Egencia, the business travel arm of Expedia Group, has announced the launch of machine learning-powered tools that will identify savings for its corporate customers.
Savings Finder for Air use machine learning technology to automatically track price variations and rebook tickets without the need for action from the traveller or booker. When the system identifies a lower rate within an average of the first seven days of booking, it automatically rebooks the reservation with the same amenities and ticket class.
According to Egencia, customers have saved millions of dollars since Savings Finder for Air was launched earlier this year.
Mark Hollyhead, COO and SVP of customer success, commented: “Companies want to wring every bit of value from their business travel budgets. Building innovations like Egencia Savings Finder lets us help our customers maximise the value of their travel programme. Every dollar saved when an air or hotel booking is re-shopped at a lower rate adds up, allowing our clients to book more trips and spend more time engaging suppliers, engaging clients and engaging employees.”
The TMC is also planning to begin a pilot phase for Savings Finder for Hotel in Q4 2019 with a Q1 2020 target for general release. The tool leverages a similar approach to the air version, including automatic re-shopping and rebooking of a reserved room with the same amenities if a price drop is identified.
Additionally, Egencia has launched Smart Mix, which uses algorithms and machine learning to provide business travellers with an intuitive shopping and booking experience. The tool analyses data from different scenarios and may factor in the personal preferences of each traveller, along with the company’s travel policy, to deliver more tailored search results.
Egencia said its customers have saved hundreds of thousands of dollars since it launched Smart Mix for Hotel, while the air version of the tool has seen the number of flights selected in the top ten search results in North America improve by 13 per cent.
Alex Kaluzny, SVP and chief product and technology officer, said: “We know business travellers don’t have time to sort through what could be thousands of results to find the best option at the best price within their policy. Egencia is committed to delivering innovative solutions, like Egencia Smart Mix, that simplify the booking experience and help our customers save time and money.”
Travel managers will have access to statistics on the benefits of the new tools through the Egencia Analytics Studio.
egencia.com