Marriott's Latest Tech Play Aims to Streamline Business Travel

Marriott International expanded further into the business travel management space Tuesday, aiming to drive more direct bookings from road warriors and take share from middlemen.

The world's largest hotelier debuted an online travel booking portal for small- to medium-sized enterprises worldwide, powered by the business travel startup Spotnana.

Marriott's new platform claims to simplify the often fragmented process of managing business travel by offering a broad suite of tools. Road warriors can book hotels, flights, and car rentals without leaving the platform. The platform is part of a strategy to try to route around rising middlemen like Navan and Travelperk.

We plan to learn more details about the program soon after the company can respond to questions. Here's what we know now:

Key features of Marriott's business travel tool

• Discounted rates at Marriott properties worldwide

• Integrated booking for flights, rail, and car rentals

• Customizable travel policies and real-time analytics

• Expense management solutions

• Access to Marriott Bonvoy loyalty program benefits

Smoothing out business traveler pain points

Marriott's new offering comes as businesses grapple with inefficiencies in existing travel management solutions.

It's not alone. In the past year, Hilton has been rolling out a platform worldwide that aims to simplify how companies book travel at its hotels, called Hilton for Business. It has also recently expanded its events booking capabilities.

In April, Wyndham Hotels & Resorts updated its platform, which enables companies to directly book meetings, events, and other business travel at its North American hotels. It began to offer reward points in its loyalty program to companies whose travelers book stays through its WyndhamBusiness.com.

Accommodations Sector Stock Index Performance Year-to-Date

What am I looking at? The performance of hotels and short-term rental sector stocks within the ST200. The index includes companies publicly traded across global markets, including international and regional hotel brands, hotel REITs, hotel management companies, alternative accommodations, and timeshares.

The Skift Travel 200 (ST200) combines the financial performance of nearly 200 travel companies worth more than a trillion dollars into a single number. See more hotels and short-term rental financial sector performance.

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