Hotels have been a staple of western culture since long before the Americas were discovered. From motels rooms to luxury suites, booking a room at one of these establishments has been the number one go-to method for travelers needing to secure a bed for a few nights. This is especially true of people traveling for business who usually don’t have family in their destination city and need a clean, quiet place to work in the evenings. With a tradition this strong, it’s only been natural for professional trip planners to book their clients in hotels when arranging business meetings that require travel. However, hotels may have lost their monopoly on clean, quiet places for traveling business people to work and rest.
What Professionals Need from Lodgings
When you’re traveling on a business trip, there are two primary goals to remember. First, naturally you need to be able to perform the work tasks set out for you when the trip was planned. Working with a client, partner, or another branch of your business will require the vast majority of your focus during the day. However, in order to do this, you’ll need to fall back on the second goal which is achieving relaxation wherever you’ll be staying. Ideally, you’ll be able to get a little extra work done at the end of the day writing reports and preparing for the morning and then successfully unwind so that you get the best possible rest before the next busy day of business, travel, or both.
The Rise of Airbnb and Vacation Rentals
Airbnb comes from what has been coined as the Sharing Economy. The online service connects people with spare rooms and homes to people who need to rent a room in the area, a practice that gained the term “Vacation Rentals”. This has become astoundingly popular in a friendly low-key sort of way. Many people, especially younger professionals, clearly enjoy staying in a cozy residential space much more than a stay in a professionally impersonal hotel room. While many vacation rental rooms and homes are kept private, clean, and well stocked with hospitality items, there are also a very wide selection of unique circumstances ranging between messy attic lofts, goat ranches, and pristine unused houses.
The reason Airbnb and other vacation rental services have becoming so popular with professionals is because, unlike a hotel, a private Airbnb home is completely private. There are no crying babies two rooms over, herds of teenagers running and giggling down the halls at 3AM, or housekeeping to worry about. Not only do you have a better chance at total peace and quiet for work and relaxation, you also have everything you need including a kitchen for professionals who prefer to cook for themselves rather than live on take-out while traveling.
Vacation Rental Pros
- Cozy, beautiful, and unusual locations
- Some of these booking sites are unique, in a variety of environments a hotel simply can’t offer
- Literal Bed and Breakfast
- For professionals who like company and warm breakfasts, some room owners delight in sharing a huge morning meal with their guests.
- Entire Furnished Units
- Many sellers own entire apartments and homes that they don’t personally live in and instead rent steadily through Airbnb. These are often professionally cleaned between stays. They also frequently keep the bathrooms and kitchen stocked with greater consideration than a hotel suite and much more affordable.
- Competitive Prices for Clean Rooms
- Vacation rental owners can afford to charge less than standard hotel prices. Where you would be hard pressed to find a clean hotel room with a kitchen for less than 60 dollars a night, this is an easily met price on Airbnb for a private apartment or small home in your destination city.
The power of the sharing economy vacation rental business is undeniable, so much so that many hotels are getting nervous about this new trend stealing a great deal of their regular business. Of course, this is only the first half of our two-part article on how to choose the right lodgings for your next busienss trip. Join us next time where we’ll talk about the pros and cons of hotels and the cons of vacation rentals, of which there are modest few. If you’re interested in more sharing economy news or are looking for a great opportunity to rent out or find a parking spot, contact us today!
