Skift Take

Can Coupa really take on SAP Concur? It has a chance, mainly due to its products and services that are outside the traditional purview of travel management.

It’s a new decade, and you know what that means: even more consolidation in corporate travel.

Coupa has acquired Yapta, an engine for air and hotel cost intelligence, as it gears up to compete against SAP Concur. Business travel management has moved into the cloud, and more players are gaming to unseat incumbents at the top of the market. It will take an untraditional approach to get it done, writes Skift Travel Tech Editor Sean O’Neill.

We also have an update on The Guild, which presents a new concept for business travel stays. There is major opportunity for new entrants to compete at scale, as business travelers have gotten used to staying in Airbnbs instead of hotels.

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

Andrew Sheivachman, Senior Enterprise Editor

Featured Stories

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Coupa Guns for SAP Concur’s Share of Travel Expense Management: Most corporate travelers would rather think about anything else than booking and expensing travel. The pain point is attracting large companies like Coupa who think they can profit from reducing the hassle for road warriors. We expect Coupa, Certify, Chrome River, and SAP Concur to acquire more travel tech companies to help seize the opportunity.

Latest Funding for The Guild Showcases New Housing Model for Business Travelers: The Guild, a hospitality startup, is not quite a hotel but not quite Airbnb. It’s betting on $25 million in new funding to expand its apartment-like accommodations to urban centers to attract more business travelers.

Aventri Goes Outside Event Tech for New CEO: New leadership comes to Aventri as it continues to battle rival Cvent in the event tech marketplace. Perhaps a view from outside the sector can pay dividends as the tech provider works to further refine its platform.

The Future Of Travel

Why Delta’s Biggest Innovation Isn’t Flashy Tech, It’s Consistency: The technology is fun. But Delta’s biggest strength is the consistency of its product.

United Gets Stingier With Customer Compensation for Flight Delays: United may argue it isn’t tweaking its delay compensation scheme to save money. But we’re betting this new policy will save some cash. Still, it probably won’t bother customers too much. How many of them were expecting compensation anyway?

Airlines Reroute Flights Amid Middle East Risks: Without a doubt, this crisis is another thing for travel and tourism to worry about, barely two weeks into 2020. Its impact has started with airlines altering routes to avoid Iranian airspace, which means longer flights for passengers and higher costs for carriers. And those are just small concerns.

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

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Tags: corporate travel, coupa, ctir, yapta

Photo credit: Coupa employees at a trade show. Coupa bought Yapta to take on SAP Concur. Coupa / via Twitter

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