Is business travel dead? Airbnb and Marriott CEOs see these 3 trends

Is business travel ever going to rebound from the pandemic?

Listening to some of the top CEOs from hospitality and travel industries, we see three trends have emerged regarding the future of business travel. Early signs show that travel is rebounding, but the ability to work from anywhere has created a conversation about whether traveling elsewhere for work is really necessary.

Trend 1: Everyone has more flexibility

Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky sounded unconvinced that business travel will return to its pre-pandemic height due to the rise in remote meetings. Speaking to CNN’s Poppy Harlow on Tuesday, Chesky said that flexibility is playing a role in work travel, which means times are changing when it comes to perks in business flights and hotel stays.

“It doesn’t mean business travel is dead, just business travel as we knew it isn’t coming back the way it was,” Chesky told the outlet. “The reason why is, the bar is higher to get on a plane to do a meeting.”

Chesky, 39, said that the rise in Zoom and other video conferencing tools has essentially questioned the purpose of in-person meetings when everything can be done virtually.

“I think that people now have what they didn’t have a year or two ago. Many people now have flexibility. They have flexibility where they travel and live and work — and they’re starting to combine all those,” he said. “I think once people have something, they don’t want to let go of it.”

Trend 2: Travel is blurring the lines of business and leisure

Being able to work from literally anywhere has created what some consider a hybrid vacation: a mix of workers continuing to log hours, but from some place other than the office. That could provide a big boost for hotels.

Marriott CEO Tony Capuano said the blurring of business and leisure travel could provide the boost the hospitality industry needs to recover from the pandemic.

“The thing that will be interesting to watch, I think it’s going to be less clear what the trip purpose is,” Capuano told CNBC.

“Increasingly we’re seeing folks that say, ‘I can blend trip purposes. I can combine leisure with business travel.’ And we think that’s really good news for our hotels across the country.”

Trend 3: No one really knows when business travel will rebound

Depending on who you ask, the timeline for when business travel can rebound remains unclear. While travel in general is rebounding thanks to the easing of international restrictions, the future of business travel may take years to rebound.

Bloomberg reported that while domestic leisure travel outpaced 2019 levels in April, business and international travel demand is only at about 20% of where it was before the start of the pandemic.

Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly said he wouldn’t be surprised if it took another decade for business travel to make a full recovery.

“One has to be realistic,” Kelly told Bloomberg TV. “In a typical recession, business travel is cut very sharply, and it’s five years before it recovers to pre-recession levels. Is this a normal recession? No. But you have the added complication, as we all know, of the virtual and remote work environments that have been created over the last year.”

Others sound more optimistic; United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby said that he expects business traffic to see a “big ramp up” by September.

“We clearly see the light at the end of the tunnel, domestic demand, leisure demand back at more than 100%. Business demand starting to ramp up a couple weeks ago when the CDC changed the mask guidance,” Kirby told investors earlier this week, via the San Francisco Business Journal.

Like others, United Airlines is seeing business travel remain sluggish but slightly on the rise. Kirby said that United remains 75% lower than pre-pandemic levels, but it received a 5% bump from where it was, down 80% a few weeks ago, according to the report.

“I think we’ll continue to see that improvement through the summer,” he said.