At The BTN Group's recent Innovate conference, the Innovator
of the Year, so named by our expert judges, was a supplier that solved pain
points for both corporate travelers and their travel managers: SpotHero takes
the uncertainty out of finding a parking spot for travelers and helps travel
managers capture, see and report on an opaque area of travel spend.
SpotHero presenter Becca Rabinowitz
"It takes the average driver 20 minutes to find a
[parking] spot," said SpotHero strategic initiatives manager Becca
Rabinowitz. "Instead of looking for parking on the street and making
circles, you can actually look for parking right in the SpotHero app and all
available parking will come up." As Priceline and Hotels Tonight do,
SpotHero negotiates discount pricing for excess inventory from lots, garages,
airports, office buildings and valet services in 78 U.S. cities. "Parking
is a perishable item," she said. "They're happy to [sell it at a
discount] because otherwise they wouldn't sell the spot anyway."
Travelers use the app to prepay—they can toggle between
personal and corporate credit cards—and to scan a QR code to access and sign
out of a spot. SpotHero sends receipts to users' Concur, Certify and Expensify
accounts and includes expense notes the traveler has added in the SpotHero app.
From the dashboard, travel managers can download parking spend data, including
traveler notes, which aid in client-billable expenses. To illustrate savings
potential, Rabinowitz's presentation profiled a pilot client whose 3,000
employees made 10,000 parking reservations over 11 months, at an average price
of $31. Considering SpotHero's average parking price is $19, that 38 percent in
potential savings would have totaled $125,000.
The judges were impressed with SpotHero's ability to capture
parking spend, which travelers often pay for in cash. "It's always good to
try to get as many types of purchases [as possible] under control as a travel
manager. This is a new area, and some of the numbers were pretty impressive,"
said Travel Tech Consulting president Norm Rose, one of the judges. They also
appreciated the data analytics, the variety in inventory, and the discount
pricing.
—JoAnn DeLuna
PEOPLE'S CHOICE: DVI
DVI is known to many as a data-visualization platform, but
as president Brian Beard told Innovate attendees: We're so much more than that.
DVI offers data aggregation, data cleansing, data reconciliation and data
normalization in order to solve "the 40-year-old problem of data quality
in this industry."
DVI presenter & president Brian Beard
Using data science, machine learning and visualization
sciences, the company offers a robust, intuitive and actionable intelligence
platform that enables users to parse data from a wide swath of sources,
including supplier, card and external data. Through a series of tabs and
filters, users can look into overall program spend, then dig deeper to, for
instance, examine overall meetings spend, then dig even deeper to see insights
around meetings patterns, meetings leakage and even AV costs for internal
meetings versus external meetings. In another scenario, a travel buyer could
compare the spend on rental cars versus on-demand services in a certain market
and identify how shifting spend to one or the other might save the program
money. DVI uses an open API and connects with "anybody and everybody"
to send and receive data.
DVI's offering may have been a crowd favorite, but the
judges also liked the story DVI was building around the data and the
flexibility it offers, not just in visualization but in satisfying the diverse
needs of corporates. The lingering question for the discerning panel, however,
was: With all the richness DVI delivers in its visualization tools, could it
also deliver on simplicity? How easy would it be for a manager to create a
top-line report for a CEO, for instance, without the bells and whistles of
filtering and deep dives?
—Julie Sickel
JUDGE'S HONORABLE MENTIONS
Not only was DVI the
audience's People's Choice at the BTN Innovate conference, the judges also
named it an honorable mention, along with two others:
Mezi
Mezi promises to convert a traveler's phone into a personal
and powerful travel assistant for booking and trip management. This AI-based
platform utilizes both bots and human travel agents to assist travelers via its
messaging platform. The human agents help to train the bots and step in when
requests get too complicated for the bot to handle. With each interaction, the
bots become better and the living profile of each traveler is updated with
personal preferences and behavior.
The judges liked Mezi's user experience and appreciated that
"rather than just chat, it's looking at the DNA of a travel request."
Right now, Mezi's chatbot-to-human ratio for handling requests is 60:40. Within
six months, it hopes its bots will handle 80 percent of requests. The judges
liked that ambition and Mezi's pilots with travel management companies like
Casto Travel but said it remains to be seen whether Mezi's request handling is
more efficient than other means.
—Julie Sickel
Tripism
For travelers, the social platform Tripism offers trip
planning, research and interaction capabilities with supplier reviews from
colleagues and other useful information, such as which hotel or restaurant
colleagues frequent most in a given area and which restaurants abroad accept
American Express cards. Travel managers gain insight into traveler sentiment
about hotels, restaurants and airlines, then can work with suppliers to improve
traveler experiences, and Tripism enables suppliers to create promotions and
display richer content than would be possible through traditional distribution
channels.
Judges appreciated the engagement Tripism provides with
corporate travelers. They also loved the openness of the platform—Tripism is
booking agnostic—and the fact that the company is willing to collaborate and
partner with others like Dinova.
—Julie Sickel
THE COMPETITION
Blacklane
Chauffeured car service platform Blacklane integrates with
global distribution systems, travel management companies and Finnair to allow
travelers in 53 countries to book rides in advance, including near on-demand
bookings. It also connects to Amadeus to access passenger name records. The set
rate includes taxes, tolls, fees, gratuities, an hour of free wait time for
airport pickups, 15 minutes for other pickups and free cancellations an hour
before one-way transfers and 24 hours before hourly bookings.
BTN's judges appreciated Blacklane's GDS integrations, which
allow travel managers to receive data easily. They also liked the all-inclusive
pricing and the lax cancellation fees. The service's licensed drivers mean
companies avoid the duty of care risk people associate with ride-sharing
services like Lyft and Uber, they said. The judges suggested, however, that
Blacklane clearly communicate how its prices compare with other ground
transportation options' final prices so travel managers can designate use cases
in their travel policies.
—JoAnn DeLuna
Breather
Breather operates 500 professionally designed meeting spaces
in 10 cities. The locations' capacities range as large as 70 people. Through an
app or the website, meeting arrangers can book as little as an hour in advance
and add amenities like A/V equipment, whiteboards, TVs and access to kitchens
and waiting rooms. Breather also can arrange catering.
Judges said Breather aids difficult-to-manage small meetings
in an innovative way. However, they felt adoption by those who arrange small
meetings, such as admins, would be challenging. They also anticipate that
Breather will have trouble scaling the business in a timely fashion, as the
design Breather touts for its spaces will take time and manpower for each one.
—JoAnn DeLuna
Deem
Deem's Intelligent Attach aims to solve a small problem that
is nevertheless a big headache for travel managers. The solution targets
travelers who already have booked their flights but not other parts of the
business trip. It recommends hotel and ground transportation options that
travelers can book easily, thereby increasing attachment rates. The
recommendations are based on traveler histories and preferences, as well as
corporate policies and preferred programs. The solution not only works with
Deem's suite of products but also can be deployed across any booking tool.
The judges praised Deem for targeting a pain point within
the industry. But they raised concerns about capturing out-of-channel bookings
and noted that Deem's hotel attachment conversion rate was "pretty low"
at 1.5 percent.
—Julie Sickel
Dinova
Dinova's network of more than 14,000 restaurants allows
companies to earn rebates and offers them visibility into dining transaction
data. It partners with travel apps, corporate card providers and booking and
expense tools to reach travelers where they are, and the app lets travelers
search for restaurants by location and price point. It also serves the traveler
experience by using behavioral data, traveler preferences, itinerary and
geolocation info to deliver real-time recommendations, and it offers rewards to
motivate travelers to eat at restaurants within the program.
The judges liked the quick and simple onboarding for
corporate travel programs and the immediate return in savings. Still, they felt
Dinova, which has been around for nine years, could be more technologically
advanced, especially in terms of analytics and showing value and opportunities.
They suggested Dinova develop its application programing interface and Web
services and engage with third parties to build out its ecosystem.
—JoAnn DeLuna
FCM Travel Solutions
FCM Travel Solutions presented its Smart Assistant for
Mobile tool, but you can call it Sam. The AI-powered chatbot interface manages
itineraries for anything booked through FCM, as well as bookings emailed in and
added manually. Sam sends context-aware and time-sensitive alerts and messages
to travelers, such as, "You need to leave for the airport now if you want
to catch your flight." Travelers, in turn, can change or cancel bookings
directly through the app, regardless of the booking source, and connect
instantly with an FCM travel consultant in the same platform.
The judges commended Sam's user experience controls but
wondered how much it could change the market, given that it's a product for a
particular travel management company. The judges also desired more clarity
about when a request is handed off between the chatbot and travel consultant.
—Julie Sickel
Flightsayer
Flightsayer uses real-time and historical data feeds like
weather and FAA flight data to determine the likelihood of delays and
cancellations. Before booking, travelers can see a flight's score, or they can
email itineraries to Flightsayer so the service can monitor their booked
flights. The company notifies travelers when the likelihood of disruption
increases, and it shares alternative flight options but does not facilitate
rebooking. Flightsayer partners with Adelman and a few BCD Travel
affiliates—and is in talks with more travel management companies and global
distribution systems—to feed client itineraries into Flightsayer and push
Flightsayer data to TMCs' apps or agent platforms.
The judges thought it was a thoughtful, creative and
innovative solution to manage flight delays proactively, especially for
corporate VIPs, but they wanted the flight alternatives to include a clearer
explanation of each potential transaction's cancellation and change fees.
—JoAnn DeLuna
GroundLink
Brio, GroundLink's black car booking platform, gives travel
programs insight into their upcoming and completed rides, rides in progress,
frequent users and overall ground transport spend. It also tracks flights and
adapts pickup times based on the adjusted flight arrival times. Clients in 110
countries can book in advance by app, website or phone. Select cities allow
on-demand bookings. Drivers are licensed and insured, and the fleet ranges from
a three-person economy car to a 40-person party bus. GroundLink offers as much
as $75 off the passenger's next ride if the driver is more than five minutes
late.
The judges liked Brio's modern look, corporate controls and
ability for travel programs to incorporate their travel policies into the
platform. They suggested GroundLink ensure that it distinguishes itself from
other on-demand car services like Lyft and Uber to avoid a reputation as simply
"a more expensive Uber."
—JoAnn DeLuna
Groups360
Groups360's
GroupSync meetings and events sourcing platform allows meeting planners to
filter venue searches by date, preferred markets, meeting size, amenities,
travel time and other factors. GroupSync uses artificial intelligence to
identify and display properties, estimated rates, historical occupancy and
spaces booked by other meetings of similar size. Hotels can customize their
listings with photos and additional information like renovation updates and
number of restaurants. The system summarizes choices, including how the
properties scored on the meeting planner's needs, estimated rates and search
criteria.
The judges were
impressed with Groups360's management team of hotel vets and with the tool's
search functionality. However, they were concerned about limited inventory and
the lag time between searching and receiving rates. They also were unclear how
Groups360 solves the RFP issue, as the company claimed to do in its
presentation.
—JoAnn DeLuna
HRS
HRS is looking to
kill the annual hotel RFP. Its Active Sourcing solution shifts the process from
the once-a-year model to one of continual monitoring and management, supported
by HRS's existing suite of products, such as Rate Protector. Clients determine
which key performance indicators are most important to their programs, and HRS
analyzes programs' hotel data on an ongoing basis to see which hotels are and
aren't being used, to identify new opportunities and to fuel dialogue with
hotels that aren't producing.
For the judges,
however, the presentation would have benefited from a clear visualization of
the client dashboard and a deep dive into the levers and products available to
clients who choose Active Sourcing. —Julie Sickel
Travelport
Locomote
Locomote is built
in the spirit of an end-to-end workflow solution for the corporate travel
market. The platform uses modules—such as a procurement module, a message and
audit module and a booking module—to enable corporates to construct workflows
that best fit their travel program needs. Additionally, Locomote integrates
other pre-built and third-party solutions into the platform.
The judges lauded
the more modern user experience for both the program manager and the traveler
and appreciated the unique and flexible workflow capabilities. However, they
worried about information capture—for now, Locomote requires off-channel data
to be forwarded. The judges also wondered whether Locomote could successfully
implement more travel management companies and if the platform really creates a
new booking paradigm for corporate travel.
—Julie Sickel