Meet Marc McCabe, Head of Business and Business Travel at Airbnb

A vast lobby, larger than that of the most grandiose of hotels: an airy atrium, a huge wall of greenery, rough wooden furniture and noble materials... The arrival at Airbnb's offices is impressive. Visitors are immediately struck by the size of the building, its ultra-contemporary design, its simple yet sophisticated look and, of course, its ultra-connectedness. The meeting with Marc McCabe, the young man in his thirties responsible for Airbnb's Business section, launched at the end of July, will take place on the second floor. The welcome by a hostess in a light dress, standing behind her counter, is reminiscent of a trendy bar. Except that the barmaid is glued to her MacBook Air. Tea or coffee? You can make your own, of course, because here you also feel a bit at home. You sit on a Chesterfeld sofa, next to a coffee table with a steaming cup of coffee. The whole setting is reminiscent of a Brooklyn flat, the kind that is very popular on the site. Swarms of young people pass by, their lap tops under their arms.

A total of 1,000 coworkers work on this site in the hip district of SOMA and 1,000 others around the world. Marc McCabe arrives. The meeting takes place in a lounge fitted out like a Bedouin tent, with swathes of purple fabric and Arabesque lamps. "Why did you launch a dedicated website for business travellers? Quite simply because we'd been asked to do so for years, and because many companies were already using our services on an informal basis."he explains. The programme was first tested with 150 companies, most of them American. The result: since its launch on 20 July, more than 1,000 companies have registered on this new dedicated site, including Google-like pachyderms. The main attraction for businesses is the hosting available in 35 countries, but above all the possibility of centralising payments. So what about the competition, considered unfair by hoteliers? "You are well aware that, in France in particular, we pay tourist taxes..."retorts the young Californian, with a smile at least as Californian on his lips.