Last month's GBTA Convention in Denver was an informative mix of the familiar and the fresh, with established players rubbing shoulders with startups and disruptors.
NB This is a viewpoint by Steve Reynolds, CEO of TripBAM.
Here are some highlights from the event.
Airbnb
Airbnb is trying hard to get into the corporate distribution space. It has signed deals with major TMCs, but this seems backwards in my opinion. A better approach would be to create a product that fits the corporate market and then focus on distribution.
If it did, distribution would be easy and demand from corporates for the product would be there. Airbnb may claim that thousands of corporations are signing up for their portal, but the larger Fortune 200 companies we engage with at TripBAM only occasionally mention them - just being on the shelf at a major TMC is never a guarantee for steady, sustained volume.
Airbnb needs to focus on driving demand from more established corporate programs to truly make an impact.
Booking.com
Booking.com is interested in getting into corporate but not sure how to do it. The easy answer – offer great rates with a good commission that are easy to sell through the GDS. Not much is going to happen for them if they offer mediocre rates – with a similar commission structure – that are not available via the GDS.
Shared car services
Shared car services such as Uber and Lyft are battling for the corporate market. They have new features focused on data capture, making them more attractive to managed travel programs who need to track metrics. Travel managers are finally giving into the demands from travelers who are addicted to the ease of use via mobile devices. Cabs just seem so yesteryear and are destined to lose more and more corporate business. Uber and Lyft have won. Game over.
Mobile
There is still lots of talk about mobile, and the industry appears to be finally getting interfaces right and finding the correct balance between policy and user experience. But it is five years too late - the industry is in perpetual catchup mode.
Open Booking
I expected more on this, but it appears as if the industry still has its head in the sand. Hotel bookings are going direct; a big chunk of car rental business has shifted to Lyft and Uber, and air is next on the list, as evidenced by Lufthansa's distribution cost charge.
I believe it’s going to be a different world by 2020. I’m anticipating a corporate booking tool that is 100% direct with the GDS used for small market-specific content only. Where the heck is it? Where’s the new TMC desktop to bring in outside content?
Experimentation
Because of fiscal savings, performance demands and improved data transparency, more corporate programs are willing to try new apps and/or radical policy changes to drive better program results. Travel managers look to their peers for guidance; start-ups with positive case studies and rock-solid references have tremendous opportunities in today’s environment.
NB This is a viewpoint by Steve Reynolds, CEO of TripBAM.
Related reading from Tnooz:Traveller satisfaction tops the corporate travel wishlist (Aug 2016)
Startup Pitch: TripBAM promises cash savings on hotels with minimal effort (August 2013)