The Global Business Travel Association's (GBTA) annual jamboree has just ended in San Diego and, as usual, it has been accompanied by a flurry of announcements.
One that caught BTiQ's eye was that the association announced that its Hotel Committee and Europe Hotel Committee are changing their names to the GBTA Accommodations Committees.
According to the press release, "This new name change reflects the changing marketplace as the term 'hotel' no longer fully reflects the various accommodation solutions that buyers are using and considering for their travel programs."
There is no doubt that the move is not just justified, it's overdue. Last week, Airbnb announced that nearly 700,000 companies have signed up and booked rooms through Airbnb for Work, its business travel portal. This number has almost tripled since last year.
The company also said that 15% of its travel nights booked are for business travellers.
Without doubt transient business travel accommodation includes more than hotels — both serviced apartments and sharing economy properties represent a chunk of the market.
But what else needs updating in the travel manager's glossary? Here are a few that BTiQ thinks are worth considering:
Suppliers
Car rental is no longer an all-inclusive term for ground transportation costs. As well as other sectors such as rail and services such as parking there are taxi and ride-hailing services and car sharing which is taking market share. The trade uses the term mobility solutions — perhaps that should be the umbrella term for corporate ground transport.
LCC — low-cost carrier. The low cost is not guaranteed but the lack of inclusive extras is. "No frills" would be a far more accurate term.
ARR — a property's average room rate is rarely what the corporate customer is paying. Hotel price trends might be measured by last room availability but LRA rates are invariably higher than a straightforward corporate negotiated rate. BAR (best available rate) might be a better barometer of a property's rates.
Travel management
TMC — is it travel management or traveller management? If the former, why not booking, travel and expenses management?
Adoption rate — this has traditionally meant the proportion of travellers who use the online booking tool in comparison to traditional channels, ie a direct telephone or email request to the agent. Isn't the true management measure of a compliance rate now the proportion of bookings made via an approved channel as opposed to those bookings made through channels for which the company has no corporate provision or means to collect data?
Account management — the term was coined when an account meant client and specifically the company and relevant individuals within it and thus it was the relationship which was being managed. As travel management becomes much more about benchmarks, targets and goals, perhaps it should be renamed as data management?
Cost control — Cost control implies minimising costs, ie not being able to carry even a laptop onto a plane and being assigned a seat in the last row, which guarantees that the traveller has an even lengthier journey. Shouldn't it be value maximisation?
What's in a name? In itself not much. As an indicator of thinking? Quite a bit.