As more and more road warriors turn to Airbnb for their overnight lodging needs, the company is gaining insights into how business travelers travel: where they go, where they prefer to stay, and what they do when visiting a new city — and how those factors are changing in interesting ways.
Traditional business travel hubs like London, Paris, New York, Los Angeles and Sydney are giving way to new corridors of surging growth, especially in Latin America, Asia and Africa, according to the upstart lodging technology company.
Some of the fastest-growing locations for business travelers include cities in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, South Korea, and South Africa, including:
- Mar Del Plata, Argentina (624 percent year-on-year increase in bookings)
- Guarujá, Brazil (594% YoY increase in bookings)
- Aguascalientes, Mexico (594% YoY increase in bookings)
- Gwangju, Korea (520% YoY increase in bookings)
- Pietermaritzburg, South Africa (465% YoY increase in bookings)
Best Laid Plans
For all travelers on Airbnb, the average trip is booked more than 35 days in advance. But, business travelers book with a little less lead time — business trips are being booked on average around 20 days in advance.
- Business travelers from cities in Taiwan, the U.S., and Germany book the furthest in advance.
- Business travelers from cities in France, Norway, and Mexico book with the least amount of lead time.
- Globally, those identifying as male book overall trips on average 32 days in advance, and for business trips they average 19 days in advance.
- Globally, those identifying as female book overall trips on average 40 days in advance, and for business trips they average 27 days in advance.
Airbnb for Work: Is This Working?
According to the 2018 GBTA Annual Global Report & Forecast, global business travel spending reached $1.33 trillion in 2017, advancing 5.8 percent over 2016 levels, and is forecast to advance another 7.1 percent in 2018 up to $1.7 trillion by 2022. How that spend can be saved or else optimized may be another piece of the discussion.
