Accor’s Fix for Corporate Travel’s Most Tedious Ritual: Rates That Don’t Vanish

Corporate travel buyers and hotel groups spend months every year negotiating discounted room rates. But then many employees don't book on the screens their companies want them to use to book their business trips. It's called "leakage," and workers are often scolded for booking via online travel agencies instead of corporate booking tools. Yet Accor's latest automation push for its corporate travel process points to a different culprit: the negotiated rate frequently isn't visible when the traveler goes to book. Accor isn't alone in facing this problem. The top reason travelers give for going around their company's corporate booking tool is finding a cheaper rate elsewhere, according to recent industry research from Spotnana, Direct Travel, Marriott, and GBTA. To fix this, Accor plans to automate its annual corporate rate negotiations end-to-end, using AI to collect information from its hotels and to recommend prices for b