BTN Expert Q&A

Travel booking and expense firm KDS has expanded in the United States slowly and steadily since launching there in 2014. It has nine travel management company partners in North America, and after it nails down two partnerships on the payment and the enterprise resource planning side, CEO Dean Forbes said, it will be ready to... Keep Reading

Back in February, AccorHotels acquired a 30 percent minority stake in Miami-based Oasis Collections, which operates in 18 cities across the United States, Europe and Latin America. The investment, a bold step for Accor that set the stage for the hotel industry to embrace alternative accommodations, also set Oasis Collections... Keep Reading

Extended Stay America plans to add new hotels for the first time in almost a decade, as the company nears the end of a years-long renovation of its 629 properties. The planned growth will depend partially on franchisees—a new concept for ESA—and its new hotels will focus on open-concept common spaces, as well as in-room... Keep Reading

United Airlines began direct service between San Francisco and Singapore on June 1, reigniting the only nonstop flights between North America and Singapore since Singapore Airlines discontinued its U.S. flights in 2013. The new route is part of United's expansion in transpacific service from its San Francisco hub, vice... Keep Reading

As the sharing economy has gained traction among business travelers, many corporate travel policies no longer ban such services. Still, many companies have not set solid policies around them, instead adopting a look-the-other-way approach. Runzheimer product manager and business travel consultant Austin Klein spoke with BTN.... Keep Reading

When launching the on-demand professional driver service Blacklane in 2012, CEO and co-founder Jens Wohltorf sought to address chauffeured transportation fragmentation and booking. Not counting markets like China, 70 percent of the industry is made up of small suppliers with only a handful of cars in their fleet. "These are... Keep Reading

It's been nine months since Delta Air Lines launched its Operational Performance Commitment, in which the carrier pledges to its corporate contracted clients that it will keeps its performance levels above at least one of its two major competitors. Over that time, not only has United Airlines announced a similar guarantee but... Keep Reading

After vice president and chief marketing officer Kevin Krone retired in February, Southwest Airlines moved corporate sales to a new business function led by managing director of business development Dave Harvey, who previously led network and capacity planning.... Keep Reading

A little over a year ago, hotel solutions company HRS established its first U.S. office, hiring former GetThere CEO Suzanne Neufang to head expansion in the Americas as the region's vice president and as managing director of North America. Since then, the Americas staff has grown from one to 25 employees and has established... Keep Reading

Air supplier integrations with TripLink will start going live soon, Mike Koetting told BTN, joining hotels, car rental suppliers and travel management companies. That piece of the puzzle will bring Concur's tool closer to its hyped purpose: pooling data booked outside corporate booking tools to give travel buyers a view on... Keep Reading