Business Travel Management

Why Corporates Still Depend on Travel Agents—Even in the Age of Online Tools In today’s digital-first world, corporates have access to countless online booking tools, airline apps, hotel portals, and expense platforms. 1. Technology Can Book. Humans Can Think. Online tools work perfectly—until something goes wrong. Flight cancellations, last-minute visa issues, overbooked hotels, medical emergencies, strikes, weather disruptions—these aren’t exceptions in corporate travel; they’re realities. When such situations arise, corporates don’t need a chatbot. They need a human who understands urgency, hierarchy, and business impact. A travel agent doesn’t just rebook a flight—they: Protect meeting schedules Minimise downtime Offer alternatives instantly Take ownership until the problem is solved 2. Cost Control Is More Than Cheapest Price Online tools often show the lowest visible fare. Travel agents focus on the lowest total cost. They help corporates by: Negotiating corporate fares and hotel rates Advising on flexible tickets that reduce cancellation losses Avoiding hidden costs and last-minute surges Recommending routes and airlines that save time and productivity For a corporate, one missed meeting can cost more than a “cheap ticket.” 3. Policy Compliance Without Policing Corporates have travel policies, but enforcing them internally is time-consuming. Travel agents: Embed company travel policies into bookings Prevent unauthorised upgrades or deviations Ensure approval workflows are followed Maintain audit-ready records This means employees travel smoothly, while management stays compliant—without micromanagement. 4. Duty of Care Is a Corporate Responsibility When an employee is travelling, the company is responsible for their safety. Travel agents play a critical role by: Tracking travellers in real time Providing emergency support Advising on safe hotels, routes, and destinations Assisting during geopolitical, health, or climate disruptions Online tools don’t call you at midnight to check if your employee is safe. Travel agents do. 5. Time Is a Senior Executive’s Biggest Asset CXOs and senior managers cannot afford to compare fares, read cancellation rules, or chase refunds. Travel agents: Handle end-to-end planning Manage changes and refunds Coordinate complex multi-city travel Act as a single point of contact The result? Executives focus on business, not bookings. 6. Data, Reporting & Insights That Actually Matter Modern travel agents don’t just book—they analyse. They provide: Spend analysis by department or project Travel pattern insights Budget forecasting Vendor performance reviews This helps corporates make smarter, data-backed decisions, not just reactive bookings. 7. Trust, Accountability & Long-Term Partnership Unlike anonymous platforms, a travel agent: Knows your business Understands your priorities Corporate travel is built on trust, and trust is In corporate travel, convenience books trips—but expertise ensures success.

Corporate Travel Just Flipped — The Traveler Now Runs the Show 💥 Ten years ago, 80% of business travel bookings were offline. Phone calls, emails, and GDS commands ruled the day. Today, it’s flipped. 💥 Over 90% of managed travel bookings are now made online. The era of the agent typing codes into the GDS is over. Business travel has gone digital — and the traveler is now in control. OBTs (Online Booking Tools) like SAP Concur, Amadeus Cytric, Navan, Spotnana, Serko, Egencia & TravelPerk have become the universal gateway for corporate travel — where bookings happen instantly, policies are embedded, payments are automated, and hotel content is richer than ever. Across global programs, the numbers say it all: 💻 90–97% of bookings are online 📲 Travelers and arrangers book directly, in seconds 🧾 Real-time policy, payment, and folio integration 🏨 Hotel content from GDS, direct, and aggregator sources now sits right at the traveler’s fingertips 🧭 The Traveler Is Now in Control — So What Changes? 🏨 For Hoteliers The fight has moved from rate sheets to relevance. The traveler can now see everything — GDS, direct, aggregator, and OTA — side by side in their OBT. Winning visibility means: Investing in content quality (images, amenities, policies, loyalty). Moving from static RFPs to dynamic corporate pricing. Integrating loyalty and recognition directly into booking tools. Competing on experience, not just rate. 💡 You’re no longer selling rooms — you’re selling trust and digital presence inside the booking flow. 🤝 For TMCs (Travel Management Companies) The role has evolved from agent to architect. You’re no longer booking — you’re designing the ecosystem that powers self-service travel. This means: Owning data integration, policy automation, and traveler support. Managing multi-source content (GDS + NDC + aggregator + direct). Redefining success through adoption, satisfaction, and efficiency, not call volume. 💡 The modern TMC isn’t a call center — it’s a control tower. 🧳 For Travel Buyers Control has shifted — but influence has grown. Travelers have freedom, but programs need cohesion. Buyers now design experience ecosystems, not just policy decks. That means: Embedding policy into tools, not PowerPoints. Measuring experience, sustainability, and loyalty ROI. Using data to make compliance feel like convenience. 💡 The best travel programs will be designed around trust, empowerment, and transparency. ⚡ The Takeaway Adoption is solved. Now it’s about experience, content, loyalty, and payments — the new frontier of Business Travel. The traveler is in control. The ecosystem must evolve to match. Let’s make sure our content, partnerships, and platforms keep up. #BusinessTravel #CorporateTravel #HotelDistribution #OBT #TMC #SAPConcur #TravelManagement #HotelContent #Loyalty #Payments #RateParity #TravelTech #HotelTech #HEDNA #Hospitality #MultiSourcing #TravelerExperience #Innovation #DistributionStrategy

Stop Letting Travel Drain Your Strategic Brainpower Ever found yourself juggling flight bookings, hotel check-ins, and last-minute Ubers only to realize you just lost an entire afternoon you could have spent driving your business forward? For founders, the mental cost of travel planning is too high. Multitasking on logistical details reduces both creative output and decision-making quality. The solution? Don’t do it yourself! Here’s how you can reclaim your strategic hours: - Treat Travel as a Project: Assign every detail (from itinerary builds to ground transport) to a skilled Virtual Assistant (VA) - Project-Manager Mindset: Let the VA coordinate every aspect just like a project manager. You only get looped in for key approvals (no more logistical rabbit holes!) - Actionable Playbook: Create a recurring “Travel Flow” doc unique to you. This ensures VAs know your preferred airlines, seat choices, Uber app setups, and travel quirks, making every trip frictionless. Outsource the busywork so you can focus on your highest-leverage work. How much time do you spend organizing travel vs. building your business? Share your strategies or pain points in the comments below, I’d love to learn what works (or what’s driving you crazy)!

Corporate travel just moved out of operations and into strategy. If you’re still talking about hotel discounts in 2026, you’re behind. Travel now impacts: - Revenue. - Risk. - Talent. - Brand. Airlines think in yield. CFOs think in capital allocation. Modern travel leaders need to think like both. This isn’t about saving 2%. It’s about allocating millions intelligently. Travel isn’t admin anymore. It’s enterprise infrastructure. Are we leading it that way? #CorporateTravel #EnterpriseLeadership #AviationStrategy #Procurement #AirlineRFP #HotelRFP #SupplierLeadership

In my day-to-day internal business travel management and during a recent trip amidst geo-political uncertainty - I found myself thinking a lot about the importance of the end-to-end travel journey. Corporate travel has historically been built for control, not experience. Travel booking is just the tip of the iceberg. True transformation lies in the 'before' and 'after'. For years, travel tech has focused on making bookings faster, cheaper, and more user-friendly. But in today’s evolving world, that’s not enough. What happens before the booking - the approvals, policy checks, and real-time content visibility - can determine whether a trip even makes business sense. What happens after - traveller safety, expense reconciliation, carbon reporting, and actionable insights that empower companies to make strategic decisions can impact employee well-being, compliance, and company-wide travel strategy. For a TMC, it’s important we solve for the entire journey through tech & people - not just the flight and hotel bookings. All your approvals in one place. Multi-market, any booking channel, one click. Live updates on any travel disruptions Smart nudges for policy alignment Data analytics that empower better decisions When the whole journey is smooth, travel becomes an integral part, not a source of stress. Is your company still booking trips or managing journeys? #businesstravel #WeAreFCM #corporatetravel #traveltech #customerexperience

💥 Distribution Costs in Travel: Time to Rethink the Stack AltexSoft’s breakdown of hidden distribution costs is a wake-up call for every airline, hotel and corporate travel buyer still anchored in GDS-centric models. 1️⃣ Airlines GDS distribution can quietly consume a large share of ticket revenue. Typical contracts involve per-segment fees between $3 and $15, and some include extra charges for ancillaries or changes. These costs can reach up to 25% of the ticket price in some cases, according to Altexsoft. Modern NDC and direct-connect APIs give airlines more control and offer a credible path to lowering these costs. 2️⃣ Hotels OTAs and GDS remain dominant at a steep cost. OTA commissions of 10–25%, GDS transaction fees and “promoted placement” charges eat into margins. Shifting distribution toward direct bookings, future agentic AI platforming or low-commission aggregators should help hotels regain greater control of pricing and guest relationships. 3️⃣ Corporates and TMCs Many corporate travel programs continue to depend on TMCs with deep GDS integrations and a lot of PNR dependencies. This model has delivered reliability and scale for years, although it often carries hidden costs across distribution, reconciliation, headcount and technology. Large operational teams and legacy platforms can limit flexibility and increase overhead. Emerging approaches that use direct airline APIs, NDC and modern aggregators offer opportunities to reduce cost, improve content and streamline operations. Across airlines, hotels and corporate programs the theme is clear. Legacy distribution structures create cost layers that modern technology is beginning to remove. What is changing 👉 Modern API aggregators offer cheaper and cleaner distribution 👉 Payment orchestration reduces cross-border and interchange leakage 👉 Automated reconciliation cuts back-office bloat 👉 Agentic AI is emerging as the next step and will soon connect directly to supplier APIs. This will bypass intermediaries and enable autonomous, cost-efficient travel transactions. New partnerships between suppliers, corporates and technology providers will shape how this unfolds. Transitioning away from legacy systems requires investment and careful change management to maintain content reach and service continuity. Early movers will not only reduce costs but also gain greater control over content, pricing and experience. Corporate travel should treat legacy stack as historical artifact, not strategic dependency. New technology and agentic AI are creating opportunities for airlines, hotels and corporates to disintermediate, lower costs and build smarter ecosystems. The next few years will reward those willing to rethink long-standing structures and modernize with purpose. Rethink soon. #Airlines #Hotels #CorporateTravel #GDS #NDC #TravelTech #TravelDistribution #OTAs #TMC #BusinessTravel #Amadeus #Sabre #Travelport #DigitalTransformation #TravelIndustry #DirectConnect #TravelManagement

What if your corporate travel program could reduce carbon emissions, improve RFP win rates, and lower costs—all at the same time? In a recent conversation with Business Travel News executive editor Elizabeth West, HRS Chief Product Officer Martin Biermann reveals how hotels are embracing verifiable sustainability measures are turning environmental commitments into tangible competitive advantages. From optimized HVAC systems to comprehensive water management, discover how these innovations can drive meaningful impact to your bottom line. Biermann also delves into shifting business travel behaviors—including longer stays, a growing preference for rail over air, and the intensifying influence of the Europe‘s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive. Each of these trends offers insights into how data-driven, eco-conscious lodging strategies are reshaping sourcing decisions and compliance efforts worldwide. If you’re seeking to align your travel program with sustainability targets while positioning your organization as a market leader in responsible travel, don’t miss this interview. Learn how informed decision-making and transparent reporting can set your company on a more efficient, cost-effective, and sustainable path. Read the full interview here: https://lnkd.in/e8uExGCt

⚡ Your travel managers are drowning in data. AI is the lifeline.   Here's the reality: Volatile markets move faster than spreadsheets. A geopolitical shock sends jet fuel soaring. Prices shift. Your team scrambles. And suddenly, policy exceptions pile up, contracts need re-benchmarking, and someone's working weekends just to keep up.    The constraint was never data 📈 , it was time ⏱️   Enter AI built for travel.   1.Our AI policy benchmark scores your program against 250+ best-practice criteria in significantly reduced time. 2.Our AI contract intake decodes intricate air agreements that used to take months to weeks. 3.Hotel lobby's next generation uses conversational and agentic AI to cut sourcing cycles and improve insights while maintaining 28%+ savings off BAR.   But here's what matters most: This isn't about replacing your team. It's about freeing them.   When AI handles the operational heavy lifting - the data crunching, the pattern matching, the benchmarking, your travel managers and our consultants can finally do what they were hired to do: strategize, negotiate, optimize, and build partnerships.   78% of travel managers say automation would unlock strategic work. The question is: Are you giving them the tools to get there?   The organizations winning aren't buying more dashboards. They're working with Amex GBT Consulting, where AI is embedded across our solutions and consultants stay in the loop, shaping the output and deciding what it means for your program.   From dashboards to strategy. From reactive to proactive.   That's the change we're building. 🚀   #TravelManagement #AI #BusinessTravel #TravelTech #Consulting

Just like Stella, we’ve gotten our groove back (for business travel) Gearing up for Boston tomorrow to host 42 CROs and heads of sales for a yummy dinner. Pumped. When we started traveling around to other cities doing IRL events again in 2022, we were rusty. And pretty innefficient when it came to making our trips productive (esp given how our execs were the ones traveling). Covid helped us forget what GTM teams are really supposed to do when on the road :) But today, is how we ensure Uber-successful, cost conscious, and ROI driven trips: 1) if we’re hosting an event of our own, leverage attendees for +1s to help fill the room with more net new ICP who we don’t know yet 2) limit travel to 2 days, if possible. 3) schedule well. Arrive early day 1. Load up mtgs in afternoon. Have an event night 1. Meetings day 2. Event night 2 4) if we’re traveling out to host a dinner on a Thursday for example, try to do a dinner or HH on Wednesday for a different yet still relevant group (like we’re doing in SF next week…dinner for CROs, HH for enablement leaders) 5) unless critical, no more than 2 team members travel 6) run reports ahead of time of all client POCs in market and try to set up mtgs while in town. Show customers the love they deserve. 7) if hosting events, try to get sponsors / partners to pay 8) bring swag that fits in a carry on. Ppl like to get something but doesn’t need to be much 9) pack light, make bouncing around downtown with a bag easy 10) if hosting an event, be super detailed in tracking RSVP roster. Populate notes ahead of time and share w colleagues who will be there. And drop into the google sheet the next day to brainbump more notes from convos 11) properly follow up with everyone as soon as humanly possible 12) if possible, fly home night 2 (like I’m doing on Thursday). That way I don’t kill my Friday plus I can see my kids Fri morning before school. 13) try to plan your travel around another event where you clients or prospects will be. And maybe attend. Like I’m doing with the pavilion event on Thursday. 14) book a cheap hotel room, close to your venue. If you plan mtgs right, you’ll spend almost no time there. Holiday Inn works great 15) connect with everyone you will or might meet while in town, on LinkedIn, before you leave 16) put up a custom OOO to let folks know exactly what you’re doing…and don’t be boring with it. Matt Green is good at this I think that’s the whole list for us? What else do you do for your travel?

Field notes from ProcureCon US Travel 2026. Five things that stuck: 1/ "Managed, not mandated." Mandating compliance is on its way out. The strongest programs guide travelers rather than police them. One buyer's line: tell people they can spend $100 on a meal and they'll spend exactly $100. 2/ Policy is becoming leverage, not law. Buyers who share their real policy and booking data with airlines and hotels are landing better deals than those who keep it hidden. Transparency beat posturing in every example I heard. 3/ "Highest logical value" is replacing "lowest fare." With NDC fragmentation, the cheapest result and the right one have split apart. Timing, loyalty, and flexibility now carry weight the old tools can't. 4/ The trust gap is real. "No romance. Yes or no, can you do it today?" Years of vendors overselling have made buyers ruthless about claims. Demos over promises. 5/ Go small with new tech. Nobody's ripping out their stack. The repeated advice: put one route, one region, one team on the new thing and let it earn its way in. Net: the conversation has matured. Less hype about what AI could do, more hard questions about what actually ships. What did you take away? #BusinessTravel #CorporateTravel #TravelTech #ProcureCon