It was only a matter of time before Concur and Airbnb formed some sort of partnership and today the wait is over.
Back in April, Concur revealed use of the peer-to-peer accommodation platform by Concur customers has quadrupled every year since 2010 and was on track to hit $1 million in sales for the quarter.
Details are as follows. Users of Concur TripLink, a solution that captures data from bookings made outside of the corporate booking tool, will be able to directly book Airbnb accommodation.
Via the technology, expense reports will be pre-populated and duty of care requirements met, according to a statement. These two elements are important from both a traveller safety perspective as well as complete visibility on spend and management information data.
The statement goes on to say that Airbnb has also partnered directly with businesses to launch the Business Travel on Airbnb service and worked with Salesforce to shape its direction.
Interesting to note that it is the new economy companies that have so far signed up including Evernote and Lyft.
Airbnb says that nearly 10% of its customers are travelling for business already and the company clearly sees further growth from the segment.
The integrated Airbnb-TripLink service will be made available in the autumn.
Questions going forward include how many of the 70% of Fortune 100 companies that Concur works with will be likely to adopt use of Airbnb as part of a travel programme?