During decent economic conditions, traveler satisfaction is big in travel management circles. Everyone wants happy, healthy and productive employees, and many see that translating to improved corporate performance. Tripbam founder and CEO Steve Reynolds takes a contrarian view. He argues that it’s impossible to measure the return from giving travelers what they want. And once they start getting… Read More »
Lyft and Uber are feeling their way into the corporate market. Lyft had a rebate program. That’s done. Uber For Business had free and premium tiers. Now it’s all premium. Both fast-growing ride-hailing companies are aligning with corporate travel management companies but so far mostly for referrals. It’s clear these remain early days. Lyft has deals in place… Read More »
For something as business-critical as Wi-Fi, you’d think organizations would have common ways of providing it to mobile workers and paying for it. Instead, policies laying out exactly what’s allowable and reimbursable are all over the map. To better control employee Internet access and associated costs, organizations might work directly with a telecom company like AT&T or Verizon. Wi-Fi… Read More »
Today’s advisor is industry veteran Scott Gillespie, managing director of tClara. Scott’s guidepost tackles what travel program managers should try to predict — and what to skip. Predictive analytics is a shiny new toy that has caught the travel industry’s eye. It sounds useful — check. It sounds cool — check. It scores points in management-speak bingo contests… Read More »
Not just topics for industry conferences, business traveler well-being and productivity also are among the issues examined last year by academic researchers. One study produced more evidence that frequent business travel was detrimental. Two others sought to help companies optimize ways to smooth it over: flying private and getting upgrades. Let’s start with the bad news — another… Read More »
Travel management’s top priority for a long time was cost control. Now, duty of care and traveler safety are front and center. Traveler satisfaction continues to rank a bit lower (1, 2). Nevertheless, corporate travelers seem to be a pretty satisfied bunch, at least according to 2017 industry research. It sounds counter-intuitive. Business travel is grueling. The list of headaches and… Read More »
Twelve years since Congress passed it, the Real ID Act is getting real. Two months before the new federal security rules take effect at U.S. airports, travel managers are finding lots of confusion. That’s why travel management companies are encouraging clients to spread the message about the potential impact. Conceived after 9/11 as a way to make state-issued… Read More »