Airbnb bets big on business travelers
As it inches towards a highly anticipated IPO now expected in 2020, Airbnb has increasingly shown an appetite for cornering the lucrative business travel market. | Corbis via Getty Images
The platform?s recent expansions bring it further from its homeshare roots Andrew Kitchell has a long history with Airbnb. A tech entrepreneur in San Francisco, Kitchell listed a couch in his apartment on the nascent site in 2009, when it was still called Air Bed and Breakfast. His was one of the first 100 properties to appear on the platform.
More than a decade later, with Airbnb having evolved into a multibillion-dollar international company that has reshaped lodging, Kitchell isn?t just a host, he?s a business partner?and a symbol of just how much Airbnb has changed, and seeks to change, on its road to an initial public offering (IPO). Kitchell?s company, Lyric, owns and operates upscale units in urban multifamily apartment buildings?what Lyric describes as ?flexible accommodations for the modern traveler??that are rented out on platforms such as Airbnb. In April, Lyric announced a $160 million financing round led by Airbnb, showing both the potential of the four-and-a-half-year-old lodging startup and Airbnb?s increasing focus on professional lodging and hosting for upscale and business travelers.
Courtesy Lyric
A room inside a Lyric property in Chicago.
?We?ve seen the emergence of professionalization of brands within home sharing, which has led t...
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