Consultant, auditor and GBTA-Australia & New Zealand director Tony O’Connor discusses how TMCs, online booking tools and travel buyers should work together to make corporate travel economics more sensible. Many corporate travel buyers would say they are not totally happy with the travel supply chain. It is classically conflicted. The rise of NDC and maturation…
Tripbam CEO Steve Reynolds constantly examines hotel discounts on corporate rates. To help buyers assess the best negotiating approach, he explains the differences between corporate rate types and suggests a few targets to shoot for. This time of year, travel managers often ask whether they should consider a chainwide discount, a dynamic property-level discount or…
Communicator and marketer are among the many roles travel managers are asked to play. A communications specialist herself, Katharine Farrell of the Dots & Lines consultancy offers pointers on how to promote corporate travel programs to various internal stakeholders. Crafting messages that resonate, spur action and have a lasting impact is hard. With renewed focus…
It’s time again for many to assemble corporate hotel programs for next year. The clear goal is to save money and provide sufficient choice for travelers. There are many ways to get it done, and each comes with its own set of considerations. Louise Miller of Areka Consulting breaks down the options. Most companies still…
This decade has seen an explosion of new products and services oriented toward corporate travel. The degree to which program managers and their travel management company partners can embed such add-ons varies for many reasons. Charlie Mitchell of GoldSpring Consulting provides advice on how to take advantage of new technologies. Today’s business travel industry presents…
After a career in the Los Angeles Police Department as an officer and a detective, Kevin Coffey knows a thing or two about staying safe while moving around urban areas. Now a senior consultant at GoldSpring Consulting, Coffey shares tips for keeping employees out of harm’s way when using ground transportation services. In working with…
Don’t go it alone. That’s a key message from Tristan Smith, Egencia VP of customer success for small and medium enterprises. Providing pointers for companies looking to grow, she also encourages business leaders to get past any negative connotation around standardizing processes. Doing so frees up employees to focus on the most important things. Ask…
Car rental companies can’t sufficiently differentiate their products or provide a modern shopping experience within the current distribution framework. That’s according to travel industry veteran Igor Marchal of Klomat Consulting. Drawing on his experiences at CWT, Expedia and Europcar, Marchal explains the constraints currently hindering the car rental industry and suggests a course of action….
Shree Partners chief technology officer and former BCD Travel research, statistics and analytics manager Nicolas Dahbi opines on myths about data. I recently had a conversation with an old colleague who left the travel industry a few years ago. We talked about recent technology advances, such as how personalization is driving consumer behavior and how…
On Thursday, Qantas will go live with a new distribution strategy that surcharges bookings using channels the Sydney-based carrier disfavors. Like other big airlines, in a stated effort to personalize shopping it’s pushing direct channels and those that use XML connectivity based on the NDC standard. Qantas in February said “a majority” of key agency…
Vanessa Zeiher-Kaya is the global principal corporations segment marketing manager for Sabre. In this guest post, she reviews the key points travel managers should keep in mind as they seek out the right travel tech partners. There are dozens of technology providers, which often makes the process of finding the right one drawn out and…
TMC industry veteran John Harvey in January asked whether changing market forces and increased demand for greater value and transparency in the channel would bring about a next-generation travel management company model. Since then he’s been considering what the new model could be. Should a TMC’s core intention be to make money from the travel…
Wondering what Apple’s ambitions in payment mean for corporate travel? You’re not alone. Yael Klein of AirPlus International is here with her two cents. When Tim Cook introduced the new Apple Card in March as “the most significant change in the credit card experience in 50 years,” people obviously expected greatness. But what will we…
The “end-to-end” experience has been part of travel management vernacular for many years. Understanding what it entails, much less actually achieving it, may not be as straightforward as it seems. Rajiv Rajian, Amadeus executive vice president, global business travel and travel channels, Americas, walks through how such a process should benefit travelers, travel managers, TMCs…
Ground transportation used to be a relatively straightforward part of travel management. No longer. Louise Miller of Areka Consulting gives an overview of what’s changing and how companies should address the challenges. Now is the time to really think about ground transportation and make some decisions. More progress occurred in the past 12 months than most…
