JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2014
Open booking HOTELS IN HAND
The concept of book-your-own apps and tools are seen as a threat by many travel managers, says Mark Frary – but some sense the opportunities
“IT IS A GIVEN TODAY that travellers want to manage business bookings in the same way they do their leisure trips. The challenge for organisations is to combine control of their travel programme with the choices end- users expect.”
These words, from UBS’s regional head of travel and Institute of Travel & Meetings board member Mark Cuschieri, neatly sum up the debate over what has become known as ‘open booking’. This is where a company has a very loose travel policy in place, and travellers may book however they wish – within constraints, such as a cap on spend.
Open booking is not widely
favoured among travel managers. Research by Carlson Wagonlit Travel’s (CWT) Travel Management Institute revealed that only 9 per cent of travel managers are in favour of an open
booking approach. Stanislas Berteloot, a board member for GBTA France and marketing director of technology firm KDS, says the trend known as BYOD – ‘bring your own device’ – is behind the rise of open booking. BYOD is the concept where organisations allow employees to use their own laptops and smartphones instead of standard- issue company ones. A 2013 survey for Cisco found that employees using their own devices gained 37 minutes of productive time per week, and generated US$350 of value for the company. Already, 70 per cent of corporate IT decision-makers in France and 77 per cent in the UK are positive about the trend, according to the research. IT bosses like BYOD because it reduces their capital costs. There may be higher costs for supporting a wide range of different devices, but
no initial outlay for the equipment. And when people bring in their own devices, they bring in their own apps – and travel apps in particular. This leads to business travellers expecting the same sort of experience on a business travel booking tool as they do on leisure sites and apps. “End users are increasingly dictating what corporates do when it comes to travel procurement and IT policy,” says Berteloot. “The reason they are using consumer apps is because they look good and work well. The answer is to provide the end user with the app they want to use.”
Concur senior vice-president Isabel Montesdeoca believes business travellers are jumping outside corporate programmes, not because they are trying to be difficult, but because they are trying to be more productive. She
Exploring the open booking landscape
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