Uber, Lyft, Airbnb bookings surge

Business travelers' spending on Lyft rides jumped 714 percent last year. (Image: Lyft)

Business travelers’ spending on Lyft rides jumped 712 percent last year. (Image: Lyft)

The latest analysis of business travelers’ expense reports from Certify, a leading T&E software provider, shows “sharing economy” services like Uber, Lyft and Airbnb are continuing to hammer away at the traditional taxi, rental car and lodging businesses.

In fact, Certify found that business travelers’ spending on Uber rides in the U.S. during the fourth quarter of 2015 surpassed car rental spending for the first time in the ground transportation category.

“Prior to the fourth quarter, only San Francisco and Boston reported Uber as having a greater percent of rides than car rental,” Certify noted, referring to Uber’s growth as “astronomical.” Ride-sharing app competitor Lyft, although much smaller, is surging as well: Certify said spending on Lyft rides in 2015 was up more than 700 percent year-over-year.

On the lodging side, Certify found that business traveler spending on Airbnb bookings jumped 261 percent in 2015 for U.S. accommodations and 249 percent for international locations. The top U.S. cities for business travelers using Airbnb instead of hotels were San Francisco, Chicago, Seattle, Oakland and New York.

Certify CEO Robert Neveu said that as recently as 2013, the expense-tracking company “couldn’t have anticipated…the phenomenal growth of Uber and the impact it and other sharing economy services would have on corporate travel today. It’s a story that will continue to unfold for years to come.”

In the fourth quarter of 2015, the report shows, the most-expenses restaurant company for road warriors was Starbucks; rating as the most-expensed in other categories were Delta among airlines, Marriott for hotels and National for car rentals.

Below are some infographics summarizing Certify’s findings (note: In the second chart, ride-sharing services are categorized under ‘miscellaneous’):