AirBnb (ABNB)’s latest buy is a business travel marketplace.
The home share platform announced its acquisition of Urbandoor, a startup specializing in offering physical workplace amenities, on Monday.
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“As we work to grow this community and advance our mission, we are acquiring Urbandoor—a global online marketplace where professionals can easily find furnished and serviced apartments tailored to their needs for extended business trips, relocations and other longer-term stays,” the announcement read.
Airbnb’s purchase of Urbandoor will allow users to book “serviced apartments” with perks like gyms, pools and concierge services for business trips. The long term plan is to fold Urbandoor’s current listings within Airbnb’s platform, making it easy for guests on Airbnb to find magical stays of any duration, anywhere.
San Francisco-based Urbandoor, which was founded in 2015, has been incubated by Greystar Real Estate Partners. Founded by Erik Eccles, Benjamin Renaud and Zack Chandler, the platform’s mission has been to help professionals find accessible “corporate apartments” that boast more amenities than regular hotels offer. This includes accommodations for employees in the process of relocating, for example.
“Whether your trip is for work or pleasure, Airbnb can help you feel like you belong anywhere in the world. Regardless of if a guest’s stay is one day, one week or a few months, we aim to provide them with authentic, local experiences every time. Urbandoor’s strategic relationships with multifamily owners and operators will help us bring magical travel to even more people,” Clara Liang, Airbnb’s general manager for professional hosting, said in the release.
The acquisition—which will see “all Urbandoor employees” joining Airbnb—is part of Airbnb’s overall strategy to build on its business travel section. Its “work” venture currently offers listings for business trip lodging, team-building activities, as well as “collaborative spaces.”
