In case you hadn’t
heard, Concur Travel is having a makeover, or, as its owners SAP like to call
it, a complete ‘re-platforming’ of the online booking tool. More than 200
engineers and product managers were hired to oversee its development in what
Concur Travel CEO Charlie Sultan called “one of the most significant
development investments ever made in the history of SAP Concur.”
As the dominant
player in the market—by a great distance—the volume around Concur Travel’s
shortcomings has always been amplified. Whether those shortcomings are fully
addressed in its new iteration remains to be seen. Its upgrades are being
rolled-out per region and per GDS provider, beginning in Q4 last year with
Sabre for U.S. point-of-sale users and continuing well into 2024.
Since the dawn of
the internet buyers and travelers have bemoaned the typically inferior user
experience of virtually all corporate booking tools compared to consumer
counterparts. But in recent years, customer demands have evolved to also
include the need for integrated air and rail offers, the provision of
sustainability information, full content access, and much more.
In a survey of more
than 100 UK-based travel managers conducted last November, online booking tool
optimization emerged as respondents’ top priority in 2024, having also done so
in a similar survey conducted 12 months prior regarding 2023 plans. Duty of
care was second, budget control third, sustainable practice fourth and full
content access was fifth.
Buyers Demand Delivery on Content Promises
The Institute of
Travel Management, which conducted the survey, said that while buyers’ online
booking tool concerns previously centered around the challenges they faced
managing the post-Covid return to travel, its most recent survey found today’s dissatisfaction
lay in OBTs’ delivery and fulfilment of several content-related areas.
According to ITM, buyers
said that booking technology needs to support their programs better in terms of
user experience, content and guiding more sustainable travel options. Content
fragmentation, specifically the acceleration of airlines’ NDC strategies in
2023, has exacerbated user frustration but is a complaint perhaps unfairly
shouldered by booking tool providers which are just one piece of the jigsaw.
“We recognise that there
is not an easy fix and the OBT is the manifestation of a lot of issues in a
complicated ecosystem. Yet buyers are still so reliant on their OBT to support
their program in terms of user experience, content, compliance and sustainable
travel options. It’s not surprising that booking tools will continue to be a
cause for concern in 2024,” said ITM chief executive Scott Davies.
According to
Sultan, Concur Travel’s upgrades include better product visuals and
descriptions, improved filtering, sustainability data from a choice of
providers, NDC content via GDSs, and mobile parity—the upshot of which is
improved user productivity. Its new platform is cloud-based and uses “the
latest in microservices technology” which will enable the company to deliver
future upgrades more swiftly, said Sultan.
OBT Innovation Aspirations Abound
Concur is not the
only platform making upgrades, with the pace of change picking up across the
booking technology arena. Amadeus is making strides with its Cytric platform,
notably through the integration of its Cytric Easy tool in Microsoft’s suite of
tools, including Teams. The two companies, together with Accenture, are also
piloting an AI-enabled digital assistant for Cytric users. And while Amadeus
has Cytric and Sabre has a somewhat aging GetThere, the third of the leading
GDSs, Travelport, re-entered the OBT arena with acquisition of Deem last year.
Travel management
platform Navan and Netherlands-based ATG Travel Worldwide are also turning to
AI to enhance the chatbots within their respective booking tools, while
American Express Global Business Travel and CTM continue to roll-out upgrades
to their proprietary platforms Neo and Lightning. The latter won the
Achievement in Sustainability – Corporate Booking Platform category at last
year’s inaugural Business Travel Sustainability Awards Europe.
Elsewhere, Atriis
continues to find favour among mid-market TMCs seeking a user-friendly
experience for their customers, while widely praised booking tool Psngr1 is now
under the roof of travel tech specialist Snowfall which has made enhancements
and rebadged the platform as Junction One. Kayak has both an SME targeted booking
tool now as well as an new enterprise-oriented platform that integrates a
blockchain platform tightly bound to BlockSkye’s new TMC effort.
There are new
entrants too, with Norwegian company Travelin.AI identifying ‘blended bookings’
as an area of opportunity. Its platform enables users to book combined business
and leisure trips and automatically allocates expenses to the respective
components.
With development
activity ramping up among booking tool providers, there is hope that buyers and
travelers will begin to benefit from their investments in 2024 and witness the
improvements they crave.