Travel Management Tools
The Airbnb for Work dashboard: your travel management success tool
Once you incorporate Airbnb for Work into your corporate travel policy or guidelines, you gain access to a travel management dashboard that facilitates workflows for travel managers and for those booking for others.
The user-friendly company dashboard is a powerful tool that consolidates business travel info and expensing in one place. The dashboard features the same intuitive interface and streamlined experience of Airbnb’s consumer site.
“It’s really great to partner with Airbnb for Work because they are right at the intersection of enterprise and consumer technology,” said Rachel Ersted, Senior Treasury Analyst at Box, a cloud management and file sharing service for businesses. “They have that really easy to use consumer platform, and the dashboard allows us to monitor duty of care, see where our travelers are going, run reports, and have some sort of control over our travelers.”
The Airbnb for Work company dashboard includes a world map, which clearly displays current and future travelers’ locations. It also displays each business traveler’s contact information and Airbnb listing details.
“With the dashboard, we can view where all of our employees are traveling and where they are staying, as well as the average rate that we are spending and the cost savings that we have every year,” said Ashley Schmitz, Regional Lead Executive Assistant for Campari America.
Streamlining travel management
The dashboard additionally enables business travel managers and those booking for others to track and analyze different elements of each traveler’s entire trip.
“From a software side, the dashboard is so much cleaner and nicer and easier to read than a lot of the other travel software that I use,” said Brandon Gries, Travel and Event Coordinator for Hudl, a software company that provides online tools for coaches and athletes. “Airbnb makes it really easy to look at all of our data and pull up our average numbers and total stays and total nights. All of that is a big positive for me,” he said.
Airbnb makes it really easy to look at all of our data and pull up our average numbers and total stays and total nights. All of that is a big positive for me.
Brandon Gries, Hudl
Marta Kutt, Global Facilities Manager for TransferWise, an online money transfer service based in London, finds the ability to customize settings from the company dashboard to reflect TransferWise booking patterns particularly useful. “Airbnb lets us create different groups for different countries, which can be managed by local travel managers,” she said. “Given there are so many bookings happening, this local level of management helps us stay organized.”
Integrations and partnerships
Airbnb has integrations with a number of partners to meet the needs of your business travel program. Integrations, accessible through the company dashboard, include travel and expense management firm SAP Concur, two travel management companies (TMCs), and four duty of care providers.
By integrating with Concur Travel, travel managers can manage which Airbnb listings are displayed in the Concur booking platform, so that only policy-compliant homes are shown next to hotels. Travel managers with Concur Expense can also simplify expense reporting with auto-populated Airbnb booking details in Concur.
In 2016, Airbnb announced data integrations with two major TMCs — American Express Global Business Travel and BCD Travel. These integrations send Airbnb booking and itinerary information to the TMCs so that travel managers can easily track and manage Airbnb bookings in a centralized reporting platform.
Wes Bergstrom, VP of Global Supplier Relations for American Express Global Business Travel, said that Airbnb listings bring another product category into a full scope of corporate accommodation options, which gives travel managers more options. “We’ve seen many of our business travelers using Airbnb, although there are many business travelers out there who are very loyal to hotels,” Bergstrom said. “But for those who want other options, that is what this agreement is about.”
As the safety and security of business travelers is the top priority of all travel management programs, Airbnb has developed integrations with iSOS, WorldAware, UnitedHealthcare Global, and Anvil. These partnerships enable travel managers to keep track of and contact their travelers in case of an emergency.
“Duty of care is why I have a job,” said Mark Papale, Manager of Global Travel Operations for Autodesk, a developer of 3D design, engineering, and entertainment software. “The only reason we were able to incorporate Airbnb into our travel program is the integration with iSOS. That has been huge for us.”
Setting up the company dashboard is easy
Setting up the Airbnb for Work company dashboard to access travel management tools and invite employees is a quick and easy process.
“Exceptionally simple,” is how Elena Warburton, Director of Global Travel at RingCentral Inc., a cloud communications provider, described her experience launching Airbnb for Work. “I set everything up in half an hour, maybe less.” Following the initial setup, “I’ve been using the dashboard and the travel management screen extensively,” Warburton said. “In terms of the user experience, it’s very easy.”
With its ease of use, integrations with key travel management partners, and accessible tracking and analytics tools, the Airbnb for Work company dashboard is designed to support and streamline your workflow.
