It’s been well over a decade since two roommates in San Francisco threw an air mattress on their living room floor and, almost by accident, launched Airbnb: the “house sharing” platform now used by millions of travelers around the world.
Airbnb’s early audience was mostly budget-minded vacationers looking for a cheap place to crash. These days, it’s just as likely to show up on a business traveler’s itinerary. But does that mean Airbnb belongs in your organization’s travel policy? Whether you’re managing travel for a corporate sales team, a university’s faculty and staff, or a public sector workforce, the questions are the same: is house sharing the right fit for your travelers, and if so, how do you build it into your travel policy and card program without losing control of spend?
The growing (and still complicated) role of house sharing in business travel
Airbnb hasn’t gone away, and depending on who you ask, it’s either gaining ground or losing it. Travel industry researchers at GBTA report that Airbnb and serviced apartments continue to gain traction with business travelers looking for a “home away from home” feel, especially on longer regional trips. At the same time, a 2024 BCD Travel survey found that roughly 80 percent of corporate travel programs still explicitly prohibit sharing-economy accommodations like Airbnb, making out-of-policy bookings one of travel managers’ biggest compliance headaches.
That split matters. It means house sharing isn’t a passing trend you can ignore, but it also isn’t something you should let travelers adopt without a clear policy behind it. If your travelers are already booking Airbnb (whether your current policy allows it or not), it belongs in the same conversation as any other travel expense: does it fit your organization’s goals, and does your program actually have the visibility to track it?
For travel card managers, an out-of-policy Airbnb booking is more than a line item to flag. A hotel bill names one guest and one room. An Airbnb reservation doesn’t work the same way: the person who books isn’t necessarily the only one staying. A traveler might quietly cover a colleague joining the same trip, or a family member tagging along, with no reliable way from the receipt alone to confirm who actually used the space. That ambiguity makes an already difficult question (did the traveler make a legitimate, fully business-related purchase) even harder to answer unless your policy clearly states what it allows and your review process catches what it doesn’t.
The pros and cons of house sharing
What’s making house sharing attractive to business travelers in the first place? Here are some of the pros to using Airbnb and similar rentals over traditional accommodations.
Cost, with a caveat.
Nightly rates on Airbnb can undercut a comparable hotel, particularly on longer stays. A 2024 industry analysis put Airbnb’s average U.S. daily rate for a one-bedroom listing at roughly $114, versus about $140 for a hotel room. But once you add Airbnb’s cleaning fees, service fees, and occupancy taxes, that gap narrows fast on short trips, so it’s worth running the full math before assuming Airbnb is the cheaper option.
More bang for your buck.
You can typically get more space for your money at a rental than you would from a hotel room. Many Airbnbs include kitchens, dining areas, living rooms, and even dedicated workspaces.
Efficient for groups.
Airbnbs can house more than one traveler in a single location, which works well for a team offsite, a group of faculty attending the same conference, or a multi-person site visit. Everyone eats, works, and sleeps in one place, for one price.
Business-oriented options.
Airbnb now flags certain properties as “Business Travel Ready,” with amenities like reliable Wi-Fi and laptop-friendly workspaces. Still, it’s worth confirming a listing actually has what your traveler needs before booking.
Convenient check-in.
Many rentals use keypad or lockbox entry instead of a front desk line, and Airbnb can bill organizations directly for accommodations, eliminating the need for a traveler to put the stay on a personal card.
Despite those advantages, house sharing has real drawbacks worth weighing before you write it into policy.
Lack of essentials.
House-sharing rentals don’t always include basics like towels, bedding, or toilet paper, and amenities like an iron, hair dryer, or shampoo may be missing entirely. Confirm the included amenities before a traveler arrives.
Lack of consistent safety standards.
Hotels operate under regulated safety requirements, background-checked staff, and on-site security. Airbnb hosts aren’t held to the same standard, and a booking’s exact address often isn’t confirmed until after checkout, which complicates duty-of-care obligations if something goes wrong.
Lack of cleanliness and maintenance guarantees.
There’s no maid service, and cleaning quality between stays can vary considerably from host to host. Appliance or fixture issues may not get resolved as quickly as they would at a hotel.
Tips for adding Airbnb to your business travel policy
If you decide the pros of house sharing outweigh the cons for your organization, you’ll need to build it into your travel policy deliberately rather than letting it happen by default. Beyond Airbnb’s own guidance for organizations, here’s what we at Card Integrity suggest:
Survey your travelers. Get input from the people who actually travel and would be most affected by the change. Would house sharing be a welcome option? What’s worked or fallen flat in their own experience? Their answers should shape the policy you write.
Be specific. Spell out exactly what’s allowed, and under what circumstances, rather than leaving it open to interpretation. A vague policy is harder to enforce and harder to audit.
Build in limitations. Weigh the cons above and decide where an Airbnb genuinely makes sense for your organization, whether that’s a group trip, an extended assignment, or a location with limited hotel supply. For example, a policy might limit house-sharing bookings to groups of four or more travelers, or to stays of a week or longer.
Ensure policy compliance through business travel spend monitoring
Rolling out a new policy is often a difficult transition for frequent travelers trying to keep up with changing guidelines, whatever kind of organization they work for. But spend behavior tells you whether the new policy is actually being followed, and gives you a way to act on it.
Say your previous policy allowed hotel stays but not house sharing, and your updated policy now permits Airbnb under specific circumstances. Card Integrity can track shifts in purchasing behavior and flag them for the appropriate travelers or department heads, so exceptions stay exceptions instead of becoming the norm.
Card Integrity also provides online cardholder training before and after a new policy takes effect. Travelers can receive initial, refresher, or remedial training on any purchasing policy, whether it covers business travel, procurement, or a P-Card program more broadly.
Want a deeper checklist for keeping your travel and entertainment card program tight? Download our T&E Card Expense Review Best Practices Guide below for action steps on policy updates, cardholder training, preferred suppliers, and fraud prevention.
Originally published June 4, 2019. Updated August 21, 2026 with more recent data and sources.
