rentals Archives - TravelSkills

Airbnb’s newest lure for business travelers

October 9, 2017

WeWork rents out desks and other office services in cities worldwide. (Image: WeWorks)

Alternative lodging company Airbnb has taken several steps in the past couple of years to make its rental accommodations more attractive to business travelers – creating filtered searches for member properties that have business amenities, building links to corporate expense reporting systems, and so on.

Now the company is testing the addition of one more service that many business travelers require but Airbnb properties can’t provide on-site: A way to reserve professional office space and/or a meeting room at the destination.

The company has targeted six major cities – New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, Sydney and London – for a test program that will let Airbnb guests reserve those kinds of facilities at a location close to their lodging.

This Airbnb guest house in Santa Monica lists for $160 a night. (Image: Airbnb)

The program involves a partnership with WeWork Companies, which operates rental space worldwide for business travelers who need a desk, high-speed Wi-Fi, printers, and meeting rooms, according to a report in Bloomberg News.

WeWork is one of the world’s largest providers of such services, claiming 228 buildings in 53 cities and metro areas, including 23 in the U.S. Its customers include not only business travelers but also companies looking for temporary quarters and the growing number of local freelancers and other self-employed workers looking for desk space in a professional environment.

The partnership has not yet been formally announced, so there was no immediate information on the kinds of rates WeWork might be offering Airbnb guests for its office space, Bloomberg said.

Other recent initiatives from Airbnb to pry business travelers away from traditional full-service hotels include earning opportunities in some frequent traveler programs, and the creation of a luxury category of Airbnb member properties.

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“Free” airport parking, cheap rentals back at SFO, LAX

July 22, 2017

TravelCar will rent your car to another traveler while you’re away. (Image: TravelCar)

Remember FlightCar? It was a San Francisco-based start-up that solicited air travelers to rent out their cars from the airport while they were out of town, giving them free parking and a share of the rental revenue. It had 12 airport locations (and several fans among TravelSkills readers) before it went out of business last year. Another company called RelayRides is out of the airport business, but still working in the car sharing/renting space as Turo.com

Now another company is offering a similar concept, and it’s already available for Los Angeles and San Francisco travelers with locations near both airports.

The new operator is called TravelCar, and it’s not really a start-up; it’s a five-year-old company based in France and has 30 locations there. It refers to itself as a ”peer to peer car sharing platform.”

Customers can use the TravelCar lots simply as an airport parking alternative, paying market rates (e.g. $13 a day at SFO), or they can agree to let the company rent out their vehicle while they’re away, at prices lower than major rental companies (around $30 a day), and take a share of the revenue. (That’s how you get “free” parking.)

The company provides insurance for owners’ cars while they are rented, and it sells insurance to renters with various levels of coverage for $9 to $22 a day.

On the rental side, let’s say you were flying into LAX in mid August and needed a car. TravelCar lists seven types of cars available that day, and a Toyota Prius is going for just $37 per day plus tax for a total of $41.

Not bad considering a one day rental from Alamo prices out at a hefty $67 when you include all taxes and fees.

TravelCar prices at $41 including tax at LAX in mid August

Alamo comes in at $45 for one day including taxes and fees at LAX in mid August

Readers: Would you rent out your car to a stranger through a company like this in order to cut your airport parking costs? Would you rent someone else’s car to save? Please leave your comments below.

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Don’t work all weekend: Drive out of town instead

May 16, 2017

Nothing like a weekend road trip to take your mind off work. (Image: Jim Glab)

One of the big drawbacks of a busy career is working too hard. A new survey finds that most workers keep plugging away on weekends — when it might be better for their mental and physical health to just drive away from the job for a couple of days.

The study conducted for Enterprise Rent-A-Car found that nearly 70 percent of those polled said they work an average of nine hours at least one weekend a month. And getting away from the job is hard: 63 percent said their employers expect them to work weekends, and 61 percent said they can’t help thinking about work on those precious days off. Two-thirds of those polled said they regularly read and reply to work-related emails on Saturdays and Sundays.

The obsession is more severe among Millennials: Three out of four said they can become consumed with work thoughts over weekends.

What to do? Break away from the routine. Survey respondents said they could significantly improve their weekends by “exploring new places” (54 percent), “getting out of town” (51 percent) or “more weekend trips” (48 percent).

Driving the paved road up Colorado’s 14,000-foot Mt. Evans will literally take you into the clouds. (Image: Jim Glab)

That could be a problem if you don’t have access to wheels. Whether you’re a Millennial who has shunned car ownership thus far, or a road warrior who has relied on Uber rides at your destination, a weekend car rental will let you get out of town and escape the constant tug of the laptop screen.

And you don’t even have to go to the airport for your ride. Enterprise, for instance, has hundreds of neighborhood rental offices around the country where you can quickly pick up a car and be on your way.

Tacking a personal getaway onto a business trip has become increasingly common, so think about extending your next one over a weekend and exploring the nearby region. It will take your mind off work and give you more perspective about the places you travel to.

Sun, sand and surf beckon from California’s beach towns. (Image: Jim Glab)

Rocky Mountains that you can probably see through the window of your meeting rooms. Tip: If you want a real driving adventure, head for Mount Evans (about an hour west of Denver) and drive the sinuous road that takes you to the 14,000-foot summit. It’s the highest paved road in the country, and something you won’t soon forget. Or head to nearby Rocky Mountain National Park for a drive along Trail Ridge Road, which goes up to 12,000 feet across an alpine tundra.

Just wrapping up a week of tedious trade shows in Los Angeles or San Francisco? That’s a no-brainer: A ride up or down the Pacific Coast Highway will really clear the work-related cobwebs out of your head, and provide great backdrops for stunning selfies as you go. (The Enterprise survey also found that two-thirds of the respondents said they tend to share their non-working weekend moments on social media.)

So don’t waste those weekends when new experiences beckon. You know what they say about all work and no play.

This post is sponsored by Enterprise Rent-A-Car

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