GBTA Panel: Sharing Economy Poses Big Challenges for Biz Travel
by Barbara Peterson /ORLANDO –– The sharing economy is having a profound impact on the way businesses book and manage travel. And for corporate travel departments, the impact is not always benign, judging from comments at the recent Global Business Travel Association convention here.
With everything from hotels to ground transportation feeling the effects of upstarts like Uber, Lyft, and Airbnb, travel managers are facing numerous challenges on issues ranging from travel policy compliance to an employer’s “duty of care” obligations when employees are on the road.
Fueling the trend is the public’s increasing reliance on mobile devices and the popularity of on-demand apps for travel booking, said Guy Langford, vice chairman and U.S. leader of Deloitte’s Travel, Hospitality & Leisure division. Langford moderated a panel discussion on differentiating brands.
Blurring the lines
Noting that individual travelers increasingly want to choose their own hotels for business travel, rather than go through official preferred channels, Langford said that “the lines are blurred “ between corporate and personal travel.
In fact, said panelist Chip Conley, Airbnb’s head of global hospitality and strategy, the buzzword du jour is “bleisure,” a comment that drew laughter. It’s not corporate versus leisure anymore, he said. “It’s a blending.
“Whether you are staying in an Airbnb accommodation or a hotel, business travelers are looking for discovery,” he said.
Airbnb goes corporate
Airbnb recently rolled out tools to enable corporate travel managers to look at employees’ Airbnb bookings and to centralize company billing for those charges. But the hospitality site doesn’t give managers control over which listings––out of a total of 1.5 million––can be seen by the individual traveler.
Still, as Conley suggested, the upstart is responding to concerns from employers that travelers are “going rogue” and booking outside their managed travel programs. A business travel program launched a year ago has experienced 700% growth, with more than 250 companies signing on, including Google and global ad network TBWA.
“Sharing is mainstream,” Conley said, noting that surveys show that 27% of Americans have used on-demand booking apps. Millennial travelers, unsurprisingly, are a big part of the sharing economy: Nearly half of this activity, 48%, is from consumers between the ages of 18 and 34.
Staying current
Speakers at GBTA who hailed from the more traditional side of the business agreed that they need to adapt.
Douglas Anderson, CEO of Carlson Wagonlit Travel, acknowledged that “travelers are looking for experience” and are less inclined to go with accommodations picked out by their bosses.
At the same time, he said, “we’re working to bring more clients back into their managed travel program.” He said Carlson is investing heavily “ to make sure travelers have access to content” via user-friendly features.
“The key to the equation is mobile technology,” he said.
One problem is the availability of hotel content in the GDS systems, Anderson said, adding that Carlson Wagonlit has brought some 3,000 properties into its own system that “weren’t available in the past.”
‘Managed Travel 3.0’
Scott Alvis, chief marketing officer of Amadeus North America, referred to this changing environment as “Managed Travel 3.0.”
Corporate travelers “expect much better integration” of functions on their devices, Alvis said, noting that Amadeus is working with Microsoft on features like “calendar integration.”
On the question of how often leisure rates are being used for corporate travel, he said the issue really comes down to “how do we bring this into the corporate channel?”