Update to Business Travel

[Lizzie]

Hello all,

I just wanted to let you know about a new update relating to Business Travel.

Starting today an offical "booker" can book a listing on behalf of a Business Traveler. A Booker will be able to make reservations for employees within their company to facilitate with business travel. 

How will this work?

In the Message Thread, you will see the Airbnb profile for both the Booker and the Business Traveler (guest). Bookers will be referred to as "the Booker" in email notifications and the Message Thread. Trips booked by a Booker will be covered by the same policies as all bookings. More information on this can be found on this Airbnb page.

Please do let us know you feedback on this update, I will take all of it and will feed it directly back to the Product Team. 🙂

Thanks,

Lizzie

[Wendy3]

But then who will be responsible if the business guest leaves my home in a state, like my last 2 sets of guests? The Booker or the business guest?

[Paul0]

Hi @Wendy3,

The great news that you will be covered by all of Airbnb's usual protections (Host Guarantee etc) under this new arrangement and these secondary Guests will also be on the platform. It's a good solution to a common (and generally reasonable) Hosting situation.

@Lizzie - the sooner we all have this functionality the better! 🙂

Cheers,

Paul

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[Stephanie6]

Thanks @Lizzie, I love the business travel update!  On the host side, we should be able to see reviews of the booker and guest.  On the traveller side, the booker should have a "business" profile, etc., that is separate from their personal profile (huge improvement!).

[Lizzie]

Thank you @Wendy3, @Paul0 and @Stephanie6 for your great feedback here. 

It is lovely to hear your positive reactions, I will feed your comments back to the product team now. 🙂

[Deborah75]

I agree. This is a helpful new feature. To add to Stephanie's points, it'd be great if all--bookers, guests, and hosts--will be able to leave reviews for each other and to understand how such reviews will be factored into Superhost status (which I've just received!--yes, I'm proud).

On a different note, Airbnb may consider how some hosting is done in teams with one or more leads (i.e. property manager and home owner, home owner landlord and tenant, home owner and neighbor, etc.--a good example of this teamwork appears in the Winner of the 2015 Airbnb Open Stories Contest). One idea may be to explore options for representing this level of detail. Sometimes, I want this experience while traveling, other times I don't. Thanks again for considering our feedback!

Deborah

[Debi1]

Sounds good to me!  As in all things, we'll have to try this new format to see if there are unforseen issues.  We have had a few business travelers in the past, and they have all been great guests.  I'm looking forward to more!

[Bruce43]

I have had a few business travelers in the past.they were very Airbnb savvy.

left great reviews too.

[Kelly149]

@Lizzie This sounds great, if it works. 

However, my current guests should be setup this way but despite MULTIPLE calls to CS, I cannot find anyone there who knows anything about this. So as of now, not great. 

[Helga0]

After a recent experience, I’d also like an answer to the question what happens in case the guest is not recommendable. 

I had a shared room booking and the guest expressed in colorfoul details by sms, that he would like to share my bed (instead of the kitchen), with fantasies of breaking down my bedroom door. 

The airbnb helpdesk passed it on to Trust and security, indicating it would take some time as it was a company booking. That was not visible at the time. He seems to have left a review, which did not appear, whilst mine did. Airbnb had promised to watch it and remove it at the slightest indication of inappropriate content, so I believe that was the case. 

His profile is still up and I get a message now and then, like we were old friends. 

What would interest me: who is notified in case of a problem or mediation about damage: the company or the guest?

with whom the decision is made to refund?

If the guest should be blocked from ever using the service again, how is this achieved?

[Catherine577]

Sounds good for the business traveller. I quickly scanned the page for this 3rd party booking. I just hope that if the guest does damage to the property that it's clear who is liable. In the Resolution process would the guest ( who did the damage) be the one engaged in the dispute or would we continue working through the "booker"?