Uber Is Now Business Travelers’ Top Choice For Getting Around

Image courtesy of Uber

If you travel for work and have to get around a city without your own car, how do you get around? For a growing number of business travelers, the answer is “by using the Uber app to make a car magically appear in front of me.”

Certify, a company that handles expense tracking and reimbursement for companies, reports that among its clients, Uber overtook rental cars and taxis as the most popular transportation option by number of transactions. In just a year, the amount spent on Uber trips increased from 40% of all ground transportation trips in the last quarter of 2015 to 52% in the last quarter of 2016.

The top result by money spent is rental cars, which of course can make many times more trips once a traveler has rented a vehicle. Rental cars also add hassle, though: business travelers must deal with parking, returning the rental, and actual driving in an unfamiliar city.

While lodging company Airbnb would love to brag about more business in the travel-booking category, Certify found that business travelers vastly prefer hotels, with Airbnb accounting for only .25% of lodging spending and total receipts.

Business travelers’ favorite restaurants, by the way, were Starbucks and McDonald’s, indicating a possible need for as much coffee as possible during busines trips. Panera and Subway took the next two spots thanks to their national ubiquity and handy lunch food, and Dunkin’ Donuts finished out the top five.

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