Give Business Travelers What They Want: OBTs and Smart Phone Apps

Have you rolled out online booking tools (OBTs) for your business travel clients? How about smart phone apps? If either answer is no, you may be falling behind on what your clients want.

“The corporate travel seller is being forced into the mobile arena,” said Patrick Linnihan, president of Gant Travel, a corporate travel agency based in Chicago and Milwaukee. “Without that presence, you just don’t have the credibility to compete successfully. Business travelers have come to rely on those productivity tools on their mobile phone. Travel apps are absolutely crucial.”

Corporate travel giant Carlson Wagonlit sees the same need for online and mobile tools.

Brian Hace

“If you are a frequent business traveler, you tend to be on the leading edge of technology,” said Brian Hace, Carlson vice president, client services. “If your travel seller doesn’t offer the tool you think you need, you’ll go out and find it on your own. You all of a sudden have travelers who are completely outside your system. You have no way to collect their data or reinforce your travel policy. If your traveler grabs something at the app store that happens to link to Hertz and your preferred car vendor is National, you’re out of luck. When you provide the app and the traveler goes looking for a car, the app can guide the way to your preferred vendor with the negotiated rate and all the data you expect.”

Other Markets, Other Issues

If you think OBTs and mobile apps are causing problems for travel managers and sellers in North America, consider your colleagues in the Asia Pacific region. BCD Travel recently surveyed Online Adoption and Mobile Technology in Asia-Pacific with the Association of Corporate Travel Executives. Of about 100 corporate travel managers and buyers with responsibility for travel programs in Asia-Pacific, 56.3% have yet to implement an OBT.

“The market in North America is fairly mature,” said Ross Atkinson, vice president of online technology with BCD Travel. “Other markets, including Asia-Pacific, are seeing the benefits, but have not yet moved. It’s not a lack of interest, but of barriers.”

Asia-Pacific is home to about 40% of all mobile phone users. Travel managers in the region say that up to 90% of business travelers use smart phones. But that doesn’t make OBTs and mobile apps king of the Asia-Pacific travel hill.

North America has a reasonably homogeneous distribution, payment, and regulatory system; Asia-Pacific has a multitude of systems. Some countries stifle GDS access. Some airlines offer full inventory and fare access only on their own GDS. Some cultures prefer personal service over electronic help. Companies and travel sellers across the region are slowly working through the barriers for reasons that apply in North America as well.

“If you want to shape traveler behavior, reinforce travel policy, support your travelers, and capture travel data, you need to offer these kinds of options,” Atkinson told Travel Market Report. “The travel seller is the enabler. We play a larger role beyond just booking travel and ensuring productivity throughout the trip.”

Take cost avoidance. An online booking tool can guide travelers to the preferred vendor, the negotiated rate, and negotiated amenities such as club level accommodation or breakfast. An integrated travel app can remind travelers that breakfast is included or that there is a negotiated rate with XYZ Taxi. It might only be a $20 savings, “not a big deal to the traveler,” Atkinson said. “But multiply $20 by tens of thousands of room nights and the company can avoid some significant costs. The company can’t afford not to address these issues and the travel seller can’t afford not to be part of the solution.”

And there’s the not-so-simple issue of getting current information on the road. Some travel sellers offer VIP update service with personal phone calls, noted Brad Goodsell, president of Executive Travel Directors, Chicago. Airlines offer automated calls and SMS updates. Travel sellers can combine both services.

“OBTs and apps give sellers another way to interact,” Goodsell said. “The computer sends updates to my phone, but I can call and get a person. It makes travel sellers even more valuable because it gives me a choice in how I want to interact.”