Home-share services are an alternative to traditional hotels, but is booking Airbnb for work travel really the best option?
Have you considered booking Airbnb for work travel? If so, you’re not alone. For some time now, home-share services have been popular in major global cities like London, Paris, Sydney, Tokyo and New York City. But the popularity of booking Airbnb for work travel is really catching on, and home sharing for work is on the rise in some decidedly non-traditional locations:
- Mar Del Plata, Argentina (624% increase year-over-year)
- Pietermaritzburg, South Africa (465%)
- Aguascalientes, Mexico (594%)
- Gwangju, Korea (520%)
- Guarujá, Brazil (594%)
Given these growth statistics, it looks like the popularity of booking Airbnb for work travel is only going to proliferate worldwide. Right now, it may remain difficult to find a quality home-share option in smaller, less-traveled locations. Give it a few years, though, and we may see a significant shift.
Why are so many travelers opting to book Airbnb and other home-share options when traveling for work? Consider these pros and cons:
1. Lower Your Costs (In Many Cases)
Airbnb and other home-share services can provide significant savings. This is especially true if you’re willing to rent a private bedroom rather than a full house or apartment. Of course, one of the cons of home-share is that not all business travelers are willing to rent a private bedroom, which may give traditional hotels an advantage in such situations.
2. Enhance Your Overall Comfort
We’ve all spent a miserable night sleeping on an uncomfortable mattress at a hotel, right? Airbnb options often enhance the comfort of business travelers. To the extent that home-share reviews and ratings weed out uncomfortable experiences, you may get better rest through Airbnb.
That said, the quality of home-share situations remains more volatile than staying at a hotel. While hotels may not be as comfortable as home-share options in general, at least you know what to expect — and at least the front desk is just a phone call away. As an added benefit, hotels provide daily housekeeping, fresh towels and other perks, whereas home-share options typically do not.
3. Make Your Trip More Convenient
Last-minute trips can make it hard to book a hotel room, especially when there’s a major event going on in your destination city. Airbnb often includes more options in last-minute situations when hotel rooms are hard to come by.
4. Enhance Your Health
Here’s one of the most underrated benefits of choosing Airbnb and other home-share services: It’s easier to make healthy decisions. Airbnb include full kitchens in most cases, and they often include basics like olive oil and seasonings. A quick trip to the grocery store, and you can make a meal that’s far healthier than having a burger at the hotel bar.
5. Experience the Local Culture
When you choose a home-share setup, you’re able to live more like a local and immerse yourself in the area’s culture. If you simply go to the grocery store (as mentioned above) you’ve done more to mingle with the locals than most business travelers. Airbnb and other home-share options allow a better path for getting to know a city and what makes it unique.
Of course, experience isn’t always a priority for work travelers. If you want only to get the job done, staying at a hotel right next to the office where your meetings will take place may be the ideal option.
Stretch Your Travel Spend With JTB Business Travel
Reducing travel spend and increasing traveler convenience and comfort are always priorities for companies. At JTB Business Travel, we provide services that reinforce those priorities, helping to save on travel spend while enhancing the travel experience. We can use our common sense approach to business travel to help you stretch your spend.
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