant | Jun 30, 2020 10:05:00 AM

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.