Expensify is beta testing a feature that notifies users when
the flight, hotel, and car rental bookings travelers have made fall above or
below the average price of similar bookings made that day. A "couple
hundred" Expensify clients are using the tool, called Price to Beat, but
the expense management provider hasn't set a specific rollout date as
"there are still weaknesses," according to founder and CEO David
Barrett.
Travel managers can enable Price to Beat under the Travel
tab of the Expensify platform and can adjust settings like hotel star ratings,
type of car and flight class based on company policy. Bookings can be done on
any booking tool as long as travelers or travel arrangers who book outside the
company's preferred tool forward travel details to Expensify within 24hours.
That window maintains the tool's ability to accurately compare prices to other
trips booked that day, Barrett explained.
Price to Beat is most effective for hotel bookings, as most
hotels allow cancellations at no fee, and thus rebookings, until just before
the trip, Barrett said. The feature "obviously is weak when it comes to
airline reservations because you've already made a purchase and there are
change fees," Barrett said. "The advantage of getting [the trip
price] before booking is that you know it before you make decisions. That's
great, as it gives you the most control over the booking process, but it
requires a change of behavior [for the traveler]."
For now, "the expectation of Price to Beat is not that
users will cancel their booking and rebook a more affordable option, although
they certainly can choose to do that, but rather to encourage employees to
learn to be more cost aware when spending their company's money on
travel," an Expensify spokesperson said.
Expensify plans to add rail to Price to Beat, as well as a
feature that would allow travel managers to request budgets before booking,
according to Barrett.
Expensify is also testing Rewards, a feature
that allows travelers to keep a portion of the money saved when they choose
lower-cost travel options.