Choice, cost efficiency and consumer experience: Revolutionising business hotel booking with new Concur Travel

SAP Concur has always had a clear vision for a seamless, cost-efficient, compliant, and user-friendly business travel booking experience. With new Concur Travel, this vision is now a reality.

One of the new elements is the hotel booking experience which merges the flexibility of consumer booking services with the controls necessary for corporate travel policy compliance and cost management. This puts consumer-grade hotel choices in the hands of the business traveller.

Why is change needed?

Business travellers, and their travel managers, don’t just want the cheapest room rate. They also want to earn loyalty points, and filter on other attributes such as hotels that have an electric car charging station or sustainability credentials. They want to be able to view rates with breakfast included and to have transparency on taxes and fees. They want to be offered the best rate based on variables, without having to run lots of separate searches across different websites.

This is all possible with the new Concur Travel’s Hotel Connector API, which displays travel management company (TMC) or hotel aggregator rates directly in the new Concur Travel. This ensures the right content gets in front of the right travelers at the right time, streamlining the hotel shopping and booking process to be more like a consumer experience.

Hotel Connector enables business travelers’ access to a much wider choice of hotel coverage, content and rates, outside of the legacy global distribution system (GDS) content historically used by TMCs. External hotel content sources provide their feed through Hotel Connector, so their content is shown within the new Concur Travel.

This has advantages for both the travel manager and the business traveller, improving employee experience, while still maintaining compliance and reducing out of policy bookings. It also provides TMCs with improved connectivity, visibility and a greater opportunity for personalization.

TMCs such as American Express GBT, Flight Centre Travel Group, CWT and BCD Travel, and hotel aggregators can integrate to Hotel Connector to offer multiple sources of content and configure customer preferences to prioritise choice, savings and policy. Hotel Connector is designed to help these aggregators better manage companies' hotel programs.  

SAP Concur and HRS

HRS is the first hotel-focused technology provider to go live with its features fully certified in the new Concur Travel through the new Hotel Connector. SAP Concur and HRS are longstanding partners in driving value for mutual customers, with many of HRS’s largest clients using Concur Travel.

With this latest integration, SAP Concur customers can now access HRS’ AI-infused procurement and shopping attributes and more structured and filterable hotel content options, while also benefitting from simplified access to HRS services including payment, reconciliation and VAT reclaim capabilities.

Key benefits of Hotel Connector

• Access to unlimited sources offering a wider range of hotel suppliers

Users get the full breadth and variety of hotels they expect from personal travel, as well as the detailed information necessary to make the right choice for their individual and business needs. With the ability to connect to as many content aggregators as needed with Hotel Connector, travellers can access to up to six million accommodation options compared to 650 thousand with GDS only; this includes new types of accommodation options such as extended stay, apartments and homes, covering more geographical neighborhoods and regions.

• Richer content with clear attributes and amenities included in rates

Ability to choose properties, room amenities or rates attributes relevant to travellers helps them make better choices when booking.

• Omni-search

A new omni-search function allows customers to easily select their desired location. It presents options for various locations (for example hotels, airports, city centres and company sites).

• Optimized booking workflows and transparency

When users book a flight, the dates automatically populate into the hotel availability check, ensuring a seamless transition between different parts of the trip, saving time and increasing compliance. Travellers will also have full transparency on where the rates are sourced from, if they include loyalty points and clarity on their restrictions, if any.

• Improved sustainability

Via actionable property-level emissions data, organizations can steer their travel program to meet sustainability targets.

• Access to more payment options

Thanks to Hotel Connector, new Concur Travel can offer more payment options such as virtual card and improve clarity on when payments are due.

Everyone wins with the new Concur Travel

The new Concur Travel is integrated with Concur Expense for a seamless end-to-end travel and expense process. With e-receipts integrated into Concur Expense, this increases traveller productivity and reduces errors, increases accuracy and eliminates the task of chasing down discrepancies for accounts payable.

Businesses can see what users are booking and access direct information about why and where they are staying for improved cost control, efficiency and duty of care. Embedded policies increase online adoption and compliance, while improved sustainability indicators support a more sustainable travel program.

Business travellers can access everything they need in one place, while a faster booking and checkout process reduces frustration. Additionally, different payment options, including virtual payment, are included.

Meanwhile, TMCs benefit from increased connectivity, visibility, insights and controls that are more reflective of current and future consumer travel booking behaviours. TMCs can personalise the booking experience and control bookings based on the customer’s specific needs.

Let’s move

Hotel Connector gives partners, such as TMCs and hotel aggregators, the ability to get the right content in front of business travellers and travel managers. It offers streamlined processes, enhanced content and robust sustainability options.

By delivering a consumer-like experience while maintaining stringent compliance and cost controls, SAP Concur is setting a new standard for corporate travel management.