Skift Take

Until business travelers are better educated on why they should use their company's preferred booking tool, they're going to continue using online travel agencies and booking direct.

New research shows that European business travelers, in particular, think that online travel agencies offer the best blend of choice and savings, even if they are supposed to use an online booking tool.

Maybe this shows a lack of proper education undertaken by companies, or just the reality that travelers want to book in the most convenient way they can, which usually tends to be how they book leisure travel. Check out the story below.

We also take a deep look this week at the growing hospitality company Selina, which has a fascinating take on solving many of the issues that frustrate young business travelers. The company operates hybrid hotel/hostel/co-working properties, often with many different branches across a variety of North and South American countries. It’s an interesting model that speaks to how young, mobile professionals want to live and work today. It will be fascinating to watch whether its experimental ideas catch on among global hospitality companies as well.

If you have any feedback about the newsletter or news tips, feel free to reach out via email at [email protected] or tweet me @sheivach

— Andrew Sheivachman, Senior Editor

Airlines, Hotels and Innovation

Why European Biz Travelers Go Outside Their Companies to Use Online Travel Agencies: Business travelers want choice, and it seems they feel that online booking tools provided by their companies are too restrictive. More are turning to online travel agencies instead.

Selina Receives $150 Million for Millennial-Friendly Hospitality: Until recently, Selina has been a glorified hostel operator. Its ambition to provide work-life balance to millennials who travel internationally has been more of a work-in-progress than a consistent offering. Yet massive fresh funding this year will help drive Selina to become one of 2019’s most fascinating experiments in hospitality.

Marriott’s Starwood Data Breach Joins a Decade-Long List of Hotel Data Exposures: Several years ago, the hotel industry fought U.S. federal watchdog efforts to fine chains for negligent data protection practices, arguing that hotels had things under control. Hmm. A rash of hotel security incidents since then undercuts the claims of hotels, which need to take a more bank-like approach to data protection.

Why Is It Getting Harder for Boutique Hotel Brands to Expand in Asia? Boutique American and European hotel brands aim to expand in Asia, but will soon realize it’s more difficult than they imagined, and it’s only going to get harder. Here’s why, and how they can make a go of it.

The Future of Travel

New ‘Me Too’ Rules for Business Trips End Up Recreating Boys Clubs: This convenient exclusion strategy has been used on people of color for ages. This is going to shut many women out of business trips and events that could propel their careers forward.

SnapTravel Raises $21 Million With an Assist From NBA Star Steph Curry: The travel industry startup ecosystem could use some fresh ideas, so we salute new investors placing bets like Steph Curry, the basketball star playing for the Golden State Warriors. Curry’s investment in SnapTravel, a messaging-based hotel booking tool, holds promise but the outcome remains uncertain for the company, which has raised $22.4 million to date.

Air France-KLM Could Gain Ground in Labor Talks After Union Leadership Change: Relatively new CEO Ben Smith will be hoping that the change in leadership leads to a thawing in relations between the airline group and some of its employees.

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Skift Senior Editor Andrew Sheivachman [[email protected]] curates the Skift Corporate Travel Innovation Report. Skift emails the newsletter every Thursday.

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Tags: business travel, corporate travel, ctir

Photo credit: Passengers in Europe boarding an EasyJet aircraft. Bloomberg

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