Ride-hailing has become a travel necessity for most business travelers, drive by smartphone ubiquity, app-based convenience, and the dominance of majo rideshare platforms such as Lyft. With ride-hailing at nearly every major airport and most large business travel destinations, the majority of business travelers have used such services. Yet corporate travel programs have not universally integrated ride hailing into managed travel.

Upward pressure on room rates and downward pressure on corporate travel budgets have prompted buyers to take a new look at opportunities to reduce costs by consolidating transient and meeting/event room nights in negotiations with preferred accommodation providers.

For meeting planners with frequent events at the same property or chain, Master Service Agreements (MSA) with a few key hotel chains have long been a timesaver for both sides to confirm new bookings. In the current marketplace, negotiating that MSA may be more challenging and also more beneficial than in the past.

Corporate travel is rapidly rebounding across companies of all sizes, and it looks different compared to pre-pandemic managed travel. The profiles of business travelers, why they are traveling, and how they are traveling are all evolving from previous patterns. Also changing are how corporate travelers are booking travel, paying for travel and reconciling expenses.

As rebounding business travel continues to reshape managed travel, leading corporate travel decision-makers and hoteliers are trialing and reviewing new approaches and strategies to better align demand, supply and budgets.

Planners looking to book short-term, smaller meetings this year may need to employ creative, new strategies as election-related events, international sporting events, and the resurgence of major conventions have already claimed space and dates in key markets.

Against a backdrop of the rapid return of in-person meetings and events over the past two years, planners who are sourcing and contracting future programs are facing an array of complex issues.