Business travellers have been quick to adopt ride sharing with Uber and Lyft over traditional taxi cabs, but employers still prefer hotels to Airbnbs, a new report says.
Uber is now among the most-expensed costs of business travel, but Small Business Trends reports that Airbnb hasn’t made the same kinds of inroads with business travellers when it comes to lodging choices.
Not only do most business travellers still stay in hotels, according to a survey by expense-management firm Chrome River, 54 per cent of companies say they have not incorporated Airbnb, HomeAway, or VRBO as lodging options into their travel policies — and have no plans to do so.
About 25 per cent of companies said they do have policies governing room sharing, and 25 per cent said they plan to add policies governing Airbnb in the future.
One in three companies said they prefer that business travellers stay in hotels, another 18 per cent mandate hotel stays whenever possible, and 45 per cent said they don’t care whether employees stay in a hotel or other types of lodging.
Three per cent of companies prohibit employees from staying at non-hotel properties. and only 1 per cent said that they preferred that business travellers stay at Airbnbs and other room-sharing properties.
