Corporate travel volumes continued to grow during the quarter ending in September 2023, while recent indicators pointed to weaker domestic leisure air and lodging demand.

Corporate travel in aggregate remained below pre-pandemic peaks, with SMEs up and large corporates still down.

The slowdown in leisure lodging had Tripbam EVP David Mollov telling corporate buyers during his company’s Nov. 2, 2023, webinar that the seller’s market could be ending. “These hotels with significant cost pressures are going to have to fill those rooms,” he said. “It’s a big opportunity for the business travel side.”

October 2023 hotel market rates were up 5 percent year over year, according to Tripbam, while the average rate paid by its clients was up 3 percent. “That says to me buyers are starting to get better at being able to negotiate,” Mollov said. “Last year, hotels were asking for double-digit increases. The savvy buyer leverages other areas of opportunity and nudges that down.”

To mitigate rate hikes, Tripbam recommended a continuous sourcing approach, dynamic pricing (there are some “situations where the dynamic price is not as competitive, but better than chainwide, in a lot of cases), rate caps, audits and reshopping.

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