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UK: SilverDoor shared industry trends impacting the accommodation, corporate travel and mobility sectors during its annual Partner Engagement Day.
Nearly 200 operators in the SilverDoor supply chain and sector representatives, including leading corporate travel and relocation industry representatives, attended panel sessions held throughout the day.
Key topics discussed throughout the day include:
• Corporate travel and mobility are diversifying as global work patterns shift. Many companies are shifting from traditional multi-year assignments to shorter, project-based programmes. As a result, the line between visitor and resident is becoming increasingly blurred as the demand for tailored corporate travel programmes increases.
• Data and traveller security are in the spotlight. More clients say connected and protected data is becoming non-negotiable for delivering safe, seamless programs, and a duty of care approach for data is becoming increasingly as important as duty of care for travellers.
• Travelling values are being redefined. With AI putting price transparency and comparison abilities at an all-time high, clients are now turning to service quality, responsiveness and consistency to determine value and inform purchasing decisions. Other factors like quality, safety reliability, trust and transparency all work toward defining travel programme success.
“Today’s corporate travel and mobility programmes are more complex than ever, driven by changing booking behaviours, heightened data and duty of care responsibilities and rising traveller expectations,” said SilverDoor’s chief supply officer Alex Neale. “To keep pace, accommodation providers and the wider supply chain are developing smarter service models and leveraging data more effectively to deliver deeper insights that prove value beyond cost.”
He added: “But technology is only part of the answer. There is an increasing need for more frequent conversations before a programme starts as well as throughout its duration, which include clear, frank directives from clients in terms of their requirements and from suppliers in terms of what they can offer. Continuous collaboration — including sharing market intelligence — throughout the programme lifecycle is now more critical than ever before.”
Highlights:
- SilverDoor highlighted changing corporate travel and mobility patterns at its annual Partner Engagement Day, attended by nearly 200 accommodation operators and industry representatives from the corporate travel and relocation sectors
- Corporate travel and global mobility programmes are shifting towards shorter, project-based assignments, replacing some traditional multi-year relocations. This is blurring the distinction between visitors and residents and increasing demand for tailored corporate accommodation solutions
- Data protection and traveller security are becoming essential priorities for corporate accommodation programmes, with clients placing greater emphasis on secure, connected data systems and extending duty-of-care responsibilities to include data security as well as traveller wellbeing
- Corporate travel buyers are redefining value beyond price as AI improves price transparency and comparison, placing greater importance on service quality, responsiveness, consistency, safety, reliability, trust and transparency when selecting accommodation providers
- SilverDoor says closer collaboration between clients and accommodation suppliers is increasingly important throughout programme delivery, including more frequent communication, clearer expectations and shared market intelligence. Chief supply officer Alex Neale emphasised that technology and data must be supported by strong supplier relationships to deliver value beyond cost
