Europcar and Siemens have approved Airbnb for work travel to cut costs, and not only is Airbnb cheaper, but it also 'helped change our thinking as a company,' said Stefan Vorndran, Managing Director of Europcar.

Vorndran said Europcar spends over 1m dollars annually on travel, though he did not specify how much of that goes to Airbnb rentals.

He described the company’s move as gradual, and occasional, as the company still uses hotels.

“People were used to staying in hotels with conference rooms,” Vorndran said. “For some of my staff, it was a challenge. When we first tried it, we picked two apartments with a kitchen. People were resistant at first. But they came around. We cooked together in the evenings, and spent time on the couch together. It was fantastic for us.”

Siemens AG has implemented country specific policies regarding Airbnb use, due to differing security risks, one of its executives confirmed.

The main motivation for permitting Airbnb, however, was cost savings, said Thorsten Eicke, Vice President Category Global Mobility Services at Siemens AG.

“In the past, the project business would book hotel rooms,” Eicke said. “But when you added eight people to a hotel, the cost led us to ask ‘is this clever’? We are doing a project right now in France where we have rented a villa with a pool.”

Eicke noted that workers’ councils in Germany, France, and the Nordics have questioned forcing employees to share group apartments rather than giving them individual hotel rooms. But many of the council representatives had used Airbnb for personal travel, and in some cases preferred Airbnb for longer stays, Eicke said.

Both companies had integrated Airbnb into their Concur platforms, the executives said.

This is strictly an exclusive feature, reprints of this article in any shape or form without prior written approval from 4Hoteliers.com is not permitted. Michael Scaturro is reporting exclusively for 4Hoteliers.com at ITB Berlin 2019 - www.4Hoteliers.com/itb.

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