--- title: "Wednesday Buzz: Airbnb’s Business Travel Play" id: "34110" type: "post" slug: "wednesday-buzz-airbnbs-business-travel-play" published_at: "2016-07-13T20:21:23+00:00" modified_at: "2026-11-09T16:47:06+00:00" url: "https://associationsnow.com/2016/07/13/wednesday-buzz-airbnbs-business-travel-play/" markdown_url: "https://associationsnow.com/2016/07/13/wednesday-buzz-airbnbs-business-travel-play.md" excerpt: "The home-sharing firm says that a set of newly announced deals with an array of corporate travel management platforms is meant to complement, not compete with, hotels. Also: A nonprofit blog with buzz (and balls)." taxonomy_category: - "Business Development" taxonomy_post_tag: - "AI" - "AssociationsNow" - "Business" - "corporate events" - "Meetings" taxonomy_content_format: - "Article" taxonomy_role: - "C-Level" - "Manager" - "VP" taxonomy_persona: - "Industry Professionals" --- [Home](https://associationsnow.com/) » [Articles](https://associationsnow.com/format/article/) » Wednesday Buzz: Airbnb’s Business Travel Play For some travelers, Airbnb offers a lot of advantages over traditional hotels. But it hasn’t been an easy option for many of the business travelers who don’t pay out of pocket, because they haven’t been able to book through their company’s corporate travel management platform. Well, until now, that is. This week, Airbnb announced that it had enlisted American Express Global Business Travel, BCD Travel, and Carlson Wagonlit Travel to take part in its Airbnb for Business platform, allowing people taking trips on the company’s dime to stay somewhere other than a hotel. [In comments to Skift (opens in a new tab)](https://skift.com/2016/07/12/airbnb-scores-another-corporate-travel-win-with-amex-global-business-travel-deal/) , Airbnb’s Lex Bayer, who heads the company’s global payments and business travel endeavors, emphasized that the goal of the expanded offering was to give business travelers more options. “It’s not a game about either choosing a hotel or Airbnb,” Bayer told the news site. “It’s about finding the right accommodation for the right trip. Hotels are very well-suited for the one-to-three-day trip. If you’re going to stay in a city for a consulting project for over a week Airbnb is perhaps a better option.” Airbnb had previously teamed with the travel management firm Concur, but the broader array of companies offering the service is likely to boost uptake. ### Nonprofit Real Talk > Irreverent site “Nonprofit With Balls” on NPO life and spotting true unicorns: [https://t.co/tVtSnrfiuU (opens in a new tab)](https://t.co/tVtSnrfiuU) > by [@bpaynter (opens in a new tab)](https://twitter.com/bpaynter?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw) > via [@FastCoExist (opens in a new tab)](https://twitter.com/FastCoExist?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw) > > — Ben Paynter (@bpaynter) [July 5, 2016 (opens in a new tab)](https://twitter.com/bpaynter/status/750309805105958912?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw) ***“We don’t have enough time to juggle other people’s balls for them.”*** Working for a nonprofit involves a lot of hard work for not a lot of pay—so it helps to feel like you’re part of a shared experience. [The blog Nonprofit With Balls (opens in a new tab)](http://nonprofitwithballs.com/) , founded by longtime nonprofit director Vu Le, does a good job of highlighting the real-world level of this work. [A profile of the site at Fast Company Exist (opens in a new tab)](https://www.fastcoexist.com/3061490/future-of-philanthropy/the-irreverent-site-nonprofit-with-balls-gets-real-about-nonprofit-wo) emphasizes the blog’s value as an irreverent commentator on the nonprofit world’s little challenges and headaches. The site, beyond becoming a major topic of discussion in the nonprofit space, has helped to boost Le’s profile: He [was recently named (opens in a new tab)](https://philanthropy.com/article/40-under-40-vu-le-speaking/234731) one of the *Chronicle of Philanthropy*’s 40 Under 40. ### Other Links of Note **Facebook knows its namesake app** is a battery hog on mobile, and it has a whole lab dedicated to finding ways to improve this battery life, [according to The Verge (opens in a new tab)](http://www.theverge.com/2016/7/13/12166824/facecbook-smartphone-testing-lab-battery-life-prineville-data-center) . (Dear Google: Consider making a similar lab for Chrome, except for the Mac.) **Quote of the day,** [from Know Your Own Bone blogger Colleen Dilenschneider (opens in a new tab)](http://colleendilen.com/2016/07/13/the-value-of-shared-experiences-within-cultural-organizations-data/) : “Sometimes we get so wrapped up in the nuance of our content that we forget why people visit us and why they most value us: Cultural organizations are facilitators of shared experiences.” **Finding that attendees don’t stick with you** from year to year? It might be the venue. [Event Manager Blog highlights that (opens in a new tab)](http://www.eventmanagerblog.com/why-attendees-arent-loyal) and a few other factors that might be keeping attendees at home. (Open Grid Scheduler) [Ernie Smith](https://associationsnow.com/author/ernie-smith/) Ernie Smith is a former senior editor for Associations Now. 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