Airbnb Bookings on the Rise Within SAP Concur – Airbnb Listings Now Available in Concur Travel

Airbnb has been a valued partner to SAP Concur for years. The connection to Concur TripLink has enabled travelers to stay within company policy while booking lodging directly from Airbnb.com. Today, we’re happy to announce that in the coming weeks, Airbnb listings can be viewed directly within Concur Travel. As the only corporate travel solution with Airbnb listings embedded directly in the online booking tool (OBT), SAP Concur clients can now seamlessly search for and view Airbnb listings alongside hotels, including pictures of properties and review ratings which are so important to Airbnb customers.

In addition to our valued hotel partners, Airbnb is an increasingly important supplier of accommodations for business travelers. The number of SAP Concur customers expensing Airbnb stays increased by 42 percent from 2016 to 2017, including 63 percent of our Fortune 500 customers.

Our customers drive our innovation. Looking at the growth of Airbnb expenses within SAP Concur, along with regular conversations with customers and travel managers, we realized the need to bring Airbnb into the Concur Travel online booking tool (OBT).

With even more integrations with the SAP Concur platform, we’re making it easier than ever for travel managers to increase visibility and control around alternative booking options so they can keep their employees safe while traveling for business. The result is a better user experience and more choices for travelers, improved visibility and control for travel managers, and simplified expense reporting after each trip.

“Business travelers continue to look for extra comfort and flexibility when on the road, and we know it's key to provide these attributes within company travel policies. SAP Concur is a natural partner for us to bring the uniqueness of Airbnb to more people, and we’re looking forward to bringing Airbnb listings to Concur Travel.” – David Holyoke, global head of Airbnb for Work.

This builds on Airbnb’s existing connection via TripLink, which simplifies expense reporting after a trip as itineraries and e-receipts are automatically fed back to SAP Concur, helping prepopulate employee expense reports.

Airbnb lodging for business travel continues to grow globally among SAP Concur customers

According to SAP Concur expense data from Q1 2016 through Q4 2017, we found:

• More business travellers are booking earlier. In 2017, 54 percent of Airbnb bookings were made at least 15 days in advance, an increase from 2016 (45 percent)
• Business spend on Airbnb peaks in October. On average, SAP Concur customers spend 26 percent more on Airbnb lodgings compared to other months. In fact, October happens to be one of the busiest months for business travel overall, with previous SAP Concur data showing 20 percent more business travellers making trips during this time of year.
• Tuesdays and Wednesdays are the most popular weekdays for Airbnb stays, with an average of 22 percent more bookings on these days compared to other weekdays.
• Higher Education institutions continue to spend the most on Airbnb lodging per year across industries, followed by technology companies.
• From 2016 to 2017, the percentage of Airbnb bookings in SAP Concur which either began or ended on a weekend increased from 51 percent to 56 percent.

San Francisco and London remain the top two most expensed cities for Airbnb

On SAP Concur, business travelers expensed more spend on Airbnb accommodations quarter-over-quarter in San Francisco than any other city, while London consistently ranked second place. Beyond the top two, the data gets a bit more interesting.

Quarterly variances in Airbnb expenses on SAP Concur often correspond to large industry events. For example, bookings spike in Austin during Q1 each year, as business travelers make their way to South by Southwest. The top five spots are occupied by eight different cities across the eight quarters we measured.

Figure 1 – Quarterly City Rank

Total booking amounts for Airbnb increase across the globe

Worldwide, SAP Concur data shows Airbnb bookings are on the rise, with APAC (85 percent), EMEA (65 percent) and the Americas (53 percent) all continuing upward year-over-year growth. From 2016 to 2017, customers in India showed the fastest growth in Airbnb spend, followed by Germany and Australia. Regionally:

• In the Americas, the U.S. still expensed the highest amount of Airbnb lodgings. However, Mexico showed the fastest growth in spend, followed by Canada and the U.S.
• In EMEA, the fastest growing country in spend was Germany, followed by France and Italy, while the U.K. remains the biggest spender overall in the region.
• In APAC, customers in Australia expensed more Airbnb lodgings than any other country. India shows the fastest growth in spend, followed by Australia and Japan.

To learn more about Airbnb, check out their blog post. Or if you’re traveling to the GBTA Convention in San Diego next week, stop by the SAP Concur and Airbnb booths.