Yapta CEO on the Innovation That’s Creeping Into Corporate Travel

Consumer tools for travel-price tracking are common, but many business travelers are compelled to book trips or receive their itineraries based on the lowest fare available, regardless of how cheap airfares or crummy hotels impact the travel experience. Corporate travel managers are increasingly seeing the wisdom of an automated approach to booking, and re-booking, travel with an eye on savings without sacrificing comfort or amenities for travelers, says James Filsinger, president and CEO of Yapta, the airfare and hotel-rate tracking and buying tool. Filsinger, who has led Yapta since 2012 after stints at EZYield and Sabre Holdings, thinks that the increased ability of travel companies to analyze data is leading to a renewed focus on making smarter buying decisions. Skift spoke to Filsinger about Yapta's evolution from a consumer tool to enterprise solution, why travel management companies have yet to leverage their data effectively and how data will eventually shift how tr