Gant Travel agrees partnership with Airbnb for Work platform
Worldwide: Gant Travel has forged a partnership with Airbnb for Work which will make Airbnb content available to all of its Concur Travel customers.
Concur began integrating Airbnb for Work listings into its booking platform alongside traditional lodging options back in August this year. However, that integration still requires customers to opt-in in order to access Airbnb for Work content.
Gant, though, is using an opt-out model in which all of its customers will automatically have access to Airbnb for Work listings. Gant president Patrick Linnihan said the move to go opt-out rather than opt-in would allow for ‘so much more speed and momentum’.
Prior to agreeing the partnership, Gant tested the waters with some of its trusted clients, and Linnihan said they ‘positively received it’.
Linnihan said: “We have a ton of experience in the small to medium-size business support, and Gant employees use Airbnb where appropriate. So we know that for the right situation, this is the most productive and cost-efficient way to travel.”
Linnihan added that private accommodations would not go away: “We thought it was just a matter of time until we saw other players become more deeply involved in this, and we want to lead and we wanted to master it first so we jumped in.”
Airbnb has been attempting to establish itself in the corporate space in recent years and it is now finding a foothold with established players.
Key account strategist and partner operations at Airbnb, Sonia Anderson, said: “TMCs, obviously, are important within the industry. They’re important to our customers.
“We’re looking at finding ways that we can better collaborate and work with them. This is one way, bringing them content using tools and processes that companies already use – making ourselves more a part of that ecosystem so we can better collaborate and work with them,” she added.
Although Airbnb struck deals with the three mega travel management companies back in 2015, Gant is the first TMC in the SAP Concur ecosystem to partner up with Airbnb.
The TMC is also a founding member of the Concur TMC preferred partner programme, and Linnihan has said the company’s goal is to make itself the best TMC in the world for Concur.
Gant expects to have more than 1,500 customers’ Concur Travel sites enabled with Airbnb content.
Through the partnership, Linnihan is envisaging Gant will be able to bring in TripLink Airbnb data and integrate it into itineraries and its reporting tool as the TMC does with other TripLink partners.
