NDC, AI & More
Booking tools seem to be ‘old hat’ now. In the 90’s we kept hearing that an engineer being paid $100 an hour shouldn’t be booking his or her own travel. Yet, now it’s commonplace for 80 to 90 percent of travelers to be booking at least their domestic travel, and perhaps even their international travel as well.

Twenty-first century travel distribution is morphing into something much more sophisticated. Preferred suppliers have been highlighted, while some suppliers are blocked to support corporate savings goals. However, the latest mantra is ‘traveler experience.’ NDC promises to give travelers many more options related to their travel. Airlines and hotels want to upsell their expanding products.

Artificial intelligence is expected to use vast amounts of data to direct travelers to choose their upcoming travels based on their past choices. There is much more to come. Travel managers need to evaluate their programs often to meet the needs of their travelers.  

Send in the Clones
Making sure that employees follow policy and book the preferred suppliers is one of the ways that a travel program can be most successful. While we’re still years away from cloning travel managers so they can stand behind employees and make them choose the correct option, there is so much we can do with the technology we have now.  As far as how I promote the correct content, our preferred providers are always at the top of the sort and are noted with a green preferred label. We make it easier to book in-policy. As for out-of-policy bookings – love red flags. Literal red flags fly next to out-of-policy items and when our travelers hover over them, they can learn why that flight, hotel or car shouldn’t be booked.
– Rosemary Maloney

Custom Fit 
Since a big part of our ongoing travel management strategy is to increase online adoption, it is very important for us to ensure the online booking tool is configured to be efficient for the travelers but also to ensure our preferred suppliers are highlighted as well.In my case, I always make sure the preferred hotels show up at the top of the lists with verbiage that states that those properties are within policy. For cars, I simply omit all car companies that are not preferred. I remove airlines that fall into the low cost or leisure category as well since my travelers have found they are not always business travel friendly. The one item I have done in the past was to set up messaging for certain airlines on certain routes when I am trying to meet contract commitments; a message will appear when travelers are booking a particular routing stating that they are expected to book a certain airline. I have had much success with the concept of “preferencing” the placement of those preferred suppliers within the online booking tool.
– Chris Brockman

Simple Message 
Owning our own booking tool contract has allowed us to react quickly in many different circumstances. We use the tool to escalate a provider to preferred status by placing our logo next to them on the selection screen. We can inhibit booking behaviors like selecting prepaid hotel rooms, certain booking classes/fares, or even a particular supplier just by “turning them off” in the system. It’s easy to drive travelers to book with preferred suppliers if they are displayed prominently on the page (read, visual guilt). Our booking tool is not mandated so it can be difficult to get the full benefit from it. But even though that’s the case, using our booking tool to quickly address changes – even with simple messaging – reaches more people in a shorter amount of time.
– Cheryl Benjamin

First Things First 
Travel became much easier once online booking were available and implemented in corporate travel programs. There are many things to consider as you implement within the tool. Do you have partner commitments to fulfill? What information should be added or omitted? Is this a mandated travel policy? Which booking tool do I want to collaborate with as a partner?  All good questions but my first thoughts are to ask myself: Is my travel policy current and how can the tool support the travel policy? The keys are having the most up-to-date policy as well as determining who the best partners are to help you implement your program most effectively. Once these two items are decided then you can begin working on the booking tool content.
– Gloria Gonzalez