OBT'S RECOVERY CHALLENGE

_{Companies’ post-covid travel strategies will look to leverage booking tools in new ways}

_{BY CHRIS DAVIS}

The first steps by many companies out of pandemic-era work restrictions toward a new normal are underway: Some offices are reopening, some mask regulations are disappearing, and business travel willingness and volume appear to be on the rise. But after a two-year bout with the effects of Covid-19, there’s no real consensus on how business operations, and business travel, will look in this new normal. What is clear, though, is that whether organizations look to hew as must to 2019 strategy as possible, create an entirely new hybrid and remote structure or something in between, they very likely will require their online booking tool to play a key role in strategy dissemination and enforcement.

And therein lies the challenge for online booking tools in 2022. Corporations will have many paths to choose from in designing a new post-Covid travel program and many potential policies to implement to further that strategy, and it will be up to booking tool suppliers to ensure the technology is flexible enough to accommodate all of them. 

For example, some companies have developed or are considering policies that permit only those employees fully vaccinated against Covid-19 to travel for business or attend meetings in person. While approaches to enforcing that policy vary, the online booking tool likely would serve as a key component, allowing booking only to eligible employees. Tammy Krings, founder and CEO of travel management company ATG, last fall told BTN that the company’s profile management system interfaces with online booking tools to allow bookings only if the appropriate profile field includes vaccination information.

Additionally, online booking tools likely will need to be part of new structures that require additional approval to travel. According to a survey conducted Sept. 20-Oct. 3, 2021, of 161 U.S. and Canadian member corporate travel managers surveyed by the Global Business Travel Association in research sponsored by booking tool supplier Serko, more than 40 percent of those respondents who require manual approval of business travel now require the approval of multiple people. The booking tool would be a factor in the enforcement of this policy, limiting booking to those who have received the approval.

Some post-pandemic policy trends extend to the booking tool itself. According to the GBTA/Serko survey, 71 percent of travel manager respondents indicated their companies have implemented stricter booking-related policies during the pandemic, and 46 percent said reducing “leakage”—employee travel bookings outside of preferred channels—was a “greater” or “much greater” priority than it was before the pandemic. Another 40 percent said it held the same priority.

A world in which corporations are creating policies to funnel more bookings through online booking tools should also be a world in which the online booking tools are inviting hubs for employees, easy to use with all requisite content. But for years some buyers and travelers alike have pointed to clunky user experiences with inconsistent technology and limited content, underwhelming users accustomed to leisure-focused consumer travel booking tools. It will be another challenge to booking tool suppliers to ensure the user experience is such that it can attract—or at least not repel—employee users to remain in channel compliance. 

Part of that challenge will be to impart to users new sources of information. Users could need to know international or local travel restrictions and regulations related to Covid-19, as well as the carbon-emission effects of their planned travel route. For some companies, the latter could well prove one more challenge to the online booking tool—helping users decide whether to travel at all.