Uber and Airbnb: Applying Consumer Lessons To B2B

As enterprises salivate at the idea of leveraging consumer learnings to propel B2B payment strategies, two consumer firms independently chose to introduce their business moves 24 hours apart. But aside from demonstrating segment momentum, both firms chose to partner with the same vendor: Concur.

The July 29 Uber for Business and July 28 Business Travel on Airbnb rollouts highlight increasing support for Concur, which positions itself as helping simplify travel services, booking, expense reimbursement, spend management and invoice processing.

Uber is using Concur to allow users link their Uber and Concur accounts, Uber said.  After employees link their accounts, Uber will automatically pass along expense-ready travel information, including an e-receipt.

Airbnb said that the Concur partnership is expected to help customers book Airbnb listings directly and then have their expense reports automatically pre-populated in Concur. The integrated service will be available this fall, according to Airbnb’s website.

“A centralized billing system helps administrators, team leads and small-business owners by providing trip information in place of receipts and helps employees by connecting with the same safe, reliable Uber ride they are used to without the hassle of having to file expenses,” said a blog post, adding that companies will no longer have a need for paper receipts.

Uber, with its handy mobile application, has popularized the concept of a ride-sharing service. Instead of attempting to hail a taxicab, riders can use their phone to order a driver to their location within minutes. Airbnb, on the other hand, allows travelers to rent anything from a spare room in someone else’s apartment to crashing in an extravagant castle.

“Frequent travelers have discovered ways to redefine business trips with Airbnb, and many already rely on Airbnb to meet specific business travel needs, such as accommodation for larger groups, longer stays, relocations, and meeting spaces,” stated the Airbnb blog. “Nearly 10 percent of Airbnb’s customers travel for business already, and we’ve heard from traveler feedback that a dedicated site that caters to business travelers’ needs has been high on their wishlist.”

Will businesses benefit?

With business travel expected to increase 6.8 percent to $292.3 billion in 2014, according to the Global Business Travel Association, it seems there’s definitely a market for simplifying the corporate travel process. Additionally, PYMNTS.com recently reported that a major pain point for travel managers is trying to improve their organization’s expense management system.

However, corporate hospitality is a highly competitive field, notes the Wall Street Journal. Large companies typically build relationships with specific hotel brands, as this can help them negotiate better rates and control blocks of rooms for large parties. Moreover, Airbnb and Uber might have to improve their level of service and safety to compete internationally, said Stewart Harvey, group commercial director for corporate travel agency Hogg Robinson Group PLC, according to a report in Wall Street Journal.

“A lot of clients who send their people to travel to Latin America, Africa, Middle East and Asia—they don’t just want a taxi booked,” Harvey told the news source. “They want us to work with partners that vet their drivers. When they go to these places, they will stay in five-star hotels because they want more security.”

If Uber and Airbnb can guarantee safety and quality, businesses might have a high-tech option that lets their employees not only travel with ease, but also lets their respective company streamline the expense process. Sharing might be caring, but it will be up to the corporate world to decide if sharing is the answer they want in terms of better travel and expense management options.