Kayak for Business' Eva Fouquet discusses:
- Global TMC partnerships
- SMB and enterprise growth
- A hybrid AI-booking strategy
Kayak for Business in August for the first time exhibited at the Global Business Travel Association convention in Chicago. The company brought with it a more mature narrative for business travel buyers, one distinct from its enterprise partnership with Blockskye and democratized the value proposition to a broader range of buyers. SMB? Check. Enterprise? Check. Of course, an AI theme was central to Kayak's story this year as it was for many booking tools, but it wasn't the only plot point. As the market needs time to build trust in AI options, Kayak for Business senior vice president Eva Fouquet told BTN VP of editorial Elizabeth West that the company will keep paddling on both traditional online and AI streams.
Business Travel News: August was Kayak for Business' first time exhibiting at GBTA. What is the company bringing to the table that buyers need to know about now?
Eva Fouquet: We were really excited about having a booth at GBTA this year. You've seen the news stories that we're going global with different partnerships. We're also covering both the small and midsized business category along with enterprise clients. There's a lot to say around that, because the product has evolved, the number of clients has evolved, and we've gone global—the product that first was dedicated to the U.S. market now is global. In [July], we also announced more about the full-journey AI within Kayak for Business.
BTN: Let's talk first about the global piece and the partnerships Kayak for Business has announced in the past months, even last year with Altour. When Kayak for Business first hit the market, though, the enterprise platform was a product that worked in tandem with just one travel management company. That TMC was Blockskye, which had tech support from Gant. It was a unique setup, but it was not global. How has Kayak for Business matured since then, and how are you positioning the enterprise tools in the market?
Fouquet: Being global is definitely a key requirement for most multinational companies. Some have a separate [regional] approach, and some want to keep that, but many need a unified global strategy. You are right that we rolled out as a U.S.-only product with Blockskye, PwC and those partners.
It was clear to us, even from the beginning, that we'd never be in an exclusive world. We are open to partnerships, but we are not partnering with anyone fast, and we [won't] have 10 partners tomorrow. We want the right fits, the right partners.
We think FCM is a great partner—[it is a] global partner with great brands and great technology. We are a technology-first company, and we think the fit [with FCM] is perfect. They will allow us to be global and to answer those [multinational] clients. It's a smooth way to go from the U.S. to global. Of course, we have also a partnership with Altour. These are quite different companies.
BTN: Part of my question is about how different these companies are. Blockskye, for example, brought with it a unique payment configuration as well as the shared data ledger. With other TMCs the data and service bundle are different, but what is the consistent value that the booking tool itself brings to the table for each TMC partner and for the corporate client?
Fouquet: We are entering a new world. Kayak for Business is a booking tool, some call it a technology platform. We're not splitting hairs over this, but we do more than a traditional booking tool for corporate. Of course, we connect through Amadeus and get the global distribution system content, but we're also known for and very good at having very deep, direct supplier API connections outside of the GDS. We have train connections, and we have direct APIs with ground transportation [providers]. So, we act as [a content] aggregator for whatever TMCs we are partnering with.
We are here to address pain points of clients. We do that with Blockskye by participating in their blockchain distributed ledger model, but we are not limited to that model. Certainly in our BizPlus offering [the paid step-up model from the free entry-level Kayak for Business online booking product] there is no involvement with Blockskye or Gant infrastructure. In that model, Kayak for Business operates as the service layer as well.
I know our lines have been a little bit blurry, but we obviously know what we're doing, and we can be very transparent about how we're doing it. In our Enterprise model, regardless of the TMCs we are partnering with, we are bringing direct API functionality, serviceability and interoperability. How the TMC wants to work with that and offer it to clients is the layer they bring to the table.
BTN: You touched on the BizPlus small and midsize product, which is a step-up product from the freemium online booking offering. Talk to me about how you are going to market with that and how it differs from the Enterprise product.
Fouquet: Everything we are doing for Enterprise, we are also doing for SMB: the direct interoperability, the content, R&D—everything is available for an SMB because those businesses should have similarity in terms of all that. They should not be left behind. What's different—it's really much more about how deep you can go into customization. We would handle that differently for an Enterprise client. The [SMB] market is also different; it's much larger and has a longer tail. So we have a great sales team in place now to specialize in that segment. We want to market a little differently to SMBs, but we are making much more noise there and will continue to do so.
BTN: You've enabled AI capabilities for Kayak for Business users in the last few weeks, specifically the options to initiate bookings via natural language on the booking platform itself or through a client's existing company platforms like Teams or Slack. Talk about where Kayak for Business is going with AI.
Fouquet: SMBs definitely want to automate with AI. They're looking for that. Many of them don't want to talk to an agent; they would often rather go through AI. That speaks to what we rolled out [earlier this summer]. And we are going to go deeper. We are working on many products—we are a tech product at our core—so you can expect so much more.
So far, we've been piloting with client companies, and we've already seen some decrease in terms of agent touch. We'll have proper numbers soon that we'll be able to publish.
In terms of our approach, we are currently working with a hybrid strategy. We're implementing gradually, and we don't want to race to AI—you know, just go to one prompt, you book it, that's it. We do not think that is user-friendly, and users are not ready for that. We want people to feel comfortable. If they want to go all the way to AI, they can do it. If they want to stay on classic legacy search, but switch and test, that's OK. We're all testing and moving forward. But the capabilities advance very fast, and Kayak needs to advance with that. So it's a dual environment, for now.
BTN: Kayak for Business also has addressed groups and meetings travel management. In January, you introduced a new Events feature to help manage attendee travel bookings, payments and policy compliance. How has the tool evolved since then, and what feedback have you received?
Fouquet: It was a pilot back in January. In July we started to onboard additional customers outside of the pilots and now it's available to all customers globally on demand. It's platform-native, so it's there waiting for clients to turn it on. The tool has since been used to manage policy-compliant bookings for 45,000 event attendees linked to more than 130 events.
We collected a lot of feedback during the pilot, and what travel managers love the most is the ability to set different travel permissions and policy parameters for different attendee types, such as guests, internal staff and VIPs. The ability to add guest travelers is another important factor, as is the ability to centrally manage event-related travel spend. Real-time reporting dashboards show RSVP numbers and the status of each attendee's flight and hotel bookings, which supports duty of care.
BTN: A growing number of corporate travel platforms, including Spotnana and Navan, are integrating meetings and events into transient travel booking tools, while legacy TMCs are also using tech to bring travel and meetings workflows into a single ecosystem. Amid the competition, what sets Kayak for Business apart?
Fouquet: We're looking at our competitors, and it's super important that we all evolve into the context you describe. We're also working to reduce fragmentation and simplify business travel more broadly. We really focus on what we do well, which is booking interoperability with our direct connections, user experience and building tools for the traveler. We're bringing 20 years of experience in leisure into corporate travel, and I think that's really our strength. We know travel, we know the traveler, and we understand the importance of user experience when it comes to technology. We build for the users.