Airbnb for Work lands more companies for business travel

Airbnb is gaining scale as a work travel outlet and integration with enterprise software partners will likely give Airbnb at Work more momentum.

In a statement, Airbnb outlined a few heady stats for its Airbnb for Work effort. Hotels have had a lock on travel bookings, but Airbnb is likely to disrupt the status quo and potentially drive prices down for enterprises.

Among the key figures:

• Nearly 700,000 companies have had employees sign up and book with Airbnb for Work.
• 275,000 companies booking directly with Airbnb.
• Airbnb for Work bookings tripled from 2016 to 2017 after tripling the previous year.
• 30 percent of Airbnb for Work bookings include at least one weekend night.
• The average trip for Airbnb for Work is five days with the most growth for three days or less.
• 60 percent of trips include more than one guest.

Large enterprises account for 40 percent of the bookings with SMBs at 40 percent. Midsized companies account for the remainder of Airbnb for Work companies.

What's next? The item that's worth noting is that Airbnb for Work is integrating with enterprise software players. The company said integration with SAP Concur has made Airbnb for Work easier to expense. SAP Concur saw a 42 percent increase in Airbnb for Work expensing in the last year.

SAP Concur will also launch Airbnb listings and bookings in the weeks ahead.

While SAP Concur is the big dog, Airbnb can further integrate with other packages such as Expensify, Certify and Abacus. Integrations for Airbnb for Work include United Healthcare and American Express Global Travel.