As the popularity of home-sharing grows – spreading also to corporate travellers – companies are finding it more challenging to maintain compliance of travel policies.
A study – Home-sharing and travel policies – a shifting landscape – by Global Business Travel Association in partnership with AccorHotels concluded that many travellers are booking and staying in properties unsupported by their travel policy.
“A travel professional must simultaneously balance his or her obligation to keep travellers safe with a need to make cost-effective decisions and select suppliers and services that foster productivity, while not compromising the well-being of the traveller,” Kate Vasiloff, GBTA research director was reported as saying.
“Allowing home-sharing services into a traveller program may not be the right option for every company…it should be an informed decision.”
Some 87% of travel professionals expressed concern over the safety and security of home-share properties, while only 55% had this same concern over traditional hotels. Similarly, three in five were concerned about the unpredictability of the conditions of home-share properties, while only 33% said the same about hotels.
The second most noted concern was only financial policies and reservation stability. Slightly more than half of travel professionals expressed concerned about home-sharing properties having non-refundable deposits, compared to 44 percent for traditional hotels, cancelling reservations at the last minute (51 percent, compared to 36 percent) and enforcing strict cancellation policies (44 percent, compared to 35 percent).
Home-sharing properties, aware of their shortfalls when it comes to compliance of business travel policies, are looking at ways to address these concerns.
Some changes include not allowing hosts that list their properties for business travel to cancel a reservation within seven days of check-in; requiring frequently-needed business travel essentials to be provided, like Wi-Fi, a laptop-friendly workspace and even an iron and hangers.
One definite way to ease some of these issues would be to have home-sharing options integrated into the GDS thereby allowing bookings to be tracked. If that were so, about half of travel managers interviewed said they would more likely include home-sharing options into their travel policy.
The report, Home-Sharing and Travel Policies – A Shifting Landscape, is available to GBTA members here; non-members may purchase the report through the GBTA Foundation by emailing [email protected].
