Great feedback from corporate travel managers on mobile, apps and the sharing economy in this American Express Global Business Travel/ACTE report and then a little gem buried on page 26.
Open booking is on the corporate travel policy wishlist for 22% of travel managers coming after the top wish which is introducing the Total Cost of Travel, followed by user group communities to improve communications and introducing metrics.
Sadly, in fairy godmother land the tendency is towards only granting three wishes so the wish is dismissed with "In real life, however, they are more pragmatic."
It seems only 11% expect policy on alternative booking channels to become more flexible mostly because the balance is till tipped towards savings over services for travellers.
Going forward more than 80% of travel managers believe savings will come through demand management and ensuring compliance and 19% anticipate, at least in the short term, more tightening around use of alternative booking channels.
That said, three-quarters of travel managers believe improvements in travellers' services can mean savings based on changes in traveller behaviour. And, almost the same figure don't think improvements mean higher expenses.
Areas of progress are around messaging and mobile booking while the sharing economy is said to be "not yet widely pursued" although figures show some positive signs.
Messaging
- 30% have deployed pre-trip messaging and 31% plan to in the next five years
- 23% have implemented in-trip messaging and 32% plan to
- the study also shows new processes such as emergency SMS have been introduced by 20%
Mobile booking- Mobile booking is in place at 29% of respondents organisations while a further 30% say they plan to introduce it within two years
- 16% say it is not on the agenda at all
Sharing economy- 26% have already implemented policy or plan to implement it around sharing economy ground transportation but 39% say it's not on the agenda
- 21% have introduced or plan to introduce sharing economy options such as Airbnb in the next two years
- 56% rule out adding these accommodation options all together
- 45% say they have not received requests for these alternatives while about 27% have received interest from travellers
In fact, opinion on the sharing economy is literally Poles Apart with one UK manager saying they saw as "big opportunity to drive down cost and engage people with a new way of working."
While another says:
"Would we use Airbnb? Absolutely not and that’s mostly for security reasons. We don’t
see this changing in the next two years."
The Evolution of Global Travel Policy report also includes some interesting findings around how travel managers get feedback and track policy effectiveness. Currently 75% rely on traveller feedback.
Data-based services are coming however, with over a fifth saying they already use travel productivity metrics and 16% want to introduce them.
In the next two years, 20% say they want to give travellers a "personal dashboard" with travel and spend behaviour. Currently about 10% provide basis information to travellers.
The corporate booking sector would also live to find ways to improve communication with 44% saying they have no formal system for feedback and 42% are looking to set up a user group.
About 350 global corporate travel managers participated in the study which was carried out in August. Just under half of respondents are from organisations with air spend of US$15 million a year, 38% spend between US$15 – US$100 million and 13% spend US$101 million or more. Full report here.
NB: Business traveller image via Shutterstock.