Whether we’re shopping online for shoes, clicking an app to order dinner or subscribing to watch the latest film, we are making a conscious choice about the sources and services we use — and, more importantly, that we trust.
But, in the travel space, how do we build digital trust?
Creating human connections
Let’s take the traditional corporate travel relationship…
Offline, it’s easy to understand how we build trust. Travel operates within the service sector: good agents understand the importance of building a rapport and TMCs appreciate that not all clients are created equal.
However, when it comes to automated, online services, it becomes far trickier as conventional systems have generally been bound by a single platform or, at best, limited sources of content.
While useful for managing profiles and travel policies, all too often, their prescriptive nature cannot replicate the more flexible, more personal offline experience, driving travellers to become their own agent and source better rates.
The words, “I’ve found it cheaper”, make every agent’s heart sink.
And every flight booking with a gaping hole where the hotel stay should be, every transaction unfulfilled, is a body punch to loyalty.
So many choices; so little time
The corporate travel sector is now awash with hotel content sources provided by GDSs, aggregators, OTAs, bed banks and the hotels themselves. It seems that travel buyers are increasingly demanding more content — but is this really what they want?
Will any client really be willing to pay more to have their travel teams spend hours searching for the best deals or have their travellers scrolling through list after list of hotels, rooms and rates?
Absolutely not.
Extensive choice alone does not make for a good customer experience.
Building trust through curation
Booking technology providers should be thinking outside the box and looking to big names outside the travel industry for inspiration.
For an online experience that meets offline expectations, we need:
- a reliable way of streaming carefully selected and relevant content — just like Netflix
- options normalised and presented by preferences — just like UberEats
- a quick, efficient and consistent sale process — just like Amazon.
We are all exposed to these types of advanced, user-friendly technology on a daily basis, so anything less is disappointing and detrimental to creating trust.
Trusted by the world’s leading TMCs
At HotelHub, we take a customer-centric approach to our solutions. Combining cutting-edge tech expertise with a deep understanding of the corporate travel industry, we build products to tackle the specific challenges faced by TMCs and their clients, including:
- consolidating the best sources of hotel content, both global and local
- optimising commercial agreements and preferencing the most favourable rates
- meeting policy control and duty of care needs
- providing a uniform and streamlined booking experience, regardless of the point of sale.
With HotelHub at their fingertips, our TMC partners are revolutionising both their offline and online hotel strategies to guarantee a quick, simple and, most importantly, trustworthy booking experience for their customers.
