In corporate travel, sourcing is all about negotiating deals with airlines, hotels, car rental companies and other suppliers. Of course, organizations want to get the best value, but travel procurement is about more than price. It’s also about using data to monitor performance on both sides, working with intermediaries, building deeper relationships and exploring new technologies that improve processes.
Decisions by Sabre and Lodging Logistics to shut down their hotel request for proposals products left some travel buyers researching alternatives. The remaining players include familiar names and new entrants. The keys to succeeding in the complicated, niche space include a dedication to ongoing investment, connectivity to various hotel systems and integration with GBTA’s standard…
“Blended” travel at American Airlines is trending down and approaching its historical level, potentially undermining one element of a narrative about why the company changed just about everything it does with the managed corporate travel market. Some of its arguments about how the market has changed met with skepticism. That doesn’t mean it’s going to…
To accelerate growth and support its leisure travel diversion, Navan next week will relaunch its program rewarding business travelers who purchase “cost-conscious” hotels. It will label eligible hotels in search results with a “Rewards” symbol and exclude rates negotiated by employers. Because “this year has taught us that reducing costs is the No. 1 priority…
Sabre on July 14 will discontinue the hotel request for proposals service it has offered for 17 years. Another player in the space, Lodging Logistics, is winding down its existing RFP service after more than 30 years. Lodging Logistics president and owner Bob Peper said Thursday that the company would resume strategic sourcing after the…
Some corporate travel programs are blocking American Airlines now that the carrier has removed many fares from traditional third-party distribution channels. Observations like this one from SAP Concur align with anecdotes from several corporate buyers who are reacting to both the distribution move and AA’s overall de-emphasis of the corporate market. But preventing travelers from…
Are American and Southwest switching places? No, the low-fare flag bearer isn’t going global, adding business class or assigning seats. But in some critical ways for the corporate market, Southwest is behaving more like its crosstown rival, while that rival is moving in the other direction. As it does for Delta and United, American’s strategy…
When McKinsey in 2020 talked about travel management as a candidate for outsourcing, readers shot back. “Be curious to hear how the travel management team at McKinsey feels about this,” wrote Alō Index co-founder Leanne Turner, between jobs at the time after a pandemic layoff. “For McKinsey to say [a] full transformation initiative would save…
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