The palm of your hand may be the most convenient place to
book at hotel room, but risks to travel procurement programs of mobile booking
include deteriorated data and compromised compliance. Still, negotiated
corporate rates increasingly are available in mobile channels.
"Mobile booking of hotel is going to happen because
employees are going to make it happen," Rearden Commerce senior director
of product marketing Becky Waller said. "If you look at the rise of
tablets and better web interfaces, travelers are going to expect to be able to
do it, so travel managers need to embrace it and find a model that works."
Many mobile hotel booking technologies are being designed
with the travel buyer in mind. GetThere, for example, earlier this year updated
its mobile services to allow travelers to shop for and book hotels in line with
corporate policies. It uses HTML5 technology, meaning travelers need not
download an application or constantly update in order to use it.
Rearden by year-end plans to launch technology capable of
originating hotel bookings, Waller said.
Up And Running With
Corp. Rates
In the meantime, several multi-brand hotel companies
aggressively are developing and marketing their own apps. InterContinental
Hotels Group in the past few months launched a series of iPhone apps for all
seven of its brands—Candlewood Suites, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn
Express, Hotel Indigo, InterContinental and Staybridge Suites—through which
travelers can check rates, book rooms and track reservations. The good news for
travel buyers is that each app can provide travelers with corporate negotiated
rates, as long as the corporate ID field is filled in, according to an IHG
spokeswoman.
[PULL_1]Other chains have similar capabilities. Hyatt Hotels Corp.
allows travelers to access corporate and group rates through its iPhone app, as
does Starwood Hotels & Resorts via apps for W Hotels and Starwood Preferred
Guest. Choice Hotels International and Marriott International also allow
travelers to enter corporate codes through their mobile sites to access
negotiated rates.
Even with access to negotiated rates, however, these mobile
capabilities present a new set of challenges to travel buyers. Mobile bookings
through hotel apps are harder to capture on the front end, making it difficult
for companies to track travelers for security purposes through booking data. In
such cases, companies might have to tighten mandates in booking channels or
find a way to adapt to changing traveler booking preferences.
Setting Priorities
"Travel managers will have to prioritize," Waller
said. "They might have to restrict booking to some apps or change
reimbursement rules."
Even those with tight policies in place need to monitor how
the proliferation of mobile hotel booking affects traveler behavior in the long
term. Travel Tech Consulting president Norm Rose said it stands as one of the
biggest threats to managed travel programs.
IHG, for instance, reported that its mobile bookings are
growing rapidly, with more mobile bookings during the first five months of this
year than throughout 2010. Almost two-thirds of guests booking through mobile
devices stay the same night or the next day, according to IHG. That jibes with
mounting data showing most mobile hotel bookings are made within 24 hours of a
stay, Rose said. Many corporate programs encourage booking hotels earlier in
advance, as travelers run the risk of having preferred rates not be available
if they book last-minute in high-volume cities.
"It is unclear whether this is an anomaly based on the
early adopters using these tools or whether this is a permanent shift in
consumer hotel buying behavior," Rose said. "It is also unclear
whether these are corporate travelers, SME travelers or leisure guests; either
way, this is something the corporate travel community needs to monitor."
Additionally, travelers using mobile devices in conjunction
with hotel loyalty programs could be inundated with direct marketing from
hotels, such as special offers and upgrades, Rose said. Such offers could
encourage them to buy counter to company policy.
Originally published
in the August 2011 issue of Travel
Procurement.