Skift Take
While there are many issues prohibiting meeting attendees from booking Airbnb, the amount of those who do will skyrocket as more people understand the opportunities for local travel experiences and inherent cost savings. Affordable sharing accommodations also help people attend educational association events who otherwise might not be able to afford to participate.
The number of meeting and convention attendees booking Airbnb is going to grow exponentially in the future due to the overall value proposition for individual travelers with a thirst for local exploration and discovery.
There has been a growing stream of stories covering the rise of conference delegates booking sharing accommodations in the meetings trade media, but much of the content to date has been overarching, shallow and/or misinformed.
Since August 2014, I've booked Airbnb for five conferences in the U.S. and Europe. The purpose of this post is to provide a more detailed case study to highlight the benefits and challenges for meeting attendees booking shared accommodations.
Companies like Airbnb are clearly not for everyone. They require renters to be comfortable with a more fluid and social arrival and overnight experience. You don't typically know exactly what you're going to get when you arrive in terms of your hosts and their accommodations, so there's a certain level of the unknown and unexpected.
Many people wonder: What if the room is not as nice as the professional photo on the Airbnb site? What happens if something goes wrong? What is the neighborhood like at night? What if the hosts are weird?
That deters people, naturally. Detractors will argue that business travelers want conformity and assurances in their hospitality provider that they can rely on unequivocally. Global hotel brands were built on that premise.
Also, many corporate meeting attendees are restricted from booking Airbnb and other sharing companies due to legal and liability issues in their company's HR, accounting and procurement policies. That doesn't impact association attendees as much who are attending on an independent basis.
Here's the ROI. Airbnb is a platform for spontaneous travel that delivers opportunities for serendipitous local destination experiences. Often at half the price of a hotel.
The following five Airbnb rentals all provided more immersive travel options and memorable conferences than I likely would have enjoyed if I booked the room block. All five provided quick access to cool restaurants, cafes, bars, parks, and cultural venues frequented by locals that I probably wouldn't have discovered if I wasn't in the area.
Airbnb's other primary draw is economical. The old misperception that Airbnb is designed for budget travelers has been widely disproved. A sample test in New York for this week shows over 700 listings
