Global Business Travel Association

Dispatch 6

At the end of September, Travelport reduced its workforce. Sources said the cut was about 10 percent of employees. A media relations official declined to address that figure. “Our goal is to be the industry’s most effective and efficient company, delivering the best technology that enables our customers to be the most modern retailers,” the…

As Hotel Rates Rise, Buyers Seek Partnership On Wellness, Safety, Sustainability

Pharmaceutical company Alkermes is looking for hotels that offer a safe jogging path. At IBM, the security team questions potential preferred properties. Automation Anywhere wants some favors on the meetings side for space or flexible terms. It’s a challenging rate environment, but there’s more than one way for corporate buyers to find value in lodging…

Notebook: Travel Buyers Discuss Booking Channel Policy Flavors And Tradeoffs

Asked how corporate travel buyers should deal with fares found outside preferred booking channels, Cisco senior global procurement service leader for travel and card Carlos Almendros said, “You’ll get a different answer for every buyer.” Travel managers also speaking at the Global Business Travel Association convention last month supported the variety of approaches and considered…

Notebook: Buyers Explain Challenges Of Managing Non-Employee Travel

How much to invest in support for recruits, board members, interns, consultants, contractors and other guest travelers can be a tough call, according to speakers at GBTA’s convention last month. BCD Travel and Fox World Travel are among the latest providers to come up with solutions for this headache of the non-profiled. The booking, payment,…

Amex GBT Wins Citi, Develops Its Services For Companies Across The Spectrum

Interviewing American Express Global Business Travel CEO Paul Abbott during a Sept. 7 investor meeting, Citi equities analyst Pete Christiansen referenced a “really good” financial services company that GBT had recently won. Turns out, it’s Citi. Implementation in multiple countries is due by year-end, sources said.  CWT, which declined to comment, has been Citibank’s primary…

Still Nigh: The Death Of Manual Expense Reporting

Expense software developers and corporate travel providers are progressing in their efforts to kill the manual work associated with expense reporting. The application of artificial intelligence appears to be accelerating what has been a slow and painful demise. Emburse on Tuesday announced AI-powered receipt scanning — “the next step in realizing Emburse’s vision of an…

Big Hotel Firms Fight For Midscale Extended-Stay Guests As Use Cases Proliferate

Hoping to capitalize on the work-from-anywhere phenomenon that led to more flexibility for workers, more relocations and longer lengths of stay, big hotel companies are adding new brands in the midscale extended-stay segment. Since last fall, Best Western, Hilton, Hyatt, Marriott and Wyndham each announced new products in the space. They augment these companies’ pre-existing…

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