Articles tagged “business travel”

Updates to Hilton's loyalty program will soon make Hilton Honors more lucrative for elite travelers. Between those tweaks and last year's cash and points upgrades, Hilton is bringing a strong loyalty program to the table for 2018.

Smarter technology is making it easier for companies to track what employees actually spend on travel. This is good news for travelers as well, since travel managers and accountants will have better insights into what policy mechanics actually save the company money without ruining the business travel experience.

Beyond automatically integrating travel booking with expenses, a lot is being done to give travel managers and financial departments more powerful tools to track spending. It also helps that these tools will eventually make the expense report process much easier for travelers.

Paris is following the positive tourism trend that the rest of Europe enjoyed last year, thanks in large part to business travel and companies like Airbnb. But with another terrorist-related shooting in France last weekend, it remains to be seen whether the city can continue to prove it's safe to visit.

Travel managers should get much more active when fending off problems for LGBTQ travelers headed to certain destinations. Knowledge, understanding, and the right tools can make all the difference.

Companies are providing more information to help employees make educated decisions about business travel to countries that criminalize same-sex relationships. Travel managers must make such guidance available to everyone — and companies should have an advocate or employee resource group in place to support travelers with concerns.

Technology empowers travel managers to do a lot of things, but there's still a big opportunity for companies to get smarter about the real scope of their investment in business travel beyond the elements of individual trips.

Technology can empower meeting planners, but it can also lead to daunting integration problems with other aspects of corporate travel. Riding the fine line between solving problems and creating new ones remains an issue that won't be solved soon.

Every travel management company offers an online booking tool, but some are offering the tools travelers want to use instead of confusing or restricted user experiences.

Talk about using incentives to change behavior. Is the threat of obsolescence due to new technology and startup business models enough to prompt incumbent travel management companies such as Egencia and Carlson Wagonlit to adapt?